I'm a Laravel/PHP backend engineer. I write about the gotchas, perf cliffs, and quiet design choices production teaches you. The stuff framework docs skip.

• Articles: dev.to/tegos
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tegos
• Personal GitHub: github.com/tegos

Each post is its own repo. Prose in 1-article.md, runnable code when it helps, MIT.

• PHP 8.5 Pipe Operator (|>) - Is It Worth Using? - Benchmarked it inside a Laravel app. The verdict surprised me.
• Why I Avoid PHP Traits (And What I Use Instead) - Look like reuse, behave like inheritance, kill testability.
• Don't Let Your Staging Server Die: Separate Task Scheduling in Laravel - One config flag that stops staging from chewing through resources for nothing.
• Battling Laravel's Sneaky DELETEs - What happens when ORDER BY + LIMIT + joins hit Eloquent's DELETE.
• Laravel Actions and Services - When to reach for an Action vs a Service. Plus the mental model that keeps them from collapsing into each other.
• Reincarnating a Decade-Old jQuery Project - Case study. Ported a client app from jQuery + sprite atlas to Vue 3 + TS + Pinia. Side-by-side GIFs.

• Laravel whereDate() Silently Kills Your Index
• whereHas() vs whereRelation(): Readability Over Shortcuts
• Laravel Cache Tip: Avoid Redundant has/missing Calls
• Why telescope:clear Is Slow and How to Reclaim Disk in Seconds
• Optimize Vendor Folder Size
• Don't Let Your Staging Server Die: Separate Task Scheduling

• How to Test for Equal JSON Columns in Laravel Models
• Testing Temporary URLs in Laravel Storage
• Freezing Time: Testing Laravel Temporary Storage URLs
• Stop Flaky Tests: Freeze Time in Laravel
• Using PHP Backed Enums in Laravel with Testing
• Why Laravel Can't Guess Your Factory Relationships
• Hidden Issue with whereFulltext and RefreshDatabase
• Detecting Forbidden Functions in Laravel with PHPUnit
• Laravel Validation after() - After What, Exactly?

• hash_equals('', '') Is true: When an Empty Config Opens Basic Auth
• bcrypt and Laravel: 72 Bytes, Not 72 Characters
• Composer Update Is Not Safe Anymore

• From 20 to 24 LTS: Safe Way to Upgrade Ubuntu on DigitalOcean
• Seamless Nuxt 2 Deployment with GitLab CI/CD and DigitalOcean

• PHP 8.5 Pipe Operator (|>) - Is It Worth Using?
• PHP Generics Already Exist: They're Just Hidden in PHPDoc
• Why I Avoid PHP Traits (And What I Use Instead)
• PHP Enums Are Not Your Bottleneck (Here's Proof)

• Laravel Actions and Services
• Battling Laravel's Sneaky DELETEs
• $fillable Has No Context: Why Mass Assignment Breaks Down at Scale
• Detect Unused Classes in Laravel
• Managing Hierarchical Data in Laravel
• Pessimistic & Optimistic Locking in Laravel
• Should You Use Laravel Seeders/Factories in Production?
• Tip for Using incrementEach in Laravel
• Reincarnating a Decade-Old jQuery Project
• Hunting Elephants Again: Reviving a Dead Travian Bot with an AI Agent

• Efficiently Managing Telescope Entries with laravel-telescope-flusher
• Managing Mailboxes in Laravel Using ImapEngine
• wayback-video: Turn Any Site's History into a Video

• 2026-04 - Why telescope:clear Is Slow and How to Reclaim Disk in Seconds - source
• 2026-04 - Laravel whereDate() Silently Kills Your Index - source
• 2026-01 - whereHas() vs whereRelation(): Readability Over Shortcuts - source
• 2025-11 - Don't Let Your Staging Server Die: Separate Task Scheduling in Laravel - source
• 2025-09 - Laravel Cache Tip: Avoid Redundant has/missing Calls - source
• 2025-08 - Optimize Vendor Folder Size - source

• 2026-01 - Why Laravel Can't Guess Your Factory Relationships - source
• 2026-01 - Stop Flaky Tests: Freeze Time in Laravel Testing - source
• 2025-11 - Laravel Validation after() - After What, Exactly? - source
• 2025-03 - Detecting Forbidden Functions in Laravel with PHPUnit - source
• 2025-02 - Using PHP Backed Enums in Laravel with Testing - source
• 2025-02 - Hidden Issue with whereFulltext and RefreshDatabase in Laravel - source
• 2025-01 - Freezing Time: Testing Laravel Temporary Storage URLs - source
• 2025-01 - Testing Temporary URLs in Laravel Storage - source
• 2025-01 - How to Test for Equal JSON Columns in Laravel Models - source

• 2026-08 - hash_equals('', '') Is true: When an Empty Config Opens Basic Auth - source
• 2026-06 - bcrypt and Laravel: 72 Bytes, Not 72 Characters - source
• 2026-06 - Composer Update Is Not Safe Anymore - source

• 2025-11 - From 20 to 24 LTS: Safe Way to Upgrade Ubuntu on DigitalOcean - source
• 2024-12 - Seamless Nuxt 2 Deployment: A Step-by-Step Guide with GitLab CI/CD and DigitalOcean - source

• 2026-06 - PHP Generics Already Exist: They're Just Hidden in PHPDoc - source
• 2026-03 - PHP Enums Are Not Your Bottleneck (Here's Proof) - source
• 2026-02 - Why I Avoid PHP Traits (And What I Use Instead) - source
• 2025-12 - PHP 8.5 Pipe Operator (|>) - Is It Worth Using? - source

• 2026-07 - Hunting Elephants Again: Reviving a Dead Travian Bot with an AI Agent - source
• 2026-05 - Reincarnating a Decade-Old jQuery Project - source
• 2026-04 - $fillable Has No Context: Why Mass Assignment Breaks Down at Scale - source
• 2025-10 - Battling Laravel's Sneaky DELETEs: How I Got ORDER BY and LIMIT to Play Nice with Joins - source
• 2025-08 - Laravel Actions and Services - source
• 2025-06 - Managing Hierarchical Data in Laravel - source
• 2025-04 - Pessimistic & Optimistic Locking in Laravel - source
• 2025-04 - Should You Use Laravel Seeders/Factories in Production? - source
• 2025-02 - Tip for Using incrementEach in Laravel - source
• 2025-02 - Detect Unused Classes in Laravel - source

• 2026-06 - wayback-video: Turn Any Site's History into a Video - source
• 2025-03 - Managing Mailboxes in Laravel Using ImapEngine - source
• 2025-03 - Efficiently Managing Telescope Entries with Laravel-Telescope-Flusher - source