October 30, 2026

PHP json_validate(): Stop Decoding JSON Just to Check If It's Valid

I was reviewing some PHP code generated by an LLM the other day and ran into this check that validates JSON from a webhook before queuing it: What jumps out to me is that we're running...

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October 26, 2026

Weekly Digest - October 26, 2026

Happy Monday All! Three pieces this week: one about Laravel quietly running hundreds of queries, one about plush elephants, and one about the workflow I use to keep publishing. A loop that reads...

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October 23, 2026

Your CLAUDE.md Is Too Long: What to Cut and Where It Goes

We're deep into the "AI-assisted" fad/lifestyle now, and one pattern I heard early on hasn't paid off as much as I'd like: every time Claude does something "wrong," tell Claude to add a correction to...

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October 21, 2026

elePHPants with Damien Seguy

Check out my video on "elePHPants with Damien Seguy" at the php[architect] YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/r4lt-5hHMzg Find more episodes on our Introducing the Community Corner Podcast post.

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October 19, 2026

Weekly Digest - October 19, 2026

Happy Monday All! Four pieces this week, and two of them involve AI agents: one about getting more out of Claude Code's limits and one about agents spending money for you. Claude Code's five-hour...

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October 18, 2026

Longhorn PHP 2026 - Day 1 Notes

I was lucky enough to be able to attend Longhorn PHP 2026 and these are my more or less raw notes from day 1. Threat Modeling in 90 Seconds What's the worst thing someone could make it do #1...

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October 18, 2026

Longhorn PHP 2026 - Day 2 Notes

I was lucky enough to be able to attend Longhorn PHP 2026, and these are my more or less raw notes from day 2. PHP Foundation - We advance, develop, and support the PHP Language 14 Contracted...

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October 16, 2026

Your ORM Wrote 300 Queries for One Page: Fixing N+1 in Laravel

Eloquent lets us list podcast episodes alongside their podcast names in just five lines: With 20 rows, the page loads fast. In production, the same page runs more than 300 queries: one for the...

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October 15, 2026

Agentic Commerce with Paul Conroy

Check out my video on "Agentic Commerce with Paul Conroy" at the php[architect] YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/jcH8pZPs2Ak Find more episodes on our Introducing the Community Corner Podcast...

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October 9, 2026

Say "Hi" to Claude Code for Better Alignment

One of the things that really grinds my gears is how I'll be deep in a refactoring task and (because I'm not paying attention to my status-line script) I hit the dreaded "You've hit your limit,...

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