PHP Modernization Skill

Expert patterns for modernizing PHP applications to PHP 8.x with type safety, Symfony best practices, and static analysis compliance.

🔌 Compatibility

This is an Agent Skill following the open standard originally developed by Anthropic and released for cross-platform use.

Supported Platforms:

• ✅ Claude Code (Anthropic)
• ✅ Cursor
• ✅ GitHub Copilot
• ✅ Other skills-compatible AI agents

Skills are portable packages of procedural knowledge that work across any AI agent supporting the Agent Skills specification.

Features

• PHP 8.x Features: Constructor property promotion, readonly properties and classes, named arguments, enums and match expressions, attributes (replacing annotations), union and intersection types, nullsafe operator
• Type Safety Patterns: Generic collection typing via PHPDoc, ArrayTypeHelper for type-safe array operations, strict typing enforcement, PHPStan level 9+ compliance, runtime type validation
• Symfony Integration: Dependency injection patterns, service configuration (YAML → PHP), event dispatcher and PSR-14, form handling modernization, security component updates
• Static Analysis: PHPStan level 9 configuration and compliance strategies
• Migration Strategies: Version upgrade planning and systematic modernization approaches

Installation

Option 1: Via Netresearch Marketplace (Recommended)

/plugin marketplace add netresearch/claude-code-marketplace

Option 2: Download Release

Download the latest release and extract to ~/.claude/skills/php-modernization-skill/

Option 3: Composer (PHP projects)

composer require netresearch/agent-php-modernization-skill

Requires: netresearch/composer-agent-skill-plugin

Usage

This skill is automatically triggered when:

• Modernizing PHP codebases to PHP 8.1/8.2/8.3
• Implementing type safety and strict typing
• Adopting Symfony best practices
• Achieving PHPStan level 9+ compliance
• Upgrading from older PHP versions
• Implementing generic collection patterns

Example queries:

• "Modernize this PHP class to PHP 8.2"
• "Add strict type safety with PHPStan level 9"
• "Convert YAML service configuration to PHP"
• "Implement readonly class with constructor promotion"
• "Create type-safe array helper with generics"

Structure

php-modernization-skill/
├── SKILL.md                              # Skill metadata and core patterns
├── references/
│   ├── php8-features.md                  # PHP 8.0-8.4 feature adoption patterns
│   ├── type-safety.md                    # Type system maximization strategies
│   ├── symfony-patterns.md               # Modern Symfony architecture
│   ├── phpstan-compliance.md             # Static analysis configuration
│   └── migration-strategies.md           # Version upgrade planning
└── scripts/
    └── verify-php-project.sh             # Verification script

Expertise Areas

PHP 8.x Features

• Constructor property promotion
• Readonly properties and classes
• Named arguments
• Enums and match expressions
• Attributes (replacing annotations)
• Union and intersection types
• Nullsafe operator

Type Safety Patterns

• Generic collection typing via PHPDoc
• ArrayTypeHelper for type-safe array operations
• Strict typing enforcement
• PHPStan level 9+ compliance
• Runtime type validation

Symfony Integration

• Dependency injection patterns
• Service configuration (YAML → PHP)
• Event dispatcher and PSR-14
• Form handling modernization
• Security component updates

Migration Checklist

PHP Version Upgrade

• Update composer.json PHP requirement
• Enable strict_types in all files
• Replace annotations with attributes
• Convert to constructor property promotion
• Use readonly where applicable
• Replace switch with match expressions
• Adopt enums for status/type constants
• Update PHPStan to highest stable level

Type Safety Enhancement

• Add return types to all methods
• Add parameter types to all methods
• Use union types instead of mixed
• Implement ArrayTypeHelper for collections
• Add @template annotations for generics
• Remove @var annotations where inferrable
• Configure PHPStan strict rules

Related Skills

• security-audit-skill: Security patterns for PHP applications
• typo3-testing-skill: PHPUnit patterns (applicable to any PHP project)

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

Credits

Developed and maintained by Netresearch DTT GmbH.

---

Made with ❤️ for Open Source by Netresearch