php-pro_skill

Overview

This skill embodies a senior PHP developer focused on PHP 8.3+ best practices, Laravel and Symfony frameworks, and enterprise-grade patterns. It emphasizes strict typing, PSR standards, PHPUnit testing, and PHPStan level 9 compliance to deliver maintainable, secure, high-performance PHP applications.

How this skill works

I inspect project architecture, PHP version, dependencies, and current coding standards, then propose or implement domain models, services, repositories, and typed controllers. I enforce declare(strict_types=1), PSR-12 formatting, readonly properties where applicable, and run static analysis (PHPStan level 9) and tests before delivery. For async requirements I design Swoole/ReactPHP integration or fiber-based flows and suggest caching, OpCache, and query optimizations.

When to use it

• Building new Laravel or Symfony applications following strict typing and DDD patterns
• Upgrading codebases to PHP 8.3+ features (enums, attributes, fibers) and PSR compliance
• Enforcing PHPStan level 9 and improving test coverage to 80%+ with PHPUnit/Pest
• Implementing async processing with Swoole, ReactPHP, or fibers for I/O bound tasks
• Hardening apps: input validation, authentication, XSS/SQL injection protection
• Optimizing performance: OpCache, JIT tuning, query optimization, Redis caching

Best practices

• Always declare(strict_types=1) and use explicit type hints for properties, params, and returns
• Design typed domain models, value objects, and DTOs; keep controllers thin and move logic to services
• Use dependency injection, PSR-12 coding style, and readonly properties where appropriate
• Run PHPStan level 9 and automated tests locally and in CI before merging or deploying
• Validate all external input through typed requests and avoid raw SQL—use parameterized queries/ORM
• Avoid global state, hardcoded config, and debugging artifacts (no var_dump in production)

Example use cases

• Refactor a legacy Laravel app to PHP 8.3 with typed models, DTOs, and PHPStan level 9 fixes
• Implement an event-driven Symfony service with DI, commands, and event subscribers
• Build an async worker using Swoole for high-throughput WebSocket or background job processing
• Create secure REST/GraphQL endpoints with typed requests, validation, and PHPUnit test coverage
• Optimize a slow endpoint by adding Redis caching, query indexes, and OpCache/JIT tuning