iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

It being new does mean agents are still catching up to the spec, so they need prodding to find the tools today (Codex took a few reminders, see the screenshot below!) What WebMCP is, the real numbers, how to switch it on, and the rough edges you'll see with it today: www.conroyp.com/articles/mak...

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

While WebMCP is new, it's certainly not a toy: Stripe recently brought WebMCP to their hosted checkout. The old browser-driving way cost ~1.8M tokens per purchase, 42% lower with WebMCP, and 39% faster. I tried it on one of my own sites - average of ~27× fewer tokens, up to 82×, ~1/22 the cost.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The old way: at every step, re-read a wall of HTML, guess where to click, hope. With WebMCP the agent just calls the functions we want it to use. It's the same results, but delivered much more effectively (and using the same code)

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

For an AI agent, "using your website" has meant driving the browser: read the page, find the button, click, hope. It's often brittle, and very token-heavy. #WebMCP flips that around - your site hands the agent tools to call directly. 🧵

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Composer still downloads the full SDK before removing unused services. The saving is in the resulting deployment artefact. Still, a useful bit of housekeeping for keeping deployments lean, and configuring the hook is a very simple, composer-only change: www.conroyp.com/articles/red...

conroyp.com

Reduce AWS SDK Bundle Size in PHP with Composer

The AWS SDK for PHP ships a bunch of clients you may never use. This extra weight is unnecessary, and can cause problems with serverless deployment limits. Fortunately, Composer has a solution!

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The AWS SDK includes a Composer hook that removes services your application doesn’t use. In a simple test for an app using only S3 and SQS, it reduced vendor/aws from around 68MB to just over 5MB, without requiring any changes to the application code.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Installing the full AWS SDK for #PHP just to perform a few S3 operations adds quite a lot of unnecessary weight. In serverless deployments and CI pipelines, that means more to package, upload, unpack and process, and can lead to less room within platform limits.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

We'll get hands-on with built-in UI, local file access, screen capture, and physical devices run via the web. Real examples, current browser support, as well as the rough edges. Time to update our context windows! 📅 December 2-4 🎟 20% off: 2026SPEAKER_20 buildstuff.events/pages/tickets

buildstuff.events

Tickets – Build Stuff 2026, Vilnius, Dec 2–4

Get your Build Stuff 2026 tickets: 1-day, 3-day, online, VIP, and hotel packages, plus post-conference masterclasses. Prices rise closer to the event.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My talk is "Delete Your Dependencies: What the Browser Can Do Now". As web devs, we carry around plenty of assumptions about what browsers can and can't do. Some are still true, but many are not! The web platform has moved on, but our habits have't always followed.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Back to Vilnius for Build Stuff this December! Always a highlight, and this year marks its 15th birthday. Also looking forward to seeing Dublin from the other side of the video portal again 🇮🇪🤝🇱🇹 #BuildStuff15 #buildstuffconf #AgeOfAgency

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Going from general transcription to speakers involved a lot of learning (diarization is very cool! Also very much not there yet for regional accents!) Blog post on the tech to follow, but if you're curious in the meantime, this talk from #PHP UK gives some background youtu.be/8aZN_1NzBAM?...

youtu.be

Everything Is Showbiz: Lessons from a PHP + AI Side Project - Paul Conroy

YouTube video by PHP UK Conference

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Due to the way ad networks work, the audio and text didn't always sync up. There's an experimental feature in this release which (hopefully!) lines them up a bit better in the onsite player. This is a bit more experimental, so if this is working very well or badly for you, let me know!

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

We can also look across the whole archive: • Who's the go-to dragon when @maxrushden.bsky.social wants to drill into the numbers? • How many guests is it possible to cram into a single ep? • Who swears more often, @phlaimeaux.bsky.social or Max (or late entry from Max's mum)?

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

As a stats nerd, it's a crime against nature to have new data available and not immediately visualise it. Each episode has its own stats panel, showing who was speaking, when, and how much in that episode.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Every episode now reads speaker by speaker, and search filters down to a single voice. Which means you can finally ask what someone said across the entire archive, rather than trawling episode by episode.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

On everythingisshowbiz.com we could always tell you what was said on What Did You Do Yesterday? But now the site can tell you who said it - every line in the archive is attributed to a #wdydy speaker. This turns "was X said?" into a much more interesting: "who said X?"

everythingisshowbiz.com

Everything is Showbiz - What Did You Do Yesterday

Are they just normal cheeses? How do you make a good 3/4 flat white? Search the What Did You Do Yesterday archive to find out!

