OpCache, JIT, and a Slimmer Docker Build

Trimming the Build

A deploy that takes too long is a deploy you avoid. I spent the morning shrinking the Docker build. I folded the chown into the build RUN and used COPY --chown (769d70e7), dropped autoload --optimize (86a5f84d), then dropped the tree-wide chown in favor of only bootstrap/cache (84c8c87a), and skipped a second composer dump-autoload (1f129fda). Each change removes a layer or an expensive filesystem walk. The tree-wide chown on a large codebase is surprisingly costly, and it only needs to apply to the writable directories anyway.

OpCache, JIT, and Pool Sizing

With the build leaner, I turned to runtime performance: OpCache with JIT, PHP-FPM pool sizing, SQLite WAL, and a niced scheduler (c8c2cc53). OpCache with JIT is a large win for a PHP app running in a container, and sizing the FPM pool to the actual CPU allocation prevents both idle waste and request queuing. Putting the scheduler at a lower priority keeps background jobs from starving web requests. I also switched to artisan optimize at boot instead of running individual cache commands (700cabdf), which is one command and one less place to miss a step.

The Coolify Migration Kit

I extracted the reusable parts into a coolify-migration-kit (b923ca13), including the performance settings (da2eb9ff), docker group access with a host-side artisan wrapper (cd1f3a08), and a Laravel entrypoint template using artisan optimize (be2eae61). Extracting a kit means the next project gets the hardened setup on day one instead of rediscovering it.

The Pattern

Every project eventually converges on the same handful of deployment concerns. Codifying them once turns each new deploy from a project into a task.