Apple Wallet & PassKit Consulting
PassKit certificate signing, auto-refreshing passes, push updates, NFC passes, and the undocumented corners of Apple Wallet. I've worked on passes against Vapor, Rails, Django, Go, and serverless backends.
- auto-updating Wallet passes with silent push refresh
- reverse-engineering vendor APIs when PassKit docs end
- NFC passes, value-added services, and Apple Pay-adjacent integrations
What clients say
"Vadim was instrumental to the success Epsy enjoyed on iOS, taking it from an idea on a Miro board to the highest rated and most downloaded app of its kind on the store."
James C. · Mobile Engineering Lead, Epsy
"We had a strict deadline, and Vadim managed to complete the job in time. He gave us meaningful feedback and suggested better approaches, not trying to blindly stick to our specification."
Founder · Pre-seed streaming service
"I can say with confidence that it will be difficult to find a better developer. Vadim is achievement-oriented, highly organized, with very good communication skills."
Alex Z. · Co-Founder, eda.so
Related work
How I accidentally became PureGym's unofficial Apple Wallet developer
Tired of fumbling with the PureGym app for 47 seconds every morning, I reverse-engineered their API to build an Apple Wallet pass that gets me in with a quick wrist scan. Along the way, I discovered their bizarre security theatre: QR codes that expire every minute while my ancient 8-digit PIN lives forever.
I hacked into Apple Pay and show you everything what is inside.
Common engagements
Ship the Wallet pass
Membership cards, loyalty, event tickets, boarding passes. I handle certificate signing, APNs wiring, the four web-service callbacks Apple probes in production, and the pass.strings localisation most first submissions miss. 4-6 weeks.
Fix flaky pass updates
Your passes refresh some of the time. I trace the APNs and web-service handshake and make it deterministic.
Reverse-engineer a vendor's system
For cases where the vendor has no public API and you need compatibility with their system. I only take this work on for your own product, internal tooling, or integration you can defend on paper, and the legal rationale is agreed in writing before I touch code.
Pricing
Architecture reviews, hiring help, second opinions on that thing that's been bugging you.
Available nowFeatures, MVPs, migrations, firefighting. Minimum 5 days.
Available nowPriority support: review agency code, join architecture calls, catch problems before they ship.
Questions
Can you work with our existing backend?
Yes. I've shipped PassKit integrations against Vapor, Rails, Django, Go, and serverless stacks. The cert-signing piece is the only part that's language-specific, and I drop it in-process or run it as a small companion service.
Will the Wallet pass work on Apple Watch?
Yes. The Watch side is mostly automatic if the pass is configured correctly, but there are gotchas around which fields render and how updates propagate. I've shipped wrist-scan entry in production.
Will my pass work internationally?
Yes. Pass localisation uses its own pass.strings system rather than iOS's Localizable.strings, which teams frequently miss on first submission. I handle localisation as part of every engagement.
We want to add a Wallet pass to our product. What's involved?
More than the PassKit docs suggest. A production pass needs certificate signing wired to your build system, the four web-service callbacks Apple probes, push updates for when data changes, localisation per market, and enough logging to diagnose issues without a redeploy. 4-6 weeks end-to-end for a new integration, less if you're adding to an existing one.
How quickly can you start?
Advisory calls can happen within days. For project work, I typically need 1-2 weeks notice to clear the calendar, though I keep some buffer for urgent firefighting. Check the availability badges above for current openings.
Do you work with early-stage startups?
Yes, from pre-seed to Series C and beyond. For very early teams, the advisory tier often makes more sense than project work: you get architecture guidance without committing to a large engagement before you've validated the product.
What's included in the day rate?
Everything: code, architecture decisions, code review, documentation, async Slack availability during working hours. No surprise add-ons. I bill for time spent working on your project, not for "thinking about it in the shower."
We're in a different timezone. Will that slow things down?
I'm currently in Vancouver (PST), with full overlap for North American teams. For UK and Europe, I'm online by their afternoon. For Gulf or APAC, we'd agree on overlap hours and handle the rest async. I've worked with teams from San Francisco to Dubai.
Areas I cover
Where I've worked CV · LinkedIn
Have an Apple Wallet project?
Tell me what you're working on. I reply within 48 hours.
work@drobinin.com