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

If you're working with Laravel - or even just curious how you'd go about implementing Machine payments in your own PHP applications - take a look at github.com/square1-io/l...

github.com

GitHub - square1-io/laravel-mpp: Add machine payment capabilities to your Laravel APIs

Add machine payment capabilities to your Laravel APIs - square1-io/laravel-mpp

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Put it together and the machine-payments journey starts to feel much more rounded: Discovery → request → select rail → pay You can try it today at payforgoals.com - our (semi-serious..) playground where agents can use test cards to retrieve historic football results.

payforgoals.com

PayForGoals.com - Agentic Commerce on the Machine Payments Protocol

Relive iconic results through a simple API. Under the hood: a live demo of agentic payments - AI agents pay per request over the Machine Payments Protocol, by card or on-chain. By Square1.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The client can also express a preference. For example, send: Accept-Payment: stripe/charge …and the server can return only the Stripe challenge. So the resource stays the same; the agent negotiates the payment rail around it.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

A single endpoint can now support multiple payment rails. You might offer Stripe and Tempo for the same resource. The agent can tell the server which rails it supports, and the server returns the appropriate payment challenge. This means no rail-specific endpoints are required!

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Discovery is a big part of this release. Laravel MPP can automatically expose /openapi.json. This route shows payment-gated routes, including what's available, what it costs, and which rails are supported. An agent can discover: * What can I buy? * How much? * How can I pay?

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

We've released laravel-mpp 2.0 🚀 Two big additions: 🔎 Better discovery for paid routes 💴 Payment negotiation - multiple payment rails on a single route! This makes it easier for agents to find a resource, understand the price, and work out how to pay. #laravel #php

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

And it works the same whether you’re using Stripe or Tempo payment rails. Another step along the road from “here’s an MPP demo” to “how do I actually use this in a real Laravel app?” Still wondering what exactly MPP is? You're not alone! A primer: www.square1.io/news/agentic... #AgenticCommerce

square1.io

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

That means the same endpoint can now: • charge different customer tiers different prices • return different grants or scopes • give selected users free access • fall back to the route’s standard price All this without changing the underlying MPP flow.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

MPP pricing doesn’t have to be static anymore! We’ve just tagged v1.2.0 of square1/laravel-mpp, adding dynamic pricing for MPP-protected #Laravel routes. Price at request time based on the user, account, subscription tier or your own application logic. github.com/square1-io/l...

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

This is all built on top of our #laravel #php package at github.com/square1-io/l.... This package makes it simple to start experimenting with agentic payments today. Try it out and let me know what you think!

github.com

GitHub - square1-io/laravel-mpp: Add machine payment capabilities to your Laravel APIs

Add machine payment capabilities to your Laravel APIs - square1-io/laravel-mpp

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

It's an admittedly tongue-in-cheek demo of MPP, but the core flow works: an API endpoint can ask for payment with 402 Payment Required, then return the resource once payment is verified. I wrote up an explainer on what's going on under the hood: I conroyp.com/articles/pra...

conroyp.com

Charging AI Agents Per Request: A Practical Guide to the Machine Payments Protocol

Charging AI agents per request with the Machine Payments Protocol: HTTP 402 challenges, verifying settlement, idempotency, and the edge cases that bite.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

With Agentic Commerce being a buzzy term at the moment, I wanted a small, concrete demo of the Machine Payments Protocol. So I built an API where your agent can pay for historic football scorelines (It's MVP - team names coming in v2...) Try it out at www.payforgoals.com

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Watford change their coaches more often than you change your socks. Hard to keep track of! 🐝 Has He Managed Watford Yet? The Game 20 faces - some did, some just look like they should have. Harder than it has any right to be, and probably outdated 5 minutes after launch! hashemanagedwatfordyet.com

hashemanagedwatfordyet.com

Has He Managed Watford Yet?

Watford have had ~15 managers in a decade. 20 faces — can you tell who actually had the job, and who just sounds like they did?

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

You can run this as a Chrome extension, or direct from source. Try it out and let me know how it works for you! 🔗 Chrome extension: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/scree... 🔗 Source: github.com/conroyp/scre... 🔗 Full writeup: www.conroyp.com/articles/scr...

chromewebstore.google.com

Screen Portal - Chrome Web Store

Capture a region of your screen and share it as a Chrome tab in Google Meet.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

I built Screen Portal: draw a rectangle on your screen, and it portals just that area live into a Chrome tab you can share. In the latest edition of "Wait, the web can do that now?!?", it's built using the Screen Capture API + canvas. ~200 lines of JS, no external dependencies.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

On calls Google Meet doesn't let you share a region of your screen - only a full window or tab. Every time you want to show one panel of an app - a design preview, a dashboard widget, a chat thread - you end up showing everything around it too. This can lead to over-sharing!

