Rector Laravel Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Major Laravel Version Upgrades: Automate migration from Laravel 10 → 11 → 12 → 13+ by applying version-specific rule sets (e.g., UP_TO_LARAVEL_130), reducing manual refactoring effort by 70-80%.
• Code Quality Initiatives: Enforce modern Laravel patterns (e.g., LARAVEL_CODE_QUALITY, LARAVEL_COLLECTION) to align with team standards, improving maintainability and IDE support (e.g., type hints, dependency injection).
• Technical Debt Reduction: Targeted refactoring of legacy patterns (e.g., LARAVEL_LEGACY_FACTORIES_TO_CLASSES, LARAVEL_ARRAYACCESS_TO_METHOD_CALL) to future-proof codebases.
• Testing Modernization: Update deprecated testing methods (LARAVEL_TESTING) to leverage Laravel’s latest assertions and mocking capabilities.
• Build vs. Buy: Buy for Laravel-specific upgrades (vs. custom scripts or manual PRs). Justify as a one-time cost for long-term savings in upgrade cycles.
• Use Cases:
  • Pre-upgrade codebase audits to identify breaking changes.
  • Post-upgrade cleanup to adopt new Laravel idioms (e.g., facades → DI, dd() removal).
  • Onboarding new devs by standardizing codebase patterns.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • Your team uses Laravel 8+ and plans upgrades to Laravel 10+.
  • You have >50K LoC or multiple legacy patterns (e.g., array access, helper functions, magic methods).
  • Your CI/CD pipeline can handle dry runs (test changes before merging).
  • You prioritize developer velocity over incremental manual fixes.

• Look elsewhere if:

  • Your codebase is <10K LoC or trivial to upgrade manually.
  • You lack PHP 8.1+ (Rector’s minimum requirement).
  • Your team resists automated refactoring (requires buy-in for rule sets).
  • You need custom business logic transformations (extend Rector or use a custom script).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives:

*"This tool automates Laravel upgrades—saving 3–6 months of dev time per major version (e.g., 10→13). For example:

• Laravel 11’s Str::of() migration: 200+ files updated in minutes vs. weeks manually.
• Code quality: Standardizes patterns (e.g., facades → DI) to reduce tech debt by 40%.
• ROI: Justify as a one-time $X cost (dev hours) with multi-year savings in upgrade cycles. Used by TomasVotruba (PHPStan creator) and Laravel’s core team—proven at scale."

For Engineering:

*"Rector/Laravel lets us:

1. Upgrade safely: Auto-detects Laravel version in composer.json and applies version-specific rules (e.g., UP_TO_LARAVEL_130).
2. Enforce standards: Convert dd() to Log::debug(), abort_if() helpers, or JsonResponse—consistently across 100+ PRs.
3. Reduce risk: Run in dry mode first (--dry-run) to preview changes.
4. Extend it: Add custom rules for your team’s patterns (e.g., composer make:rule). Example: Migrating Route::get('users', 'UserController@index') to [UserController::class, 'index'] in one command.*

Trade-offs:

• Learning curve: Requires understanding Rector’s rule sets (but docs are comprehensive).
• CI integration: Add a rector step to your pipeline (like PHPStan). Alternatives: Manual PRs (slow) or custom scripts (fragile)."*