Recursive CTEs in MySQL let you query trees, org charts, and nested categories in a single query. Here’s how to use them effectively with PHP. Every PHP developer eventually hits the “tree problem.” You have categories with subcategories, employees with managers, comments with replies, or menu items with children — and you need to query […]

Terminal UIs have had a quiet renaissance in the developer tools world. From Lazygit to btop, the era of the ugly text-only CLI is giving way to rich, interactive interfaces built entirely in the terminal. PHP developers have historically been left out of this movement — our CLI tooling was functional but rarely beautiful. That […]

MySQL’s JSON column type has been around since version 5.7, but it’s one of those features where the gap between “I know it exists” and “I know when and how to use it well” is surprisingly wide. Used correctly, JSON columns give you schema flexibility exactly where you need it. Used poorly, they become a […]

If you’ve been hearing about Claude Code but assumed it’s mostly for the JavaScript and Python crowd, it’s time to take another look. Claude Code is a command-line AI coding tool that works directly in your terminal, and it’s remarkably effective for PHP development. Whether you’re building with Laravel, Symfony, or vanilla PHP, there are […]

I have been using Asterisk for many, many years. Today I release some new code, and upon code release we automatically update Asterisk to the latest version. All of a sudden, I started getting reports from customer service letting me know that recording voice mails was no longer working. I started looking into it and […]

If you’ve ever watched a colleague fly through code in NeoVim and thought “that looks fast but I’d never figure out the config,” the barrier to entry has dropped significantly. LazyVim — a NeoVim distribution that ships with sensible defaults and a plugin manager — gives you a fully functional IDE experience within minutes, with […]

PHP 8.5 shipped with a feature that functional programming enthusiasts have been requesting for years: the pipe operator (|>). If you’ve used pipes in Unix shells, Elixir, F#, or even JavaScript proposals, the concept will feel immediately familiar. If you haven’t, you’re about to discover one of the cleanest ways to express data transformations in […]

Video version at: https://youtu.be/gAVfQhPw8Do A few weeks ago, I posted something on LinkedIn that ruffled some feathers. Here’s what I said: “Defaulting to the ORM for everything isn’t a best practice. It’s just the path of least resistance.” The replies came in fast, and a good chunk of them said the same thing: “That’s unsafe! […]