Phpstan Shim Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Legacy System Sunset: Justifies discontinuing reliance on phpstan/phpstan-shim in favor of modernizing to phpstan/phpstan (PHAR-based), eliminating a deprecated dependency and reducing technical debt.
• Toolchain Standardization: Aligns with roadmap items to adopt native PHPStan (v0.12+) across all projects, removing fragmentation between legacy and modern setups.
• Cost Savings: Eliminates maintenance overhead for a forked or outdated shim, redirecting resources to active tooling.
• Security & Compliance: Ensures all PHP projects use a supported, actively maintained version of PHPStan, reducing vulnerabilities from unpatched dependencies.

When to Consider This Package

Do NOT adopt this package (it is obsolete).

• Only relevant for immediate migration: If currently using phpstan/phpstan-shim, upgrade to phpstan/phpstan (v0.12+) immediately to avoid compatibility risks.
• Avoid for new projects: Use phpstan/phpstan directly (PHAR-based) for all new or existing projects.
• Legacy systems: If stuck on PHP < 7.2, evaluate whether PHPStan’s PHAR support resolves dependency issues natively—otherwise, prioritize upgrading PHP versions.
• Alternatives: Prefer:
  • phpstan/phpstan (v0.12+) for all use cases.
  • phpstan/extension-installer for dependency management in CI/CD.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package (phpstan/phpstan-shim) is now obsolete—PHPStan has fully transitioned to a PHAR distribution (v0.12+), eliminating the need for the shim. Upgrading to the new version is a low-risk, high-reward move: it removes a deprecated dependency, standardizes our toolchain, and improves security. I recommend sunsetting the shim entirely and migrating all projects to the official PHAR-based PHPStan. This aligns with our modernization goals and reduces technical debt."

For Engineering: *"Stop using phpstan/phpstan-shim—it’s dead. PHPStan 0.12+ now uses a PHAR file natively, so the shim is redundant. Migrate by:

1. Replacing phpstan/phpstan-shim with "phpstan/phpstan": "^0.12" in composer.json.
2. Clearing composer.lock and vendor/phpstan/.
3. Running composer install. This is a one-time cleanup—afterward, all projects use the same, supported PHPStan version. No more shim maintenance."*