Phrasal Verbs for Developers

To install and configure something so it is ready to use.

“Can you set up the local environment before the new developer starts on Monday?”

To revert a deployment or change to a previous working version.

“The release broke the checkout flow, so we had to roll back to last week's build.”

To commit or push code to a shared repository.

“Make sure you check in your changes before the end of the day.”

To include or incorporate a dependency, branch, or change.

“I pulled in the latest changes from main before opening the PR.”

To start or launch an instance, service, or environment.

“We can spin up a new staging environment for the client demo.”

To shut down and remove an environment or infrastructure.

“Remember to tear down the test cluster when you're done — it costs money to run.”

To connect two systems, services, or components together.

“I need to hook up the frontend to the new API endpoint.”

To connect the parts of a system so they work together.

“The components are ready — I just need to wire up the state management.”

To split something complex into smaller, simpler parts.

“Let's break down this epic into smaller stories before sprint planning.”

To finish or bring something to a close.

“I'm wrapping up the refactor today. The PR should be ready for review by 3pm.”

To transfer responsibility for a task or project to someone else.

“She's handing off the feature to the backend team now that the API is done.”

To take on a task or continue work that someone else left.

“Can someone pick up this ticket? The original dev is out this week.”

To give formal approval for something to proceed.

“We need the product manager to sign off before we deploy to production.”

To check on the progress of something or take further action after an initial step.

“I sent the question to the client on Tuesday — I'll follow up if I don't hear back by Friday.”

To mention or raise a topic in a conversation or meeting.

“I'll bring up the performance issue at the retrospective.”

To draw attention to something, often a problem or detail.

“The reviewer pointed out that the function has no error handling.”

To investigate or research something.

“I'll look into why the tests are failing on the CI server.”

To review or examine something carefully.

“Let's go over the requirements one more time before we start building.”

To explain something step by step.

“Can you walk me through how the authentication flow works?”

To contact someone, especially to ask for help or information.

“If you're blocked, reach out to the platform team — they own that service.”

To start a project, sprint, or meeting.

“We're kicking off the new sprint on Monday with a planning session.”

To release or deploy a feature to users.

“The team is aiming to ship out the new onboarding flow before the end of the quarter.”

To resist or delay something, or to disagree with a decision.

“The engineering team pushed back on the timeline — two weeks is not enough for this feature.”

To make slower progress than expected.

“We've fallen behind on the backlog since two developers were out sick.”

To reach the expected level after falling behind.

“We'll need to catch up this sprint to hit the milestone.”

To postpone or delay something.

“We put off the migration until we have a proper rollback plan.”

To increase capacity, infrastructure, or team size to handle more load.

“We'll need to scale up the database cluster before the Black Friday traffic spike.”

To unexpectedly encounter a problem or obstacle.

“We ran into a compatibility issue with the new version of the library.”

To solve a problem or figure out the details of something.

“We need to work out the data model before we start writing any code.”

To stop focusing on something and proceed to the next topic or task.

“We're out of time on this — let's move on and revisit it after the standup.”