My Development Workflow in 2026
Tools, habits, and mindset for building robust backend systems: Docker environments, Laravel Pulse profiling, PHPStan level 8, and automated CI/CD checks.
1. Local Consistency via Containerization
Every service runs in containerized Docker setups with matching PHP 8.3, MySQL 8, and Redis configurations. This eliminates the "works on my machine" anti-pattern and guarantees reproducible builds across dev, staging, and production.
2. Static Analysis: PHPStan & Larastan at Level 8
Writing PHP without static analysis is like walking on a wire without a net. By running Larastan at Level 8 in CI pipelines, null pointer exceptions, incorrect return types, and invalid docblocks are caught before code review.
3. Real-Time Telemetry with Laravel Pulse & Horizon
Profiling slow queries and queue worker throughput in real time allows pinpointing N+1 queries and memory bloat during active development cycles.
Writing about distributed systems, resilient queues, database indexing, and pragmatic software craftsmanship.