For many years, my website was powered by WordPress. Like millions of other people, I appreciated how quickly it allowed me to publish content without having to build everything from scratch. However, over time my website evolved beyond a simple blog. I found myself wanting applications that WordPress wasn't really designed to provide. Some projects needed custom databases, others required specialised interfaces or unique workflows that didn't fit naturally into the WordPress ecosystem. While plug-ins could sometimes fill the gap, they often introduced complexity and compromises that felt increasingly uncomfortable. Eventually I decided that, for these applications at least, it would be simpler to build them myself. At first there was no grand architectural vision. Each application was a completely independent PHP project. Every one had its own directory structure, its own configuration, its own navigation and its own way of doing things. That wasn't a deliberate design dec...