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Drift Laravel Package
pestphp/drift
Pest Drift is a Pest plugin for Laravel that detects database schema drift. It compares your migrations with the live database so tests fail when schema changes happen outside migrations, helping keep environments consistent and deployments predictable.
Drifting you to Pest
Frequently asked questions about Drift
- What is pestphp/drift used for?
- The indexed package description says Pest Drift is a Pest plugin for Laravel that compares your migrations with the live database and fails tests when schema changes happen outside migrations. However, the repository name, release notes, and technical assessment describe a PHPUnit-to-Pest codemod. These are different products, so confirm the actual behavior before spending engineering time.
- How do I install Pest Drift in a Laravel project?
- The nominal integration is a Composer require-dev entry plus a console command run against a target directory. Because the package dates from 2020, a modern PHP 8.2+ and Laravel 10+ application may fail Composer resolution without constraint overrides or a fork. Run a quick composer require --dev pestphp/drift check against your real constraints before planning further.
- Does pestphp/drift support Laravel 10 or Laravel 11?
- There is no public evidence that it does. The package targets the PHP 7.2/7.3 and Laravel 6/7 era, and it is archived upstream with no compatibility work since its 2020-09-11 release. Treat Laravel 10/11 support as unproven until Composer resolution and a spike prove otherwise.
- Is pestphp/drift safe to use in production?
- It is a development-time package, so it should never be installed as a runtime dependency or reach production request paths. The practical production concern is supply-chain hygiene: an archived dev dependency will be flagged by composer audit, Dependabot, or Snyk and create recurring review noise. Keep it out of runtime and remove it if the spike does not justify ownership.
- How does Pest Drift detect database schema drift?
- If the schema-drift description is correct, it compares migration-defined schema against the live database and fails tests when they diverge. That would help catch manual database changes that make environments inconsistent. Because the documentation conflicts with the codemod description, verify whether it performs schema assertions or test-file rewriting before relying on it.
- Can Pest Drift convert PHPUnit tests to Pest safely?
- A codemod can silently mistranslate data providers, @depends annotations, setUp and tearDown lifecycle hooks, trait-based fixtures, and exception expectations. The dangerous outcome is tests that still pass while asserting less than the originals, which makes green CI misleading. High-complexity suites should not go through an unmaintained codemod without line-by-line review.
- Is pestphp/drift still maintained?
- No. The upstream repository is archived, the last release was 2020-09-11, and the package has very low adoption with zero dependents. Archived status means no CVE response, no PHP-version compatibility work, no bug fixes, and no issue triage. Any use requires a named maintainer willing to fork and own it.
- What are the best alternatives to pestphp/drift?
- For PHPUnit-to-Pest migration, Pest's first-party migration tooling and Rector-based codemods are the default candidates because they have evolved since 2020. For schema drift, prefer custom Laravel schema assertions or dedicated tests built around your migration and database workflow. Verify current maturity against your Laravel version rather than assuming a 2020 tool still fits.
- How should I evaluate pestphp/drift before adopting it?
- First resolve the documentation conflict by confirming whether it is a snapshot/schema tool or a PHPUnit-to-Pest codemod. Then run a ten-minute Composer resolution check against your actual PHP and Laravel constraints. If it resolves, spike on a branch with representative test files, diff the output, and check assertion coverage before trusting it.
- What are the biggest risks of using pestphp/drift?
- The top risk is silent semantic drift if the package is a codemod: generated tests may pass while asserting less than the originals. Abandonment is the second risk, since archived software receives no fixes or security response. Documentation that describes two different products is itself a maintenance-quality signal, so do not adopt it without a funded use case and a clear owner.
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