Rector Prefixed Laravel Package

Getting Started

This package is a frozen (archived, April 2021) prefixed + PHP 7.1 downgraded build of Rector. It exists for one reason: letting you run Rector in environments where installing rector/rector directly is impossible — old PHP runtimes, or projects with dependency trees that conflict with Rector's own bundled Symfony/PHPStan versions. If neither constraint applies, do not start here — install rector/rector or the rector.phar instead.

Minimal setup:

composer require --dev rector/rector-prefixed

Create rector.php in the project root:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Rector\Core\Configuration\Option;
use Rector\Set\ValueObject\SetList;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator\ContainerConfigurator;

return static function (ContainerConfigurator $containerConfigurator): void {
    $containerConfigurator->import(SetList::CODE_QUALITY);

    $parameters = $containerConfigurator->parameters();
    $parameters->set(Option::PATHS, [__DIR__ . '/src']);
};

First use case — a safe dry run on one directory:

vendor/bin/rector process src --dry-run

Look first at: vendor/bin/rector (the binary), the generated rector.php, and the .cache/rector directory Rector creates. Then run vendor/bin/rector list to confirm which sets this old build actually ships with — the set list is a 2021 snapshot and will not match current docs.

Implementation Patterns

Upgrade-in-place with a pinned set. The most common pattern is importing a SetList::PHP_XX set that targets the PHP version of the host environment. Because this build is downgraded to PHP 7.1, sets above PHP_74/PHP_80 may be absent or incomplete. Pin the config to the highest set that is actually present when you run vendor/bin/rector list.

Run as a one-shot migration, then remove. Since the package is archived, treat it as a temporary codemod, not a permanent CI tool. Typical workflow:

1. Branch.
2. Run vendor/bin/rector process src (without --dry-run).
3. Review the diff, commit, run tests.
4. If satisfied, either keep it for a while or drop the dependency and move to standalone Rector.

Isolate it from the runtime dependency tree. Because this build is prefixed, its internal vendor libraries (Symfony, PHPStan, etc.) live under prefixed namespaces. That is its entire value: you can install it into a project where a normal Rector install would collide with your framework's locked Symfony version. Lean on that — don't try to share code between your app and Rector's internals.

Integrate as a Composer script, not a global binary.

{
  "scripts": {
    "rector:check": "rector process src --dry-run --no-progress-bar",
    "rector:fix": "rector process src"
  }
}

Batch multiple directories with per-path sets. You can configure separate paths and even separate rule sets per path in older Rector versions using Option::PATHS and conditional container configuration. A pragmatic pattern here: run SetList::CODE_QUALITY on src/ but exclude tests/ and migrations/ via Option::SKIP.

Use --dry-run in CI and full processing locally. The archived build has less reliable change-detection caching than modern versions, so always validate dry-run output before letting it rewrite files in a pipeline.

Extension via custom rules — limited. The prefixed build makes writing custom AbstractRector subclasses fragile because your rule's use Rector\... imports may resolve to a different class identity than the one the prefixed binary loads. If you must write custom rules, keep them in a separate Composer autoload namespace and test them explicitly with vendor/bin/rector process --dry-run, checking that the rule actually reports changes. If no changes appear, the rule was not registered — a common prefixed-build symptom.

Gotchas and Tips

It is archived — no new rules, no new PHP version support. The last release is 2021-04-09. Anything introduced to Rector after that (new sets, PHP 8.1/8.2 rules, performance fixes, bugfixes for newer Symfony versions) is simply not there. Use it only as a stopgap; the opportunity cost of staying on it is high. Migrate to current Rector via PHAR or a scoped install.

Prefixed ≠ compatible with your custom rules. The prefixing that makes the tool install-safe is also what breaks custom rule authoring: your rule file autoloads unprefixed Rector\ classes, while the binary runs prefixed internals. Symptoms include rules silently not firing, or Class not found for Rector\Core\... types. Debugging path: run with -vvv, confirm the rule appears in vendor/bin/rector list-adjacent diagnostics, and verify the rule class is registered in your set/config.

Downgraded to PHP 7.1 — some PHP 7.2+ syntax rules behave differently. Because the parser/runtime targets 7.1, transformations involving newer syntax (arrow functions, typed properties in some contexts, ??=, etc.) may be skipped or produce partial output. If you need PHP 7.4+ modernisation, this package is the wrong tool — its own downgrade constraint limits what it can safely rewrite.

Composer may silently pick the wrong package. Both rector/rector and rector/rector-prefixed install a rector binary at vendor/bin/rector. If both end up in the tree (e.g., transitively), the binary you invoke may not be the one you think. Verify with vendor/bin/router --version or inspect vendor/bin/rector symlink target. Prefer explicit composer require --dev rector/rector-prefixed and run composer why rector/rector to confirm the plain package isn't also present.

Caching confusion. Rector caches files under .cache/rector. After configuration changes, a stale cache can make it look like rules "aren't firing." Fix: delete .cache/rector and re-run. This is a frequent false alarm with the aged prefixed build because its cache invalidation logic predates several modern fixes.

Config format is the old one. This build uses ContainerConfigurator closure-style rector.php, not the newer fluent config. Copying a modern config from current docs (using RectorConfig, ->withPaths(), ->withSets()) will fail with this package. Always cross-check against docs mirrored to the 2021 timeframe.

CI integration pitfalls. The archived build has no --no-interaction-stable guarantees in newer setups, and its exit codes on dry-run changes are less polished than current Rector. Do not rely on exit code alone for gating — parse the --dry-run output for "would have changed" markers if you need CI enforcement.

Extension points worth knowing. Useful options exposed via $parameters: Option::PATHS, Option::SKIP, Option::AUTO_IMPORT_NAMES, Option::IMPORT_SHORT_CLASSES, Option::FILE_EXTENSIONS. Use Option::SKIP aggressively — a 2021 Rector build is more likely to touch files you didn't intend (fixtures, generated code) than current versions.

Escape hatch — use the PHAR. If prefixing conflicts are the reason you chose this package, note that rector.phar from the matching era gives similar isolation without the custom-rule fragility. Given the package is archived, moving to the PHAR for one more migration and then to rector/rector with --with-dependencies is the pragmatic progression. Don't build long-term workflows on the prefixed package.