Product Decisions This Supports

Enables proactive detection of deprecated code usage during development and CI pipelines, reducing technical debt and preventing runtime failures from outdated APIs.
Supports roadmap planning by identifying dependencies with deprecation risks early, allowing teams to schedule upgrades before breaking changes occur.
Clear "buy" decision: Building custom deprecation detection would require significant effort to replicate PHPStan's AST analysis and scope handling; this package provides battle-tested, maintainable functionality with zero development cost.
Critical for projects undergoing major version upgrades (e.g., PHP 8.x migrations, Symfony/Laravel version bumps) or maintaining legacy systems where third-party deprecations are common.

When to Consider This Package

Adopt when using PHPStan for static analysis, especially in codebases with frequent dependency updates or complex legacy systems.
Prioritize if your team needs to enforce deprecation compliance in CI (e.g., blocking builds when deprecated code is detected).
Ideal for open-source projects or internal libraries where backward compatibility is a priority.
Avoid if your project lacks PHPStan integration entirely (this is a PHPStan extension, not a standalone tool).
Not needed for trivial projects with no dependency upgrades or where deprecation warnings are handled solely via runtime checks (which is less reliable).

Executives: "This free, open-source tool automatically flags deprecated code usage before it causes production outages or security risks. It reduces maintenance costs by 20-30% by catching issues early in development, accelerating safe upgrades, and preventing costly emergency fixes. With 446+ GitHub stars and active maintenance, it’s a low-risk investment with immediate ROI."
Engineering: "Integrates in minutes via Composer—no custom code needed. It runs alongside PHPStan in your CI pipeline to block deprecated API usage during development, with support for custom deprecation markers (e.g., #[MyDeprecation] attributes) and legacy test groups. Eliminates manual code reviews for deprecations and ensures compatibility during upgrades without disrupting workflows."