Env Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Build vs. Buy: Justifies buying this lightweight package over custom implementation for FFI environment checks, reducing dev time and maintenance overhead.
• Roadmap Alignment: Enables faster iteration for projects requiring FFI compatibility checks (e.g., CLI vs. web environments, PHP 8.4+ support).
• Feature Expansion: Supports conditional feature flags (e.g., enabling FFI-based optimizations only in CLI or preload contexts).
• Use Cases:
  • CI/CD pipelines: Validate FFI availability before running tests/deployments.
  • Multi-SAPI apps: Dynamically adjust logic (e.g., disable FFI-heavy features in web mode).
  • Error resilience: Graceful fallbacks when FFI is unavailable (e.g., assertAvailable() with custom exceptions).

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:
  • Your PHP project uses FFI and needs environment-aware checks (e.g., CLI vs. web, SAPI detection).
  • You require PHP 8.4+ compatibility with minimal maintenance.
  • You want to avoid reinventing FFI availability logic (e.g., for preloads, embed, or phpdbg).
• Look elsewhere if:
  • You need advanced FFI runtime manipulation (this is purely for environment checks).
  • Your project doesn’t use FFI (package adds negligible value).
  • You require active community support (low stars/dependents may signal niche use).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This MIT-licensed package lets us safely enable FFI features only in supported environments (e.g., CLI), reducing runtime errors and CI/CD failures. It’s a 5-minute install that replaces custom checks, saving dev time and improving reliability for PHP 8.4+ projects."

For Engineering: *"A lightweight (~1KB) utility to:

• Detect FFI availability (CLI/web/preload) with one-liners like Runtime::isAvailable().
• Fail fast in unsupported environments via assertAvailable() (throws exceptions).
• Future-proof with PHP 8.4 fixes and SAPI expansions (e.g., embed, micro). Perfect for gating FFI-heavy logic without bloating your codebase."