Engineering notes

Practical software engineering articles for production teams.

PHP, JavaScript, Node.js, AWS, platform work, architecture patterns, database changes, and integration details written around decisions that matter in maintained applications.

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3 articles

Production request path through DNS, Cloudflare, Apache, PHP, and MySQL

Infrastructure7 min readJul 26, 2026

A production checklist for PHP behind Cloudflare and Apache

A release checklist for the complete request path: DNS, Cloudflare, TLS, Apache rewrites, PHP runtime, trusted proxy headers, caching, security boundaries, and rollback.

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PHP application and MySQL database connected through staged migration steps

Databases6 min readJul 12, 2026

Safer PHP and MySQL migrations for live applications

How to plan backward-compatible schema changes, staged releases, data backfills, observability, and rollback for active PHP products.

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Node.js server draining active requests during a graceful shutdown

Node.js6 min readJun 21, 2026

Graceful Node.js shutdown in production

A reliable shutdown sequence for HTTP servers, load balancers, database pools, background work, health checks, and container timeouts.

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