Drupaltools Phpcs

PHPCS - Check and Fix Coding Standards

Run PHPCS in the project and resolve the violations it reports.

When to Use

• "Run phpcs"
• "Run phpcs and fix the errors"
• "Check coding standards and fix them"
• "Lint my code with phpcs"
• "Fix the phpcs violations"

Step 1 - Detect DDEV

The PHPCS command may need to run inside DDEV. Before running anything, make sure you are at the project root (the folder containing vendor/), then check whether the project uses DDEV:

[ -f .ddev/config.yaml ] && echo "uses_ddev" || echo "no_ddev"

• If uses_ddev, prefix every command in this skill with ddev exec.
• If no_ddev, run every command directly with no prefix.

# With DDEV
ddev exec vendor/bin/phpcs

# Without DDEV
vendor/bin/phpcs

Step 2 - Run PHPCS

Run the command and capture the full output:

vendor/bin/phpcs

If PHPCS is not installed, install it first (use the same prefix from Step 1):

composer require --dev drupal/coder

Step 3 - Read the violations

PHPCS groups violations per file and lists each one with a line number, severity (ERROR/WARNING), and a fixable flag:

FILE: src/Controller/MyController.php
FOUND 2 ERRORS AFFECTING 2 LINES
 15 | ERROR | [x] Line exceeds 80 characters
 42 | ERROR | [ ] Missing function docblock

[x] means PHPCS can auto-fix it. [ ] means a manual fix is required.

Step 4 - Fix the violations

Auto-fix everything fixable first with PHPCBF (same prefix rules):

vendor/bin/phpcbf

Then fix the remaining [ ] violations manually, one file at a time. Common ones:

For each violation, open the file at the reported line, apply the fix, and move on. Read each file before editing.

Step 5 - Re-run until clean

Run PHPCS again. Repeat Step 4 until the run reports 0 errors. Stop when output says "No violations found" or shows a clean file list.

Finish with a short summary: files changed, errors fixed, warnings remaining.