Knowledge Base
Plain-English explanations of every tool and method I use
Business
Development
Ruby on Rails 8
Rails is a framework for building web applications. Think of it as a pre-built foundation with all the plumbing already...
Test-Driven Development (TDD)
TDD means writing the test before writing the code. First, I write a test that says what the code should do. I run it —...
CI/CD Pipeline
CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) is an automated assembly line for your code. When I push code to...
AI-Assisted Development (Agentic Programming)
I use AI tools (like OpenCode, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) as an accelerator. Think of it as having a senior engineer...
Static Site Generator (11ty, Middleman)
A static site generator turns templates and content into plain HTML files — no database, no server-side processing. 11ty...
Definition of Done
Definition of Done is a checklist that must be satisfied before a task is considered finished. Not just 'it works on my...
Acceptance Testing
Acceptance testing means the computer automatically checks that your software matches the Gherkin scenarios you...
Infrastructure
Dokku PaaS
Dokku is a mini Heroku that runs on your own server. It turns your code into a live website with a single command: git...
Ansible
Ansible is a tool that automates server setup. Instead of logging into a server and running commands by hand, I write a...
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Infrastructure as Code means your servers, databases, and network are defined in files — just like your application...
Hetzner & Leaseweb
Hetzner and Leaseweb are European hosting providers. They rent physical servers (or virtual ones) that your application...
Operations
Monit Monitoring
Monit is a lightweight monitoring tool that watches your server and applications. If a process crashes, Monit restarts...
Email Infrastructure
Reliable email sending and receiving — transactional emails (password resets, order confirmations, contact form...
Domain Report
A monthly report covering your site's performance (load times, Core Web Vitals), usage (traffic, popular pages), SEO...