Managing dependencies across multiple PHP components used to be a nightmare. When you have an ecosystem of 30+ interconnected packages, keeping track of which version works with which PHP version — and which versions are compatible with each other — can quickly become overwhelming.

That's why I completely redesigned the versioning strategy for all ByJG PHP components. This post explains the evolution of the versioning system, how it works today, and how you can use it effectively in your projects.

Have you ever wondered how to go from a completely blank machine to a fully functional, production-ready PHP application? Maybe you inherited an empty VPS, or your team wants to spin up a greenfield service without spending weeks assembling tooling. In this article, I'll walk you through the entire ByJG PHP ecosystem—a comprehensive set of tools and components that work together seamlessly to help you build modern PHP applications with confidence.

Whether you're working with Laravel, Symfony, or building from scratch, these components can help you accelerate development while maintaining production-grade quality. Think of it as a curated pit crew: each utility is lightweight on its own, yet designed to snap together when you need the whole pipeline.

What We'll Cover​

• Standing up a workstation on a blank Linux machine (or WSL) in minutes
• Understanding the PHP component catalog and when to reach for each piece
• Using the PHP REST Reference Architecture to bootstrap an API
• Selecting hardened Docker images for production workloads
• Operating a realistic workflow from day zero to ongoing maintenance

Maintaining more than 30 open source projects is a bit like conducting an orchestra alone.
Each project has its own particularities, dependencies, pipelines, documentation, and tests — and yet all of them need to work in harmony.

In a company with 30 microservices, it’s common to have something like 2 to 4 DevOps, 3 to 5 Product Owners, and 50 to 100 developers.
I do this mostly by myself.

It sounds impossible, but it isn’t.
Let’s walk through how this ecosystem works — and how automation, standardization, and good use of Artificial Intelligence make it not only viable, but actually enjoyable.

Setting up a PHP development environment can be challenging, especially when you need to manage multiple PHP versions or avoid cluttering your system with local installations. In this guide, I'll show you how to create a complete PHP development environment using only Docker and VSCode. No local PHP installation required!

When we talk about complex systems, the temptation to create even more complex solutions is huge. I’ve seen this happen over and over: it starts with a simple problem, and before you realize it, you’re staring at a Frankenstein of code full of patches and workarounds. That’s why I like to preach a few principles that might sound obvious, but most people tend to forget.

In this post I’ll showcase two tiny-but-mighty pieces: the byjg/serializer’s Serialize and ObjectCopy utilities. Together, they make it trivial to convert, reshape, and map data across formats and DTOs.