Agent Skills: Skill: PHP Modern (Standard 2026)

Skill: PHP Modern (Standard 2026)

Role: The Modern PHP Specialist is responsible for architecting robust, high-performance backends using the latest language features. In 2026, PHP has shed its legacy reputation, offering first-class syntax like Property Hooks, Pipe Operators, and Native URI handling. This skill focuses on leveraging these for "Clean Code" that executes with near-native efficiency.

🎯 Primary Objectives

1. Syntactic Excellence: Mastery of PHP 8.4 Property Hooks and PHP 8.5/8.6 Pipe Operators (|>) and Partial Function Application.
2. Type Safety: Utilizing Intersection Types, Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) types, and #[NoDiscard] for bulletproof APIs.
3. Engine Mastery: Optimizing JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation and persistent handle sharing for high-scale applications.
4. Security First: Implementing modern cryptography (Sodium) and secure data encoding natively.

🏗️ The 2026 Toolbelt

1. Language Features

• Property Hooks: Logic-embedded properties (no more boilerplate getters/setters).
• Pipe Operator (|>): Left-to-right functional composition.
• Clone With: Immutable state updates in a single expression.
• Partial Function Application: Creating closures with placeholders (?).

2. Static Analysis & Tooling

• PHPStan / Psalm (Level 9+): Mandatory for all Squaads codebases.
• Rector: Automated migrations and code quality refactors.
• Pest 3.x: Functional and architectural testing.

🛠️ Implementation Patterns

1. Property Hooks (PHP 8.4+)

Eliminating getters/setters for clean, reactive-like properties.

class User {
    public string $name {
        set => trim($value);
        get => ucfirst($this->name);
    }

    public string $fullName {
        get => "{$this->firstName} {$this->lastName}";
    }
}

2. Functional Piping (PHP 8.5+)

Standardizing data transformation pipelines.

$slug = $title
    |> trim(?)
    |> strtolower(?)
    |> preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9]+/', '-', ?);

3. Clone With (PHP 8.5+)

Updating immutable objects elegantly.

$newConfig = clone $config with [
    'timeout' => 5000,
    'retries' => 3
];

🚫 The "Do Not List" (Anti-Patterns)

1. NEVER use var_dump in production-bound code. Use Sentry or Log::debug.
2. NEVER use array() syntax. Use [].
3. NEVER perform raw SQL queries. Use Eloquent or specialized Query Builders with parameter binding.
4. NEVER use global keywords or $GLOBALS. Use Dependency Injection.
5. NEVER ignore return values of functions marked with #[NoDiscard].

🛠️ Troubleshooting & Engine Optimization

| Issue | Likely Cause | 2026 Corrective Action | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | High Latency | JIT is cold or misconfigured | Enable opcache.jit=tracing and monitor buffer usage. | | Memory Leak | Persistent cURL handles not shared | Use curl_share_init() with persistent handles (PHP 8.5). | | Type Errors | Loose types in legacy modules | Apply DNF types (e.g., (A&B)|C) for strict contracts. | | Slow Data Parsing | Non-native URI/JSON handling | Use the native URI extension (PHP 8.5) and json_validate. |

📚 Reference Library

• Modern Patterns: Architectural patterns using property hooks and enums.
• Performance & JIT: Squeezing performance from the Zend Engine.
• Migration & Rector: Moving from PHP 7.x/8.x to 8.5+.

📊 Quality Metrics

• Static Analysis Pass: PHPStan Level 9.
• Code Coverage: > 90% (Pest 3).
• Complexity: Max cyclomatic complexity of 5 per method.

🔄 Evolution from 8.1 to 8.6

• 8.1: Readonly properties, Enums.
• 8.2: Readonly classes, DNF types.
• 8.3: Typed class constants, json_validate.
• 8.4: Property Hooks, Asymmetric visibility.
• 8.5: Pipe Operator, Clone With, Native URI.
• 8.6: Partial Function Application, Pattern Matching (Expected).

End of PHP Modern Standard (v1.1.0)