Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: PHP Quality Tooling

Use when setting up PHPStan, Rector, or PHP-CS-Fixer on a non-Laravel PHP project, incl. CI wiring. Do NOT use for Laravel (Pint/Larastan), tests, or syntax.

UncategorizedID: fusengine/agents/php-quality-tooling

Repository

fusengine/agents
FusengineLicense: MIT
345

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pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/Fusengine/claude-plugins/tree/HEAD/plugins/php-expert/skills/php-quality-tooling

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plugins/php-expert/skills/php-quality-tooling/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
php-quality-tooling
Description
Use when setting up PHPStan, Rector, or PHP-CS-Fixer on a non-Laravel PHP project, incl. CI wiring. Do NOT use for Laravel (Pint/Larastan), tests, or syntax.
<objective> Covers the three complementary quality tools for framework-agnostic PHP: PHPStan for static analysis (finds type bugs, never edits), Rector for automated upgrades and refactors (rewrites source), and PHP-CS-Fixer for coding-standard formatting (rewrites whitespace/style). They do not overlap — a full setup runs all three.

Includes a decision guide for greenfield vs legacy codebases (PHPStan level + baseline strategy, Rector's withPhpSets()/withPhpLevel(), PHP-CS-Fixer rule sets), plus ready-to-copy templates for phpstan.neon, rector.php, .php-cs-fixer.dist.php, and a composer-scripts CI pipeline.

Do NOT use this skill on Laravel projects — Laravel uses Pint (a thin wrapper over PHP-CS-Fixer) and Larastan instead, both owned by laravel-expert. Do NOT use it for test framework setup (php-testing) or language syntax questions (php-language-modern). </objective>

PHP Quality Tooling

Three complementary tools. PHPStan finds type bugs, Rector rewrites code (upgrades + refactors), PHP-CS-Fixer formats to a coding standard. They do not overlap — run all three.

Agent Workflow (MANDATORY)

Before ANY implementation, spawn 3 agents in parallel, one Agent call each with a name:

  1. fuse-ai-pilot:explore-codebase - Detect existing config (phpstan.neon, rector.php, .php-cs-fixer.dist.php), PHP version in composer.json
  2. fuse-ai-pilot:research-expert - Verify latest PHPStan/Rector/PHP-CS-Fixer docs via Context7/Exa
  3. mcp__context7__query-docs - Check current config API surface

After implementation, run fuse-ai-pilot:sniper for validation.

Overview

| Tool | Role | Config file | Verdict | |------|------|-------------|---------| | PHPStan | Static analysis (type safety, dead code) | phpstan.neon | Reports errors, never edits | | Rector | Automated upgrade + refactor | rector.php | Rewrites source | | PHP-CS-Fixer | Coding-standard formatter | .php-cs-fixer.dist.php | Rewrites whitespace/style |

Scope note: Laravel Pint is a thin opinionated wrapper around PHP-CS-Fixer. On a Laravel project use Pint (→ laravel-expert); everywhere else use PHP-CS-Fixer directly, which is what this skill covers.

Critical Rules

  1. Pick one style tool - PHP-CS-Fixer OR Pint, never both on one repo
  2. Rector runs --dry-run first - Review the diff before applying; commit before a bare run
  3. Baseline, don't lower the level - Adopt a high PHPStan level + baseline the debt, not level 4
  4. Style before analysis in CI - Fixer check → PHPStan → tests; a formatting diff should fail fast
  5. Pin tool versions - --dev in composer.json; a minor bump can add rules and break CI

Decision Guide

New project from scratch?
├── Static analysis → PHPStan level 8-9+ from day one (our default; nothing to baseline yet)
├── Style → PHP-CS-Fixer @PER-CS (always-latest) or @PER-CS3x0 (pinned; `@PER-CS3.0` is deprecated)
└── Rector → withPhpSets() (reads composer.json) + deadCode/codeQuality prepared sets

Legacy codebase?
├── PHPStan → start at a level that passes, generate baseline, raise 1 level per PR
├── Rector → withPhpLevel(n) / withTypeCoverageLevel(n), one level at a time
└── Style → @PER-CS + fix once, then enforce check in CI

Reference Guide

Concepts

| Topic | Reference | Load when | |-------|-----------|-----------| | PHPStan levels & baseline | references/phpstan-levels.md | Choosing/raising analysis strictness | | Rector sets & upgrades | references/rector-upgrades.md | Automating PHP upgrades or refactors | | PHP-CS-Fixer rule sets | references/php-cs-fixer.md | Configuring code style |

Templates

| Template | Use Case | |----------|----------| | references/templates/phpstan-neon.md | Complete phpstan.neon (strict + baseline) | | references/templates/rector-php.md | Complete rector.php (upgrade + quality) | | references/templates/php-cs-fixer-dist.md | Complete .php-cs-fixer.dist.php (@PER-CS3x0) | | references/templates/composer-ci.md | composer scripts + GitHub Actions pipeline |

Quick Start

composer require --dev phpstan/phpstan rector/rector friendsofphp/php-cs-fixer

vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer check      # style gate (no writes)
vendor/bin/phpstan analyse         # type analysis
vendor/bin/rector process --dry-run # preview refactors

→ Full config in references/templates/

Best Practices

DO

  • Enable phpstan-strict-rules + Bleeding Edge on greenfield projects
  • Let Rector read the PHP version from composer.json via withPhpSets()
  • Add framework/library PHPStan extensions (Doctrine, Symfony) for accurate types

DON'T

  • Run Rector on an uncommitted working tree
  • Mix PHP-CS-Fixer and Pint in the same repo
  • Silence PHPStan with @phpstan-ignore where a real type fix is cheap