Halit YEŞİL

Field notes on software, servers and AI.

What actually works, and what does not, when you build real projects with native PHP, MariaDB, Linux servers and AI coding agents. If I did not measure it, I do not say I did. Three posts a week: a series chapter on Tuesday, a radar pick on Thursday, a standalone technical piece on Saturday.

The square Kufic mark spells “Halit Yeşil” in Latin letters.

No. 4114 min read

Urban Renewal · Part 3

Urban Renewal #3: Scaffolding – Freeze the Behaviour, Then Touch It

Before changing old code, turn what it does today, bugs included, into tests. Eighteen characterization tests for the Altınkaynak library with zero source changes, recorded JSON responses, and a load test that checks the scaffolding actually holds.

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Latest writing

41 posts
  1. No. 40 A sealed case file on an oak table in a wood-panelled hearing room, a lantern and magnifier on evidence cards on one side and an empty advocate's chair facing it, depicting a security audit where the finder never validates. Cloudflare's Security Audit Skill: The Hunter Finds, the Devil's Advocate Refutes Artificial Intelligence / AI
  2. No. 39 A dawn meadow dotted with orange marker flags, a metal detector resting on a hand-drawn folded map, and a round metal disc half uncovered in the soil: the minefield metaphor for an AI code security audit. Vibe Coder #5.3: Security Audit – Hunting Hidden Mines in AI CodeThe Vibe Coder's Handbook · Part 5.3 Artificial Intelligence / AI
  3. No. 38 Cutaway illustration of multi-store ecommerce architecture: three different shop windows at dusk, all connected by doors to one shared stockroom behind them. One Brain, Many Windows: Multi-Store Ecommerce Architecture Software Architecture
  4. No. 37 A yellow tailor's tape and chalk on charcoal cloth, with a rack of identical grey suits and a mannequin in an unfinished jacket behind them, a metaphor for an AI slop detector. Impeccable: A Tailor's Tape for Off-the-Rack AI Design – Catching Slop With 62 Rules Artificial Intelligence / AI
  5. No. 36 Teal smoke from a brass oil lamp curls around a sealed glass dome over a stone tablet but cannot get inside, a picture of AI test-driven development keeping tests out of the agent's reach. Vibe Coder #5.2: AI-TDD – Tests First, Then the MagicThe Vibe Coder's Handbook · Part 5.2 Artificial Intelligence / AI
  6. No. 35 Retrofitting instead of tearing down: a cutaway of an old, lived-in apartment block with steel jackets and braces on its columns, new plumbing inside the walls, and a rolled-up deed and spirit level on the site table. Urban Renewal #2: Tear Down or Retrofit? – The Bill for a RewriteUrban Renewal · Part 2 Software Architecture
  7. No. 34 A small delivery van over an inspection pit; in the foreground a checklist with a single red mark beside a scale whose needle rests in the middle, the exit barrier raised. SkillSpector: Inspect an Agent Skill Before You Install It – Fail on the Defect, Not the Score Artificial Intelligence / AI
  8. No. 33 A glowing database schema map on dark navy with a red scan line passing over the tables Vibe Coder #2.2: Database and Schema Management – The AI's Context CompassThe Vibe Coder's Handbook · Part 2.2 Artificial Intelligence / AI
  9. No. 32 A contactless credit card resting on a plate of tangled spaghetti on a wooden table, a long bank statement spilling off the edge and a stack of copper coins beside it: a metaphor for AI technical debt and its interest. Vibe Coder #5.1: Technical Debt and Spaghetti Code – AI's High-Interest Credit CardThe Vibe Coder's Handbook · Part 5.1 Artificial Intelligence / AI
  10. No. 31 A negotiating table with carved wooden objects on one side and a card-catalogue cabinet on the other, an empty interpreter's chair with headphones and a brass tally counter between them, picturing Eloquent vs raw SQL. Code Wars: ORM or Raw SQL? – The Interpreter at the Table Code Wars
  11. No. 30 Cutaway of a two-storey house with all lights off; a tap runs inside, and beside the door an amber doorbell and a half-raised breaker lever stand out, a metaphor for a headless browser. Moli: A Browser With the Lights Off – A Rust Headless Browser for AI Agents Artificial Intelligence / AI

Ongoing series

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The Vibe Coder's Handbook

12 parts

Urban Renewal

3 parts

Renovating legacy projects with AI coding agents without tearing them down: risk assessment, test scaffolding, step-by-step refactoring and a safe cutover. Chapter by chapter, on a real legacy PHP repository.

Topics

Artificial Intelligence / AI19 Code Wars2 JavaScript / TypeScript1 Linux & Servers1 MySQL / MariaDB5 Phalcon1 PHP4 Software Architecture4 Survival Guide for Developers4

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