PHPStan
IntelliJ IDEA provides code quality check through integration with the PHPStan tool, which validates your code for consistency against a set of validation rules.
To use PHPStan from IntelliJ IDEA instead of command line, you need to register it in IntelliJ IDEA and set it up as a IntelliJ IDEA code inspection. Once installed and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA, the tool is available in any opened PHP file, and no additional steps are required to launch it. The on-the-fly code check is activated upon every update in the file thus making it easy to get rid of discovered problems.
Errors and warnings reported by PHPStan on-the-fly are highlighted in the editor. When the tool is run in the batch mode, the errors and warnings are displayed in the Problems tool window. Each message has a phpstan
prefix to distinguish it from IntelliJ IDEA internal inspections.
PHPStan integration is implemented via the open-source PHPStan plugin. This plugin is bundled with IntelliJ IDEA and is enabled by default.
Install the PHP and PHPStan Support plugins
This functionality relies on the PHP and PHPStan Support plugins that should be installed and enabled in your IDE.
The plugins are available only in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.
Press Control+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select
.Switch to the Marketplace tab and use the search field to find the PHP and PHPStan Support plugins.
Click Install and restart the IDE if prompted.
Prerequisites
Prior to integrating PHPStan in IntelliJ IDEA, make sure the following prerequisites are met:
The directory containing the PHP engine executable must be added to the system
path
. This allows code quality tool scripts execute calls to the system-wide PHP engine.For Docker Compose-based remote interpreters, make sure to use
docker-compose exec
mode to avoid spawning additional containers.In the Settings dialog (Control+Alt+S), go to .
On the PHP page that opens, click next to the CLI Interpreter list.
In the CLI Interpreters dialog that opens, set the Lifecycle mode for the selected interpreter to Connect to existing container ('docker-compose exec') .
Install and configure PHPStan
Install PHPStan with Composer
When you install PHPStan with Composer, IntelliJ IDEA automatically downloads the necessary scripts, registers them in the IDE, and, optionally, enables and configures the corresponding code inspection.
Inside composer.json, add the
phpstan/phpstan
dependency record to therequire
orrequire-dev
section. Press Control+Space to get code completion for the package name and version.Do one of the following:
Click the Install shortcut link on top of the editor panel.
If the Non-installed Composer packages inspection is enabled, IntelliJ IDEA will highlight the declared dependencies that are not currently installed. Press Alt+Enter and select whether you want to install a specific dependency or all dependencies at once.
Click next to the package record in the composer.json editor gutter to jump to the corresponding Settings page and configure PHPStan manually.
Reset PHPStan configuration
After PHPStan is initially configured, further modifications in composer.json will not affect the inspection configuration. To apply newer changes, reset the PHPStan configuration.
In the Settings dialog (Control+Alt+S), navigate to .
On the Quality Tools page that opens, expand the PHPStan area and click next to the Configuration list.
In the PHPStan dialog that opens, empty the PHPStan path field.
Update the project Composer dependencies by clicking Update on top of the composer.json editor panel. See Update dependencies for details.
IntelliJ IDEA will perform the PHPStan configuration anew and thus apply the changes in composer.json.
Configure PHPStan in IntelliJ IDEA
When you install PHPStan with Composer, IntelliJ IDEA automatically detects PHPStan's executable file in the vendor/bin
folder and sets the PHP interpreter configured in the system path to run it.
In Settings (Control+Alt+S) | , you can change the default PHP interpreter, set the path to a manually downloaded and installed PHPStan executable file, or add some options to be passed to PHPStan when running it in IntelliJ IDEA.
Configuration: in this field, you can change the default PHP interpreter and path to the PHPStan executable file.
To only change the interpreter, select the required item from the list of local and remote PHP interpreters configured in your project.
To change the path to the PHPStan executable file, or both the interpreter and the path, click next to the Configuration list to open the PHPStan dialog and edit the fields there as described on the PHPStan Dialog reference page.
Show ignored files: use this setting to exclude files from PHPStan validation inspection. For details, see the Quality Tools reference page.
Options: in this area, add the PHPStan command options to run PHPStan as a IntelliJ IDEA inspection with. Edit the fields there as described on the PHPStan reference page.
Enable PHPStan as an IntelliJ IDEA inspection
There are two ways to set up PHPStan as a IntelliJ IDEA inspection: automatically during PHPStan installation with Composer, or manually in IntelliJ IDEA's inspections settings.
Enable the PHPStan inspection with Composer
You can include the information on the PHPStan configuration file inside the scripts section of composer.json. When you install or update project dependencies, the specified configuration file will be detected and the PHPStan validation inspection will be enabled automatically.
If no configuration file is specified in the scripts
section of composer.json, IntelliJ IDEA will additionally check the project root to locate the ruleset with the phpstan.neon or phpstan.neon.dist default name.
In the
scripts
section of composer.json, add thephpstan
PHPStan launch command into one of the leaf elements.Provide the
-c
argument and the path to the configuration file:"scripts": { "phpstan": "vendor/bin/phpstan -c phpstan.neon" }
Enable PHPStan validation in Inspections settings
In the Settings dialog (Control+Alt+S), click Inspections under Editor.
On the Inspections page that opens, expand the node and select the checkbox next to PHPStan validation.
On the right-hand pane of the Inspections page, configure how IntelliJ IDEA shall handle the PHPStan inspection output:
Scope: choose the scope to limit the inspection application to.
Severity: choose the severity degree for the inspection. The selected value determines how seriously the detected discrepancies will be treated by IntelliJ IDEA and presented in the inspection results.
Highlighting in editor: choose how the issues detected by the inspection are highlighted in the editor.
Run PHPStan in the batch mode
From the main menu, select
.In the Specify Inspection Scope dialog that opens, select the inspection profile from the list, or click Configure to open the Inspections dialog and configure a new profile.
You can also click Configure to check which fixes will be applied within the scope of the selected inspection profile, and make sure that the PHPStan validation inspection is enabled.
View the inspection results in the Problems tool window. Errors and warnings reported by PHPStan are prefixed with
phpstan::
to distinguish them from IntelliJ IDEA internal inspections.
Exclude files from PHPStan Validation inspection
When waiting for PHPStan response exceeds the limit specified in the Tool process timeout field in the PHPStan dialog, IntelliJ IDEA suggests adding the file to the ignore list.
In the Settings dialog (Control+Alt+S), navigate to .
On the Quality Tools page that opens, expand the PHPStan area and click the Show ignored files link.
To add a file, click and locate the desired file in the dialog that opens.
To delete a file from the list and have PHPStan process it again, select the file and click .
To remove all the files from the list, click .