Reading a Symfony Codebase You Did Not Write
A practical reading order for unfamiliar Symfony apps: entrypoints, the container, domain seams, and the questions that find the load-bearing code.
Insights
Field notes on software architecture
Deep, practical essays on the problems CTOs and engineering leaders actually face, written from live client work.
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Symfony Messenger in Production: What Actually Breaks at Scale
What breaks when Symfony Messenger meets production traffic, and the patterns that keep retries, dead letters, and worker memory under control.
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A Test Strategy for the Symfony Codebase You Just Inherited
How to add tests to a legacy Symfony application without rewriting it: characterisation tests, the seam map, what to test first, and what to leave alone.
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The Caching Decisions That Actually Move the Needle
Five caching decisions that decide whether a Symfony app gets faster or just gets a cache: layer, key design, TTL, invalidation, what not to cache.
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API Platform or Hand-Rolled REST: A Decision Framework
A Symfony decision framework for choosing API Platform or hand-rolled REST based on delivery speed, customization, performance, and ownership cost.
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What I Tell CTOs Who Want to Rewrite
Four questions CTOs should ask before approving a rewrite, plus the cheaper alternatives that usually solve the real problem.
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Multi-Tenant Symfony: Three Patterns and Their Real Costs
How to choose between database-per-tenant, schema-per-tenant, and shared-schema in Symfony by comparing isolation, ops cost, and migration risk.
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The Postmortem Format That Actually Reduces Incidents
A postmortem format that reduces repeat incidents by focusing on four questions, four decisions, and a feedback loop into engineering planning.
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Bounded Contexts in Symfony Without the DDD Theatre
A practical guide to using bounded contexts in Symfony without DDD theatre, with five implementation moves, a worked example, and common traps.
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Zero-Downtime Doctrine Migrations: Patterns That Hold Up at Scale
Zero-downtime Doctrine migration patterns for large tables, including expand-contract changes, backfills, lock awareness, and rollout safety.
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The Doctrine Performance Patterns That Actually Matter
A practical guide to Doctrine performance beyond N+1, covering hydration strategy, entity manager cost, joins, caching, and profiling.
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Symfony Major Version Upgrades Without the Death March
How to turn Symfony major upgrades into routine maintenance with deprecation discipline, Rector, bundle audits, and a phased delivery plan.
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The Scaling Checklist Most PHP Teams Skip
A PHP scaling checklist covering database work, queues, caching, observability, deployment, security, and cost before traffic forces a crisis.
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Technical Debt Is a Map, Not a Backlog
A practical way to prioritize technical debt by mapping business risk, funding the right fixes, and avoiding backlog theater.
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The Honest Architecture Review
What a useful software architecture review looks like: a ten-day timeline, the right artifacts, honest conversations, and actionable recommendations.
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Strangler Fig for Symfony Monoliths: A Practical Playbook
A practical Symfony Strangler Fig playbook for decomposing a monolith without a rewrite, including routing seams, data ownership, and rollout traps.
