Marcus Kober
Senior PHP developer from Cologne
I've been building web applications professionally since 1999 — yes, I've been through the entire journey from PHP 3 to PHP 8.5. Currently I work at tetraeder.com in Dortmund, where I'm porting a large legacy system to Symfony and integrating AI into existing products.
I'm interested in what's happening beneath the surface. Not just whether code works, but whether it's maintainable, whether the architecture holds up, whether the next team will want to run when they see it. That's why I built PhpCodeArcheology — a tool that answers exactly these questions with numbers.
I believe good code isn't an end in itself but an investment. And that you have to measure technical debt before you can pay it down.
Besides my work as a developer, I write about topics that drive me: AI-assisted development, software architecture, the evolution of PHP, and the daily struggle between pragmatism and perfectionism.
What I do
PHP & Symfony
Backend development, legacy modernisation, API design. PHP since 1999, Symfony as my framework of choice.
Software Architecture
DDD, Clean Architecture, CQRS — not as dogma but as a toolbox. The right architecture is the one that fits the problem.
Code Analysis
Static analysis, metrics, and tool-assisted quality assurance. PhpCodeArcheology is my contribution to making code quality tangible.
AI & Development
I integrate AI into development workflows — from Claude Code as a daily tool to embedding MCP servers into existing products.
PhpCodeArcheology
My open-source static analysis tool. 60+ metrics, 14 problem detectors, a health score — and the first PHP analyser with native MCP support for AI assistants.
PhpCodeArcheology isn't just another linter. It's about the big questions: How complex is this system really? Where are the coupling points? Which modules are stable, which are fragile?
Get in touch
Questions, ideas, or just want to say hello?
hello@marcuskober.de