Is this for you?
- New hires spend their first week fighting the dev environment.
- "Works on my machine" is a recurring meeting topic.
- You've heard of OrbStack, Laravel Herd, or Canopy but haven't evaluated them.
- Your current setup is one engineer's custom shell scripts and they're leaving.
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.
Scope
What's in
- Local dev environment assessment
- Docker-based setup recommendation
- Onboarding documentation
- Tooling evaluation (OrbStack, Herd, Canopy, etc.)
What's out
- CI/CD pipeline setup (see GitHub Actions Setup)
- Production infrastructure
- Cross-stack monorepo tooling
- IDE configuration beyond the basics
Process
Intake
Day 1Kickoff call, access to current setup docs (if any), intro to the team.
Assessment
Days 2–4Talk to 2–3 engineers about pain points, run the existing setup end-to-end, document what breaks.
Design
Days 5–7Tool selection, compose file, hostname/DNS strategy, secrets handling.
Deliverables
Days 8–10Write up the setup, the onboarding doc, and the migration plan.
Pricing
50% to start, 50% on delivery. Optional pair sessions to implement can be added separately.
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
Why not just use Laravel Sail?
Sometimes that's the answer. If it is, you'll get that recommendation. Not every team needs more than Sail.
Does this include Canopy?
Canopy is a tool I ship that solves this pattern. If it's the right fit, I'll recommend it. If not, I won't.
Can you implement the setup for us?
Yes, as pair sessions scoped separately once the plan is in place.
Does this cover Windows developers?
Yes — Docker Desktop on Windows is covered, including WSL2 specifics.
About
I ship Canopy, a macOS dev-environment tool, so I spend a lot of time thinking about this specific problem. You'll get a recommendation grounded in what actually works for small teams, not a Docker best-practices essay.
More about the studioReady to start?
Book an intro call. If we're not a fit, I'll tell you on the call.