Engineering stack

Fast UK edge pages Claude primary AI model PHP 8.4 runtime baseline MariaDB data layer

Fast, typed, and AI-native under real constraints

This is what powers Tidalux: modern PHP, Claude-assisted workflows, UK-first hosting, and delivery patterns that survive shared hosting without cutting corners on security or money handling.

See the engine room Run a speed check

Marketing pages

Fast

UK edge, LiteSpeed

WaveAI first token

Quick

warm cache

Portal auth chain

Snappy

gate to dashboard

Queue drain tick

60s

cron interval

Flagship

The engine room behind every Tidalux surface

Books, client portals, WaveAI widgets and this marketing site share one discipline: compile assets locally, push code, drain queues on a schedule, and keep AI spend inside knobs you can actually turn.

Sub-200ms marketing pages on UK edge
Claude calls gated by cost-mode and caps
Money as integers, journals that must balance
No npm, no SSH, no post-deploy surprises

Live stack trace (simplified)

request LiteSpeed

app Laravel 13 / PHP 8.4

data MariaDB

ai Claude + WaveAI

assets cdn.tidalux.io

Operational patterns from production, not a diagram for a pitch deck.

Runtime Core

Runtime layer

Modern PHP with Laravel 13, Livewire and Alpine. Typed, testable, deployable without a build farm.

PHP 8.4

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Strict types, enums and performance headroom without chasing every framework fad.

Laravel 13

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Routing, auth, queues and Blade - the backbone of Books, portals and marketing.

Livewire 3 + Alpine

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Reactive UI without shipping a separate SPA build chain to shared hosting.

Next.js & React

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Where App Router and component libraries earn their keep on client-facing products.

Data Structured

Data layer

MariaDB with parameterised queries, soft deletes and money stored as integers. No float surprises.

MariaDB

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utf8mb4 throughout, JSON where it helps, CHECK constraints where they matter.

Eloquent + scopes

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Thin models, business logic in services, audit trails on financial writes.

BIGINT money

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Pence in the database, Money value objects in code, tabular figures in the UI.

Drizzle + tRPC

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Typed data access and APIs on Node products where the stack calls for it.

AI Bounded

AI layer

Claude through a cost-mode dial, retrieval-grounded WaveAI, abuse guardrails and human escalation.

Anthropic Claude

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Primary model family for drafting, classification and WaveAI replies.

Cost-mode dial

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minimal, flow, rise, surge - spend caps and prompt caching baked in.

WaveAI retrieval

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Answers tied to supplied content; thin knowledge bases trigger honest handoff.

Abuse guard

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Rate limits, pattern checks and escalation before models burn budget.

Edge UK-first

Edge layer

LiteSpeed, TLS, CDN assets and monitoring that keep public pages fast without vanity infra.

UK hosting

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Managed hosting and cloud tiers sized to the workload.

LiteSpeed + TLS

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HTTP/2, sensible caching headers and certificates renewed on schedule.

CDN assets

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Logos and brand images via config-driven CDN URLs, not hardcoded paths.

WaveCheck

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Free site scans, OSA readiness checks and monitoring with alerts that reach a human.

Security Layered

Security layer

Gate, multi-stage auth, CSRF everywhere, rate limits on sensitive paths and no public stack traces.

Gate + auth chain

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Passphrase gate, password, PIN and TOTP before internal routes open.

CSRF + validation

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Every form protected; user input validated and escaped in Blade.

Attachment serving

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Files outside public/, streamed through authenticated controllers.

Login attempt logging

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Every auth stage logged, throttled and reviewed without storing secrets.

Delivery Git push

Delivery layer

Commit vendor and compiled CSS locally, push to managed hosting, drain queues via cron. No SSH theatre.

Git deploy

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Dev locally, commit including vendor/, hosting pulls. No composer on server.

Tailwind CLI

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Standalone binary compiles app.css locally - no npm on production.

Queue drain pattern

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PDF, OCR, webhooks and email via per-minute artisan sweeps, not daemons.

DomPDF + Proton SMTP

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Invoice PDFs and queued mail with HTML and plain-text alternatives.

AI at the core

Sophisticated AI, zero SaaS theatre

WaveAI, internal assistants and support suggestions share the same guardrails: bounded spend, grounded retrieval, and humans who can answer for every decision that matters.

WaveAI on your site

One script tag, branded widget, retrieval from your pages and FAQs. Visitors get quick answers; you get a clean handoff path.

Explore WaveAI

Cost-mode dial

Operations declare minimum tiers. Below the current mode, features degrade to rules-only instead of throwing errors or burning budget.

How we use AI

Abuse guard + escalation

Pattern checks, rate limits and human review before AI spend spikes. Support tickets get AI suggestions, not AI-only replies.

Support centre

Cost-mode dial

minimal

flow

rise

surge

Every Claude call honours the active mode. Operations below the tier return null and callers degrade gracefully.

Philosophy

Why we build this way

Not a competitor hit piece. Just the choices we would make again if we were starting from scratch tomorrow.

Boring where boring wins

MariaDB, Laravel and git deploy are not flashy on a slide. They are dependable for a decade.

AI with boundaries

Models assist; they do not replace judgement, legal review or access control you can explain to a client.

No lock-in theatre

Your data stays exportable, your domains stay yours, and we document what runs where.

Shared hosting, serious engineering

Constraints force discipline: compiled assets committed, queues drained, no mystery post-deploy scripts.

Curious how your site compares?

Run a capped Lighthouse snapshot. Fair use, human verification, no account required.

Site speed check

Same stack, your product

WaveAI for visitor questions, honest pricing for hosting, and a support team that built the platform.

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