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

My talk at @phpukconference.bsky.social is now at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aZN.... If you're wondering what to do when your AI makes a homophobic transcription error, or how Prince Andrew's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein connects to accurate text searching, have I got the talk for you.. #wdydy

youtube.com

Everything Is Showbiz: Lessons from a PHP + AI Side Project - Paul Conroy

YouTube video by PHP UK Conference

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Wow @jeroenheijmans.nl , this is fantastic, I love it! The super mario visual for the pipes is a far better idea than any I had - I must find a way to work that in the next time I give the talk 🙂

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Reposted by Paul Conroy

Jeroen Heijmans @jeroenheijmans.nl · 13/03/2026

After that I visited the talk by @conroyp.bsky.social on modern php features.

Sketch notes for talk titled "modern php features"

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

We've also a thread connecting Victorian railway bridges to modern platform design, and how well-built systems often take on second lives beyond their creators’ original vision. Big thanks to the Stripe team for hosting a great night! www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8px...

youtube.com

Stripe is my DNS provider now

YouTube video by Stripe Developers

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I recently spoke at the Stripe Dublin developer meetup, and the video is now live. The talk was "Stripe is my DNS provider." It’s about creative misuse - building a Stripe-powered DNS server as a way of exploring what can happen when APIs are consistent, composable, and deeply predictable.

youtube.com

Stripe is my DNS provider now

YouTube video by Stripe Developers

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

If the site of a speaker breaking out in a cold sweat of panic, realising their talk is out of date 30 seconds after writing it, isn't quite enough for you, there's a stellar line up this year - www.phpconference.co.uk/schedule Code PHPUK26 will get you 10% off - www.phpconference.co.uk/tickets

phpconference.co.uk

2026 Schedule | PHP UK Conference

Check out our talk schedule for PHP UK Conference 2026, we have a wide range of talks and workshops lined up.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Ahead of the conference, I spoke with @daveliddament.bsky.social about vibe coding vs ai-assisted dev. We also discussed what a stupid idea it is to try preparing a talk on AI-assisted development more than 10 minutes in advance, given how fast the space is moving 🫥 www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJJ...

youtube.com

Vibe Coding vs. Engineering: Building AI Apps in PHP with Paul Conroy

YouTube video by PHP UK Conference

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Only 2 weeks until this year's @phpukconference.bsky.social! My talk will be the story behind #wdydy site EverythingIsShowbiz.com - a side project that started as "search podcast transcripts" and spiralled into the good, bad, and ridiculous world of AI-assisted development in PHP. #php #phpuk

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David O’Doherty @phlaimeaux.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

WE HEREBY ANNOUNCE A LIVE SHOW IN DUBLIN. March 3rd, baby. On sale now. Tickets on sale now: www.ticketmaster.ie/artist/56740...

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Reposted by Paul Conroy

International PHP Conference @phpconference.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

🎭 When a #PHP side project turns into a full #AI-powered system… @conroyp.bsky.social talks about the real lessons from building PHP + AI beyond the hype. #IntPHPCon |📍BER | 📅 June 8 – 12, 26 The session: f.mtr.cool/nfztgkerhg #GenerativeAI #SideProjects

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

* It being 2026, the "I" here of course is the royal I - an afternoon of poking and prodding at Claude code until we were broadly on the same page. The impact of Claude code and it's like on lowering the barrier to bringing ideas to life is genuinely phenomenal, and worth a deeper dive into.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

The twist is that your oldest move vanishes from the board, meaning only 3 pieces "in play" at any one time. It's a small change which makes a big change to the strategies you can use! It also massively cuts down on draws. Try it out at tictacgoaway.com!

tictacgoaway.com

TicTacGoAway - Tic-Tac-Toe, Evolved

You only get 3 pieces-place a 4th and your oldest vanishes! A fresh twist on the classic that keeps every game exciting.

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Paul Conroy @conroyp.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Tic Tac Toe (or Xs and Os) is a fun game, loved by small kids in particular. Though once you get the hang of it, it more often than not ends up in a draw. TicTacGoAway.com is a version I* put together which adds a small twist to cut down on draws and get more winners.

tictacgoaway.com

TicTacGoAway - Tic-Tac-Toe, Evolved

You only get 3 pieces-place a 4th and your oldest vanishes! A fresh twist on the classic that keeps every game exciting.

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Reposted by Paul Conroy

International PHP Conference @phpconference.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

⚡#ModernPHP offers tools that make your code cleaner, safer & more expressive. @conroyp.bsky.social highlights the features many devs miss and how they elevate your everyday workflow #IntPHPCon|📍 BER | 📅 June 8 – 12, 26 🎓The session: f.mtr.cool/pvchkoxnuo #CleanCode #DeveloperExperience

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