Coding Standard Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Enforce Consistent Code Quality: Adopt a standardized coding style across PHP/Laravel projects to reduce onboarding friction, improve maintainability, and minimize merge conflicts. This aligns with engineering best practices for scalable teams.
• Automate Refactoring: Shift manual code review efforts to automated fixes (e.g., docblock corrections, array formatting) via CI/CD pipelines, freeing developers for higher-value work.
• Leverage ECS for Future-Proofing: Migrate from this package to ECS (Easy Coding Standard) as the long-term solution, given its broader rule set and active maintenance. Use this as a stepping stone to adopt ECS company-wide.
• Onboarding & Documentation: Reduce repetitive documentation tasks (e.g., fixing PhpStorm-generated comments) to improve developer velocity.
• Build vs. Buy: Buy this lightweight, pre-configured solution instead of building custom linting rules, saving engineering time and reducing technical debt.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • Your team uses PHP/Laravel and lacks a standardized coding style.
  • You want zero-configuration enforcement of 23+ rules (e.g., array formatting, docblock fixes, spacing).
  • You’re already using ECS (Easy Coding Standard) and want to supplement it with Symplify’s rules.
  • Your CI/CD pipeline needs automated fixes for common PHP style issues (e.g., PhpStorm-generated clutter, misaligned arrays).
  • You prioritize maintainability over customization (e.g., no need for bespoke rules).

• Look elsewhere if:

  • You need active maintenance: This package is deprecated in favor of ECS. Migrate to ECS instead.
  • Your team requires highly customized rules: ECS supports more granular configuration.
  • You’re not using PHP 7.4+ (some rules may not apply or could introduce compatibility issues).
  • You prefer PSR-12 over Symplify’s conventions (ECS supports PSR standards natively).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives:

"This package automates 90% of our PHP code style enforcement—no more manual reviews for formatting, docblocks, or PhpStorm clutter. By integrating it into our CI pipeline, we’ll cut onboarding time by 30% and reduce merge conflicts. It’s a low-lift, high-impact way to standardize our codebase, with zero upfront cost. We’ll phase it into ECS later for long-term scalability."

For Engineering:

"Symplify’s coding standard gives us 23 automated fixes (e.g., array alignment, docblock corrections) with one command. It’s a drop-in replacement for manual linting and pairs perfectly with ECS. Example: It’ll auto-fix PhpStorm’s ‘Created by PhpStorm’ comments and reformat arrays for better git diffs. We can run it in CI as a pre-commit hook or via ecs --fix to clean up codebases. Since it’s deprecated in favor of ECS, we’ll use this as a bridge to adopt ECS company-wide."

For Developers:

*"No more arguing about code style—this tool auto-formats your PHP/Laravel code to a consistent standard. It handles:

• Arrays: One item per line, proper alignment.
• Docblocks: Fixes typos, removes redundant names, and cleans up PhpStorm noise.
• Spacing: Method chaining, constructor params, and promoted properties. Just run vendor/bin/ecs --fix, and it’ll handle the rest. It’s like a PHP beautifier on steroids."*