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
• Efficiently Managing Telescope Entries with laravel-telescope-flusher
• 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?

• 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?
• 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
• Managing Mailboxes in Laravel Using ImapEngine
• 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

• 2026-05 — Reincarnating a Decade-Old jQuery Project — source
• 2026-04 — Why telescope:clear Is Slow and How to Reclaim Disk in Seconds — source
• 2026-04 — Laravel whereDate() Silently Kills Your Index — source
• 2026-04 — $fillable Has No Context: Why Mass Assignment Breaks Down at Scale — 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
• 2026-01 — Why Laravel Can't Guess Your Factory Relationships — source
• 2026-01 — Stop Flaky Tests: Freeze Time in Laravel Testing — source
• 2026-01 — whereHas() vs whereRelation(): Readability Over Shortcuts — source
• 2025-12 — PHP 8.5 Pipe Operator (|>) — Is It Worth Using? — source
• 2025-11 — Don't Let Your Staging Server Die: Separate Task Scheduling in Laravel — source
• 2025-11 — From 20 to 24 LTS: Safe Way to Upgrade Ubuntu on DigitalOcean — source
• 2025-11 — Laravel Validation after() — After What, Exactly? — source
• 2025-10 — Battling Laravel's Sneaky DELETEs — source
• 2025-09 — Laravel Cache Tip: Avoid Redundant has/missing Calls — source
• 2025-08 — Optimize Vendor Folder Size — 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
• 2025-03 — Managing Mailboxes in Laravel Using ImapEngine — source
• 2025-03 — Detecting Forbidden Functions in Laravel with PHPUnit — source
• 2025-03 — Efficiently Managing Telescope Entries — source
• 2025-02 — Tip for Using incrementEach in Laravel — source
• 2025-02 — Detect Unused Classes in Laravel — 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
• 2024-12 — Seamless Nuxt 2 Deployment with GitLab CI/CD and DigitalOcean — source