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My journey at Kinsta began in 2018 when I took on the role of a Support Engineer. At that time, our team consisted of a modest count of fifty people. The comprehensive internal documentation already in place at Kinsta instantly caught my attention. We continue to uphold the same standards in our documentation practices to ensure our customers are well-supported.

Internal Documentation Enhancements

Although we had solid internal documentation, our toolkit was sparser, with limited automation. It was the repetitive task of setting up Redis or Ioncube for the umpteenth time when I decided to streamline the process.

Until then, we’d perform tasks manually, referring to our Confluence pages for directions and configurations, often involving a tedious routine of copying and pasting code, checking and updating various data. This not only increased the chances for errors but also was time inefficient.

With the goal of eliminating repetitive errors and saving time, I started creating Bash scripts for these tasks. As my colleagues noticed the increased efficiency, the scripts became a team resource. Tasks that previously took 20 minutes could now be completed in seconds, minimizing the risk of human error.

It was when I presented these efficiency tools to Tom Sepper, then the Chief Customer Officer and Director of Support, that we considered expanding these tools for broader team use.

The Inception of the Kinsta Tool

I refactored the initial Bash scripts into PHP, giving rise to the versatile ‘Kinsta Tool.’. This tool, an integral part of our support infrastructure today, facilitates numerous automated tasks for the team, from malware scans to setting up Redis and installing PHP extensions.

Kinsta Tool bridges the functionality gaps not covered by our MyKinsta dashboard. For instance, customers often need to reset a WordPress site to its default state—a process that typically requires site deletion and recreation in MyKinsta. Recognizing this, I added a feature to Kinsta Tool to streamline the process with WP-CLI and MySQL commands, reducing a task that could take minutes to a near-instantaneous operation.

Evolution to the Chrome Extension

Work on tooling at Kinsta predates my tenure. Thoriq Firdaus, a member of our marketing technology team, initially forged a Chrome extension for internal use to display a site’s hosting status with Kinsta.

This extension, although useful, became outdated. Recognizing the need to keep our tools current, we developed a new Chrome extension with updated features to aid our customer support processes better.

One practical example is the extension’s ability to safely mask untrusted URLs as our team writes responses in Intercom, enhancing security measures against sending potentially malicious links.

The extension also simplifies workflow by showing a site’s hosting status with Kinsta at a glance and providing a temporary workspace for copying and pasting notes or code, facilitating multitasking between support tabs.

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