I'm a Lead Software Engineer at Wordnerds.ai, focused on pragmatic architecture, developer experience, and building systems that scale without becoming fragile.

• 🏠 Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England.
• 🚀 Daily drivers: JavaScript, PHP, Laravel, Vue.js, Python.
• 🧪 Exploring for fun: Game Dev, C, SDL.
• 🧠 Previously shipped with: Next.js, Nuxt.js, Node.js, React, Solid.js, Symfony.
• ☕ Passionate about improving developer experience, contributing to open-source, and sharing lessons learned through writing and talks.

• Pragmatic architecture over dogma.
• Codebases that are easy to change six months later.
• Mentoring engineers and growing healthy teams.
• Open discussion about trade-offs, not "perfect" solutions.

📫 Reach out: Feel free to contact me for collaboration, ideas, or just a chat!

📝 Resume: Check out my resume for more details on my experience.

I write about PHP internals, architecture, performance, and the trade-offs behind real-world engineering decisions.

• How I Built a 65 Million Item Array in PHP... Kind Of - November 2025
• Understanding Service Containers in PHP - August 2024
• PSR4 - Autoloader - March 2024
• Skinny Controllers, Fat Models - March 2024
• Simplify Your Build Process with Makefile - March 2024
• Clean Architecture for PHP Applications - March 2024

Here are some of the projects I've contributed to, grouped by focus area.

• laravel/docs - Documentation contributions for the Laravel framework.
• notrab/dumbo - A lightweight, developer-friendly PHP framework for HTTP services.
• nuxt-modules/sitemap - Flexible XML sitemap generation for Nuxt applications.

• PixelInvaders: Rogue Mode - A retro-inspired 2D space shooter with roguelite progression, built in C and SDL.
• Deadline: Outbreak - A turn-based, tile-based survival horror game inspired by Urban Dead, built with PHP 8.4 and Laravel.

• Clean Architecture PHP - Demonstrates clean architecture principles applied to PHP.
• PSR-4 Autoloader - An example implementation of a PSR-4 compliant autoloader.
• Type-Safety - Runtime type checking for arrays and primitives in PHP.
• Unicode - Type-safe handling of Unicode characters in PHP.

• Laravel Remove Mass Assignment - Removes mass assignment protection from Laravel models.
• Laravel URL Activity - Records and tracks URL requests within Laravel applications.

• FetchPHP - A functional approach to making HTTP requests in PHP.
• Numverify Wrapper - A PHP wrapper for the Numverify API.
• SpaceTradersPHP - A PHP API wrapper for the spacetraders.io service.

• Appwrite Nuxt Starter - Starter kit for building Nuxt applications with Appwrite.
• Solid.js, Vite, Tailwind Starter - Starter template integrating Solid.js, Vite, and Tailwind CSS.
• Docker Configs - A collection of reusable Docker configuration files.

• isphpdying.com - Repository for isphpdying.com, exploring the ongoing relevance of PHP.
• Personal Website - Source code for my personal website, rayblair.co.uk.

Feel free to connect with me on any of the platforms below: