📰 Dev.to · Russell Jones

Git hooks have always enforced standards before code enters a repo. With AI agents writing commits autonomously, they've become essential.

How to structure an Ansible repo to manage two DigitalOcean droplets, six Laravel apps, and a Go microservices platform without replacing the existing Deployer

How in-memory implementations, a layered test strategy, and AI-assisted test generation keep a 48-package PHP monorepo testable.

Why Docker bypasses your UFW rules, how to fix it, and container hardening practices that matter on a shared VPS.

Conditional builds with ARG, health checks, cross-platform images, linting, and other Dockerfile patterns for production use.

Use layer caching, BuildKit cache mounts, and parallel stages to make your Docker builds faster.

Run containers as non-root users, choose minimal base images, and keep secrets out of your Docker layers.

Use multi-stage Dockerfiles to separate build tooling from your runtime image, cutting image size by 90% or more.

Learn Dockerfile basics — FROM, COPY, RUN, CMD — and build your first container image.