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Engineering,
taught &
leadership, practised.

I'm Steven — CTO at Digitonic, a PHP engineer since 2010 and a keen golfer with a terrible handicap. This is where I write it all down.

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Order.php

// app/Domain/Trading
final class Order extends AggregateRoot
{
    public function place(Money $total)
    {
        $this->recordThat(new OrderPlaced(
            total: $total->amount(),
        ));

        return $this;
    }
}

● all tests passing PHPStan level 10 Laravel 13

Steven Richardson

CTO, Digitonic · Laravel Certified

HCP 18

The Irvine Golf Club

Shipped with —

…and a few friends I can't name.

THE WRITING

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Turn the six-line assertion blocks you keep pasting between tests into named expectations like expect($order)->toBeFulfilled(), then ship them as a package.

August 20th, 2026 · 10 min read

phpstan

Write a Custom PHPStan Rule to Enforce Your Laravel Conventions

Some conventions live only in reviewers' heads, so they rot. A PHPStan custom rule moves one of them into CI permanently — here is the whole build, including the test.

August 19th, 2026 · 11 min

php

PHP Randomizer Engines: Choosing Between Secure, Seeded and Fast Randomness in Laravel

Two problems with one root cause: tokens that are guessable, and tests that are flaky. PHP's Random extension fixes both, once you pick the right engine.

August 18th, 2026 · 9 min

/NOW

Currently shipping, reading, and thinking about.

See the full Now page

Building

A SaaS product on Laravel Cloud for Investor Relations teams.

Writing

A series of AI engineering articles.

Reading

"Life 3.0 - Being human in the age of artificial intellegence" by Max Tegmark.

Golfing

The Irvine Golf Club on Sundays, regardless of weather.

Engineering, taught & leadership, practised.