Composer Script Names Laravel Package

Getting Started

Start by reading the README and understanding the standardized script naming conventions it defines. This package is not a library you install—it’s a specification published under the PHP-DSG (PHP Development Standards Group). To adopt it:

1. Add compliant script names to your composer.json under the "scripts" section.
2. Use the standard names like test, test-coverage, cs-fix, analyse, check, and test-* for specialized workflows.
3. Configure your CI/CD and local dev environments to rely on these predictable names for consistency across projects.
   Your first use case: Replace ad-hoc script names (e.g., phpunit, php-cs-fixer) with test and cs-fix to align with community expectations.

Implementation Patterns

• Standard workflows: Embed standard script names in your composer.json:

  {
    "scripts": {
      "test": "phpunit",
      "test-coverage": "phpunit --coverage-html storage/coverage",
      "cs-fix": "php-cs-fixer fix",
      "analyse": "phpstan analyse src",
      "check": ["cs-fix", "analyse", "test"]
    }
  }
  

• Extensibility: For project-specific test variants, use test-* (e.g., "test-integration": "phpunit tests/Integration"). Prefix test- avoids ambiguity and follows Pascal’s Casing convention (via dash separation).
• Tool agnosticism: The spec intentionally doesn’t mandate tooling—use PHPUnit, Pest, PHPStan, Rector, PHP-CS-Fixer, etc., as long as the script name matches the purpose.
• Team/organization adoption: Define a team-wide composer.json template or scaffolding script (e.g., via Composer’s create-project) that enforces compliant scripts by default.

Gotchas and Tips

• Case matters: Test or cs_Fix violate the spec—Composer itself is case-insensitive on Windows but scripts must be lower-case per spec for cross-platform reliability.
• Avoid colons/underscores: test:unit or cs_fix are non-compliant—only dashes (-) are allowed as word separators.
• analyse vs analyze: Choose one spelling consistently across your org. Use analyze for American English projects, analyse for British/Irish/Australian alignment. Don’t define both unless explicitly supporting dual spelling in a shared toolchain (not recommended).
• CLI caching: Composer caches script existence. After renaming a script (e.g., phpunit → test), run composer dump-autoload or clear Composer’s cache (composer clear-cache) to avoid stale autocomplete.
• IDE integration: PhpStorm and VS Code (with PHP Intelephense) respect composer.json scripts. Rename your scripts to match the spec for smoother “Run Script” integrations and keymap bindings.
• CI compatibility: Ensure your CI config (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.) uses composer test, composer check, etc.—not hardcoded commands like ./vendor/bin/phpunit. This future-proofs your pipeline.