Uses

Development machine

• Dell XPS 8950 running Windows 11 with WSL2 (Ubuntu). Most real work happens in WSL2.
• Logitech MX Keys (K860): split ergonomic. Worth the adjustment period.
• Logitech MX Master 3 mouse.
• External power button soldered in after the original failed.

Secondary dev environment

• A dedicated Ubuntu LAN server for Claude Code sessions that benefit from more horsepower or a persistent shell. Node.js 22, tmux for session persistence.

Claude Code setup

• Model: Claude Opus for everything. Happy to pay for the capability gap.
• Custom skills: content-capture (voice memos → X posts), dadops-infrastructure (infra queries), free-dates (calendar scheduling), saas-marketing, product-video, x-metrics, laravel-test-optimiser, and others.
• MCP servers: Notion, Gmail, Google Calendar, Context7, Cloudflare.
• Hooks: pre-commit Pint formatter, post-task completion notifications via Pushover.
• Terminal: Windows Terminal + WSL2 on desktop; tmux on the LAN dev server.

Stack

• Backend: Laravel 13 + PHP 8.3+. Occasional Go for small tools.
• Frontend: Blade + Tailwind CSS 4 + Alpine.js (the "TALL stack minus Livewire"). Livewire added only when interactivity demands it.
• Database: SQLite for smaller sites, MySQL for larger (hosted at OVHcloud), Redis for session/cache when needed.
• Testing: Pest for PHP. Playwright for critical user journeys.
• Formatting: Pint. Pre-commit hook enforces it.

Infrastructure

• Production hosting: Ubuntu servers at OVHcloud. SSH hardened, fail2ban + UFW, Zabbix agent monitoring.
• Reverse proxy: Caddy. Automatic HTTPS, simple config. One Caddyfile per server.
• CDN + DNS: Cloudflare. Proxied records, SSL Full, WAF.
• Deployment: Ansible. Zero-downtime releases with symlink switching, 5 releases kept for rollback.
• Monitoring: Sentry for errors, UptimeRobot for availability (keyword monitor on /health), Pushover for deploy notifications.
• CI: GitHub Actions. Pest + Pint + PHPStan before deploy.

Self-hosted

Running on a Synology DS1520+ (20GB RAM, DSM 7.3) at home:

• Portainer: Docker orchestration UI across all my stacks.
• Caddy: reverse proxy for internal services.
• Gitea: self-hosted Git with GitHub mirror for redundancy.
• n8n: workflow automation (FreeAgent → Notion → Gmail chains).
• Home Assistant: Google Home, Nest, ESPHome devices, Withings scale.
• Audiobookshelf + Libation: Audible library mirrored locally.
• Paperless-ngx: document management, NAPS2 + Stream Deck for scanning.
• Firefly III: personal finance tracking.
• Docker Registry: private images.

Network

• Router: Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway Max. Solid firewall, IPS, VPN gateway.
• ISP: Virgin Media.
• Wired Cat6 to the NAS and desk.

Daily-driver software

• Notion: second brain. The Ultimate Brain template, heavily customised.
• 1Password: passwords and SSH keys.
• Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive: work glue.
• MailerLite: newsletter publishing (Practically AI).
• Stream Deck: document scanning, macros, meeting mute.

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The fifteen years of consulting and delivery scars that actually drive most of the decisions above. Every tool here earned its place by making something I was going to do anyway a bit less painful.