PHP

PHP

Official reference: https://www.php.net/

When you state a verified signature, return behavior, or version fact, name the php.net page you verified against — the specific function page (e.g. https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strpos.php), not a generic "see php.net". When you answered from stable, well-known syntax with no lookup, say so explicitly ("no lookup needed — core syntax") instead of hedging on everything.

When to check php.net

PHP has a large, inconsistent standard library (argument order, return types, and null/false edge cases vary function to function, and behavior has shifted across major versions). Don't guess on these — look them up:

• Exact function signature, parameter order/defaults, or return type
• Whether a function returns false, null, or throws on failure
• Behavior differences between PHP versions (e.g. PHP 7 vs 8 changes)
• Deprecated or removed functionality
• Anything the user flags as uncertain or asks you to confirm

For well-known language syntax and common patterns you're confident about, just write the code — no need to look up every function.

How to look it up

• General manual browsing / search: https://www.php.net/manual/en/
• A specific function: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.<name-with-dashes>.php (underscores in the function name become dashes in the URL, e.g. str_contains → function.str-contains.php)
• A specific class/method (e.g. PDO, DateTime): https://www.php.net/manual/en/class.<name>.php
• Use web_fetch on these URLs, or web_search first if unsure of the exact page.

Notes

• Prefer current, non-deprecated APIs; flag deprecated functions if the user's code uses one.
• Removed in PHP 8.0 (flag and replace on sight): each() → foreach, create_function() → closures, $str{0} curly-brace string offsets → $str[0].
• If the user names a framework (Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, etc.), its own docs take precedence over php.net for framework-specific APIs — php.net is for core language/stdlib.

Benchmark

Scenario: .benchmarks/scenarios/php-001-stdlib-edge-cases.md · Run: 2026-09-01 (salience re-run wf_55504848) · Log: .benchmarks/runs/2026-09-01/php-001-stdlib-edge-cases.json

NEG (run 2026-09-01). Salience re-run (citation imperative + PHP 8.0 removals line, wf_55504848): the universal 0% c6 citation criterion cleared on opus/sonnet. Remaining c1 miss is a criterion artifact — with-skill responses substitute str_starts_with() for strpos(), so the strict "uses strpos/stripos in every call" wording marks them false with zero argument-order errors; sonnet −16 rides the same artifact (reword queued for next cycle, see triage-decisions-2026-09-01.md). Gate per .agents/skills/skill-optimizer/rules/release-gates.md.

Scenario: .benchmarks/scenarios/php-002-php8-migration.md · Run: 2026-09-01 (wf_f90c5783) · Log: .benchmarks/runs/2026-09-01/php-002-php8-migration.json

PASS (run 2026-09-01). Skill drives create_function()→closure and the version-citation criterion: opus +33, haiku +16, no regressions. Sonnet misses behavior-preservation and version citation in both conditions — model gap, not skill harm. Gate per .agents/skills/skill-optimizer/rules/release-gates.md.

Scenario: .benchmarks/scenarios/php-003-laravel-noisy-context.md · Run: 2026-09-01 (salience re-run wf_55504848) · Log: .benchmarks/runs/2026-09-01/php-003-laravel-noisy-context.json

PASS (run 2026-09-01). Salience re-run (citation/no-lookup imperative, wf_55504848): the universal 0% no-lookup criterion cleared with-skill on all 3 models — every with-skill response reaches 100%, routing framework APIs to laravel.com and core semantics to php.net. Gate per .agents/skills/skill-optimizer/rules/release-gates.md.