THE JOURNAL
Notes on building, shipping & securing the web.
Security · 5 min
Admin access hygiene: two-factor, roles and offboarding
Stolen and forgotten accounts cause more breaches than exotic exploits. A practical process for who gets access, how, and for how long.
Maya Okafor · Oct 21, 2025
Engineering · 5 min
Database schema decisions that hurt in year two
Schemas outlive frameworks, teams and redesigns. The early database choices we see causing the most pain later, and what we do differently from day one.
Maya Okafor · Oct 16, 2025
AI · 5 min
Giving AI agents tool access without handing over the keys
Scoped credentials, server-side policy, confirmation steps and prompt-injection defenses for agents that can take real actions in your systems.
Daniel Reyes · Oct 15, 2025
Performance · 5 min
Chasing down layout shift: the CLS fixes we reach for first
Cumulative Layout Shift is rarely caused by one thing. The usual suspects, how to catch them in the field and the fixes that stick.
Ravi Iyer · Oct 07, 2025
Design · 5 min
Designing landing pages for paid traffic
Paid visitors arrive with a specific promise in mind. Landing pages that keep that promise, and remove everything else, convert more of the budget.
Nadia Haddad · Sep 24, 2025
SEO · 5 min
Internal linking architecture: building hubs that pass authority
Internal links are the one ranking signal you fully control. How we design hub pages, link modules and anchor text that scale with a growing site.
Ravi Iyer · Sep 23, 2025
DevOps · 5 min
Terraform state layout and guardrails for small teams
One giant state file works until it does not. How we split Terraform state, protect it, and review changes so a three-person team can manage infrastructure safely.
Leo Tanaka · Sep 15, 2025
Shopify · 5 min
Subscriptions on Shopify: choosing and wiring the right setup
Subscription revenue lives or dies on the details: plan design, customer portals, failed payments and inventory. Here is how we set it up.
Sofia Lindqvist · Sep 09, 2025
E-commerce · 5 min
Building product configurators that stay fast and usable
Configurators sell custom products well when they load quickly and never allow an impossible combination. The architecture and UX choices that matter.
Sofia Lindqvist · Aug 27, 2025
WordPress · 5 min
A Git-based deployment workflow for WordPress teams
Version control, Composer, staging and automated deploys for WordPress, so changes stop being made live over FTP and start being reviewed.
Leo Tanaka · Aug 26, 2025
One email a month. Only the good stuff.
Field notes from real client projects. No spam.