Psysh Bundle Laravel Package

Getting Started

First, the important context: theofidry/psysh-bundle is a Symfony bundle, not a Laravel package. It registers PsySH as a Symfony console command (bin/console psysh) so you get a REPL wired to the booted Symfony kernel. Laravel already ships laravel/tinker, which is itself a thin wrapper around psy/psysh. For day-to-day Laravel work you will almost never install this — the equivalent is already in your composer.json. The realistic scenarios where you touch this package are:

1. You maintain a Symfony app in the same monorepo/company.
2. You are porting logic between Symfony and Laravel and want a comparable REPL to reason about services.
3. You need PsySH outside both frameworks and are looking at how a framework integrates it.

Minimal steps (Symfony side):

composer require --dev theofidry/psysh-bundle

Register the bundle:

• Symfony 3/4 (legacy AppKernel): add new PsyshBundle\PsyshBundle() to registerBundles().
• Symfony 4+/Flex: add to config/bundles.php.

Then:

bin/console psysh

Where to look first:

• bin/console psysh --help — exposes --config, and startup options.
• The bundle's DependencyInjection/Configuration.php source for the psysh: config tree (this is the authoritative list, docs are thin).
• For Laravel people: vendor/laravel/tinker and config/tinker.php — that is your "equivalent package."

First use case (whichever framework, same idea): boot the app, then introspect live objects without editing code:

$container->get('some.service');   // Symfony
app('some.service');               // Laravel Tinker

Implementation Patterns

Kernel-aware introspection (the actual value of the bundle). The REPL boots the Symfony kernel, so $container, $kernel, and any service you can name are live. This is the daily-use pattern: resolve a service, poke at it, reproduce a bug, exit. The Laravel analogue is resolving from app() in Tinker.

Configuration via the bundle config tree. Rather than a .psysh.php scattered in the project root, configure through config/packages/psysh.yml (or config.yml for older Symfony):

psysh: ~
# typical knobs you'll find in Configuration.php:
#   configFile:       point at a custom .psysh.php
#   startupMessage:   banner shown on boot
#   updateCheck:      "never" to stop the network call

Custom casters / commands. PsySH's extension points (custom casters, custom commands) can be registered so they are loaded on every bin/console psysh invocation — this is where the bundle earns its keep over calling vendor/bin/psysh bare, because casters can be made container-aware. In Laravel, register casters through tinker.php's commands/alias arrays or a config/psysh.php if you wire psy/psysh yourself.

Debugging workflow. Use the REPL to reproduce a failing service call by hand: fetch the service, call the method that blew up, inspect the exception and the object graph. This is faster than adding dump() + re-request, and it mirrors what php artisan tinker gives you in Laravel.

CI / production safety. Install --dev only. The REPL is an interactive tool; it should never be present in a production build. If you are auditing a Symfony app, confirm the bundle is in require-dev, not require.

Laravel-native equivalents to reach for instead:

php artisan tinker
# or, for a bare PsySH without the framework, install psy/psysh directly:
composer require --dev psy/psysh
vendor/bin/psysh

Customize Tinker in config/tinker.php (aliases, dont_alias, commands). That is the "implementation pattern" a Laravel developer should internalize — the Symfony bundle is not the tool here.

Gotchas and Tips

• It is archived and unmaintained. Last release 2021-12-29. Expect no Symfony 6/7 or PHP 8.2+ fixes. Pin versions and treat it as frozen; do not build new automation on it. The 2.04 score and 0 dependents reflect this.
• Wrong framework. composer require theofidry/psysh-bundle in a Laravel app will not register a service provider and will not give you an Artisan command. Laravel's container/service-provider model is incompatible with Symfony bundle registration. Don't confuse the two.
• You already have this in Laravel. laravel/tinker (psy/psysh) is included by default. Adding this bundle is redundant at best.
• Network calls on boot. PsySH's update checker phones home on startup; in restricted or air-gapped environments this stalls the REPL. Disable it (updateCheck: never style config, or via your .psysh.php).
• Config file location quirks. PsySH looks for .psysh.php in the current working directory; the bundle lets you point at a specific file. If your casters aren't loading, verify which config file is actually being read — a stray .psysh.php in $HOME or the project root will shadow expectations.
• Kernel boot failures surface as REPL crashes. If bin/console psysh dies immediately, the underlying Symfony kernel failed to boot (bad env var, cache warm-up issue). Reproduce with any other bin/console command first to isolate whether it's PsySH or the app.
• Extension points are the reason to keep it. If you are stuck maintaining a Symfony app on this bundle, centralize custom casters/commands in bundle config rather than ad-hoc .psysh.php files, so every developer gets the same REPL. That is the pattern worth porting conceptually to config/tinker.php on Laravel.
• Migration path. For Symfony teams, the modern approach is to run PsySH directly (vendor/bin/psysh) or use the maintained symfony/maker/var-dumper tooling. For Laravel teams, standardize on Tinker config and skip this bundle entirely.