Rector Config Laravel Package

Getting Started

Start by requiring the package via Composer in your project:

composer require --dev eliashaeussler/rector-config

Then create or update rector.php in your project root with a single line to include the shared configuration:

return \EliasHaeussler\RectorConfig\Loader\DefaultConfigLoader::load(__DIR__);

That’s it — Rector now runs with sensible defaults including PHP 8.0+ upgrades, null safety improvements, and modern syntax migrations. Run a dry-run first to preview changes:

vendor/bin/rector process src --dry-run

Implementation Patterns

• Baseline adoption: Use it as a drop-in baseline across microservices or team-owned repos to enforce consistent standards — ideal for monorepos with shared coding standards.
• Gradual upgrade path: Combine with rector.php extension to enable stricter sets (e.g., php82, code-quality) gradually per release cycle.
• CI integration: Add a rector job in your GitHub/GitLab CI to auto-refactor or fail if changes are needed:

  - vendor/bin/rector process src --dry-run
  

• Team onboarding: New developers run rector:process before commits (via pre-commit hook or IDE integration) to automatically adopt current best practices.

Gotchas and Tips

• Rule conflicts: If you define custom rules, ensure they don’t clash with the included sets — especially around null handling or type widening. Use --debug flag to trace rule interactions.
• Config precedence: The DefaultConfigLoader merges rules before your project’s local rector.php config; use ->withConfiguredRule() for targeted overrides.
• PHP version constraints: The package enforces a minimum PHP version (currently 8.1). If your project supports older versions, you may need to selectively disable sets or pin to an older version.
• Cache behavior: Rector caches results by default — clear it (--clear-cache) when config changes unexpectedly behave inconsistently across runs.
• Extensibility: Extend DefaultConfigLoader and override methods to inject project-specific paths, custom sets, or exclude patterns — great for complex legacy apps.