Is this for you?
- The app is slower than it should be and nobody has time to look.
- You're stuck on Laravel 8, 9, or 10 and the upgrade has been "next quarter" for three quarters.
- New hires spend their first week fighting the dev environment.
- Queue jobs are piling up and nobody's sure why.
- You're considering Octane, Swoole, or FrankenPHP and want a read before committing.
- An earlier upgrade or migration attempt stalled and nobody wants to pick it back up cold.
Performance Audit
Find the N+1s, fix the queue config, and know whether Octane is worth the jump.
What you get
- Written audit report (15–20 pages) with findings grouped by severity.
- Specific N+1 locations with proposed fixes, file and line references included.
- Queue configuration review and recommendations (workers, retries, failure handling, timeouts).
- Cache strategy review: application cache, query cache, HTTP cache.
- Octane / Swoole / FrankenPHP recommendation with reasoning — including the option of "don't bother, fix these five things first."
- Database query review for the hottest paths.
- Prioritized remediation roadmap with effort estimates.
- 60-minute walkthrough with your engineering team.
Good fit: app is slower than it should be, queue jobs are piling up, you're considering Octane/Swoole/FrankenPHP and want a read before committing. Production access not required — staging is enough.
Upgrade Audit
A clear path from your old Laravel version to current, with risk called out before you start.
What you get
- Version-by-version upgrade plan with effort estimate per step.
- Package compatibility matrix (current → target), flagging abandoned packages.
- Breaking changes relevant to your codebase, not the generic upgrade guide.
- Risk map with mitigation notes — what's likely to bite, what's worth testing first.
- Prioritized remediation roadmap.
- 60-minute walkthrough with your engineering team.
Good fit: stuck on Laravel 8/9/10 with the upgrade perpetually next quarter; mix of deprecated packages and unclear blast radius; earlier upgrade attempt stalled.
Dev Environment Modernization
Get your team off Homestead, Valet, or XAMPP onto a Docker-based setup that actually works.
What you get
- Current-state assessment with specific friction points documented.
- Recommended setup: docker-compose config, OrbStack or equivalent, hostname strategy.
- Documented onboarding flow — from zero to running app.
- Optional: pair sessions to implement, scoped separately.
Good fit: new hires spend their first week fighting the dev environment, "works on my machine" is a recurring meeting topic, or your current setup is one engineer's custom shell scripts and they're leaving. Covers Windows developers (Docker Desktop + WSL2).
Scope
What's in
- Application-layer performance (N+1s, caching, queues, runtime choice)
- Framework upgrade path, package compatibility, and risk map
- Local dev environment assessment and recommendation
- Prioritized remediation roadmaps with effort estimates
What's out
- Implementing the fixes, upgrade itself, or environment rollout
- Infrastructure tuning and database server config (separate engagement)
- Frontend framework upgrades (see Frontend Modernization Roadmap)
- CI/CD pipeline setup (separate engagement)
Process
Intake
Day 1Kickoff, repo access, staging environment access, composer.json review, intro to the team.
Discovery
Days 2–5 (per scope)Codebase read, dependency graph, performance profiling or dev-env pain-point interviews as applicable.
Analysis
Days 6–9 (per scope)Findings synthesis, fix or upgrade design, effort estimation.
Report
Final daysDraft, review, finalize, 60-minute walkthrough with your team.
Pricing
All three scopes together (performance + upgrade + dev environment), vs. €12,000 if purchased separately.
50% to start, 50% on report delivery. Includes one 30-minute follow-up call within 30 days of delivery. Full-scope bundle invoiced as one engagement.
One fixed price. No surprises, no “starting at” language. If we agree on scope and you pay the deposit, the engagement is locked in.
Questions
Which scope should I start with?
If performance is the active pain, start with Performance. If you're on an old Laravel version and blocked from upgrades in dependencies, start with Upgrade. If new hires keep losing their first week, start with Dev Environment. If more than one applies, the bundle is usually the better buy.
What Laravel versions do you support?
8 and up for Performance; 5 and up for Upgrade (longer plan for older versions — we'll discuss on the intake call). Dev Environment is version-agnostic.
Do you do the upgrade, implementation, or environment rollout?
Separately, yes. Every scope is advisory-plus-written-plan; implementation is a distinct scope that can be added after.
Do you need production access?
No. Read access to the repo and a populated staging environment is enough.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes.
What if the audit shows I don't need Octane?
That's a valid and common outcome. You'll get a list of things to fix first.
About
I ship Canopy, a macOS dev-environment tool, and have been working on Laravel codebases since 4.x. Recommendations are grounded in what actually works for small and mid-size teams, not a Docker best-practices essay or a performance checklist copied from a blog post.
More about Paper Scissors & GlueReady to start?
Book an intro call. If we're not a fit, I'll tell you on the call.