Coding Standard Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Consistency & Maintainability: Enforces a standardized coding style across PHP/Laravel projects, reducing onboarding friction for new developers and improving code readability.
• Team Alignment: Aligns with Instaclick’s internal standards (Symfony2 + Object Calisthenics), ensuring adherence to best practices like Object Calisthenics (e.g., small methods, no getters/setters) and Symfony’s PSR-12 conventions.
• Automation in CI/CD: Integrates with PHP_CodeSniffer to automate style checks, catching violations early in the pipeline (e.g., Git hooks, pre-commit, or CI).
• Technical Debt Reduction: Proactively prevents drift from agreed-upon standards, reducing future refactoring costs.
• Build vs. Buy: Avoids reinventing a custom sniffer from scratch; leverages existing, battle-tested rulesets (Symfony2 + Object Calisthenics) with minimal overhead.
• Laravel-Specific Use Cases:
  • Enforcing blank lines before if statements (e.g., in controllers/services) for consistency with Laravel’s idiomatic style.
  • Aligning with Object Calisthenics to encourage cleaner Laravel architecture (e.g., smaller classes, fewer dependencies).
• Roadmap Enabler: Foundation for future tooling (e.g., IDE plugins, static analysis) if the team adopts stricter coding guidelines.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • Your team already uses Symfony2 or Laravel and values Object Calisthenics principles (e.g., small methods, avoid getters/setters).
  • You need lightweight, PHP_CodeSniffer-compatible standards with minimal setup (no heavy frameworks like PHPStan).
  • Your project prioritizes consistency over strictness (e.g., not enforcing PSR-12 rigidly but adding Instaclick-specific tweaks like blank lines before if).
  • You’re early in the project lifecycle and want to prevent style drift before it becomes costly.

• Look elsewhere if:

  • Your team uses PSR-12 strictly and doesn’t need Instaclick’s custom rules (e.g., blank-line sniffs).
  • You require advanced static analysis (e.g., type safety, security checks) → consider PHPStan, Psalm, or Pint.
  • Your codebase is already highly inconsistent and needs a full rewrite before enforcing standards.
  • You’re not using PHP_CodeSniffer → this package is sniffer-only (no CLI tooling included).
  • Your team resists prescriptive coding standards (e.g., prefers "team consensus" over tooling).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives:

*"This is a low-cost, high-impact way to standardize our PHP/Laravel codebase. By adopting Instaclick’s coding standard—built on Symfony’s and Object Calisthenics principles—we’ll:

• Reduce bugs and tech debt by catching style issues early (via CI/CD).
• Speed up onboarding with consistent, automated checks (no more ‘why is this formatted like that?’ debates).
• Align with best practices (e.g., smaller, focused classes) without heavy tooling overhead. It’s a 10-minute setup that pays dividends in maintainability—think of it as ‘Git for code style.’"*

For Engineering:

*"This gives us:

• Symfony2 + Object Calisthenics rules out of the box (e.g., no getters/setters, small methods) to push cleaner Laravel architecture.
• Custom sniffs like blank lines before if statements to match our team’s preferences.
• Zero maintenance—it’s a drop-in PHP_CodeSniffer standard. Just add it to your composer.json and CI, and it’ll auto-enforce our style. Best for teams that want lightweight but opinionated standards without the complexity of PHPStan or Psalm."*

For Developers:

*"Tired of style nitpicks blocking PRs? This package:

• Auto-fixes many formatting issues (e.g., blank lines before if).
• Enforces Object Calisthenics (e.g., ‘no getters’), which actually makes Laravel code cleaner.
• Works with your existing tools (PHP_CodeSniffer, IDEs like PHPStorm). Just run phpcs locally or in CI, and it’ll keep your code consistent with the team’s standards—no more ‘but my IDE formats it differently’ excuses."*