Longhorn PHP 2026 - Day 2 Notes

Scott Keck-Warren • October 18, 2026

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 is People: The Foundation, the Community, and You

PHP Foundation - We advance, develop, and support the PHP Language
- 14 Contracted Developers - not 14 FTE
- Financially supported by donations and grants
- PHP is not owned by the foundation
- Not-for-profit
- What we work on
- Maintenance
- Security
- RFCs and Features
- Open PRs have doubled from the year before
- Have a huge influx of PRs that still need to be managed by a person
- 13 of 20 RFCs were accepted in 2025
- New user pipeline - not a lot of new faces at conferences
- PHP Ambassador Program
- Onboarding Initiative
- Community Events Coalition
- First meeting October 28th at 13:00 UTC
- Challenges
- Core Contributors - pool of potential contributors is shrinking
- AI Uncertainty
- Reduced Funding
- Free rider problem

Local Inference for Fun and Profit

Inference - using a trained model. Input goes in, an answer comes out.
Local Inference - running Inference on your own hardware
Three things you can't do with a model you don't control
- Read its reasoning
- Pin its version
- Debug its failure
A model -> set of numbers related by probability
Local inference is "better" for low, slow, and long
Standard APIS
- Chat Completions
- Responses

https://infer.displace.tech/ https://opencode.ai/ https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost

Certify your Curiosity

Slides https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tQKp5wAn0xDU6wvnw3ej4ufzasz8dDPaUQEKdm6ydsA/edit?usp=sharing - The role is bigger than the job title - Early-career: You are asked to know more than just the technical basics. - Senior: You are expected to mentor, document, review, and model healthy practices alongside shipping work. - "Best practice" is a moving target - Staying curious isn't always easy - Curiosity can feel vulnerable - "Change is normal, confusion is normal" - Over time, pressure teaches people to stop asking questions, even though curiosity is what keeps them learning. - The stack never stays still - We compare our progress to polished stories and loud voices, which turns learning into self-doubt instead of growth. - When learning feels like a requirement to belong, especially for women, it drains energy faster than it builds confidence. - Learning Is Not Linear - What Certifications Actually Do - Show where you are - Reveal gaps - Build confidence - Community Is a Learning Engine - Small steps compound - One question - One contribution - One connection - Small doesn't mean significant - Permissions to Pause - Rest is okay - Redefine Growth - Not louder - Not faster - More intentionally - What if learning felt kinder - Less pressure - More curiosity - More support - Someone else needs your curiosity

Web accessibility smoke testing for critical issues

https://racheleditullio.com/talks/web-accessibility-smoke-testing-for-critical-issues/ - Web accessibility - extent to which disabled people can use a website/application - Accessibility is not only a compliance or legal issue - It's a human issue - Critical accessibility issues cause web content or functionality to be completely inaccessible - On average, each a11y defect costs about $2600 in potential ROI to fix. - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) - Four keyboard checks - Ensure all actions can be performed with a keyboard - Ensure no keyboard traps - Ensure the keyboard focus order is logical - Ensure keyboard focus is visible

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/wave-evaluation-tool/jbbplnpkjmmeebjpijfedlgcdilocofh

Save Your Hands for Another Day

https://talonvoice.com/ https://blueprint.laravelshift.com/