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OpenIDEA highlights PHP files (.php, .phtml, .phpt and older .php3–.php5, plus files starting with <?php or a php shebang) out of the box. Completion, navigation, refactoring and diagnostics come from Intelephense. Composer scripts and PHPUnit/Pest suites are detected as run configurations, and Xdebug sessions run through the PHP Debug adapter. See the support matrix for other languages.

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Language servers

Intelephense checks code against the project’s PHP version (see Language level) and indexes the stubs and include paths you configure.

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Setup

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Installing the tools

When a .php file opens and Intelephense is missing, a notification offers Install. The IDE installs it with npm into its own tools folder (needs npm or pnpm on PATH). Everything is also listed in Settings › Languages & Frameworks › Language Servers.

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PHP interpreter

Settings › Languages & Frameworks › PHP, section CLI Interpreter:
  • PHP interpreter: the php that runs scripts, PHPUnit, Composer, artisan and PHP-based servers such as phpactor. Default uses php on PATH. Its folder is put first on PATH, so vendor/bin/phpunit and other #!/usr/bin/env php scripts use the same PHP. The list includes PHP found on PATH (also versioned binaries like php8.3), Homebrew, phpbrew, phpenv, Laravel Herd, and on Windows XAMPP and Laragon.
  • Run in target: run PHP and Composer commands locally or in a run target from Settings › Build, Execution, Deployment › Run Targets.
  • The page shows the selected PHP’s version and the loaded Xdebug version (or Not installed).

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Language level

PHP language level on the same page sets the version Intelephense checks against (5.6 to 8.5); newer syntax and functions are reported. Auto uses config.platform.php from composer.json, else the lowest version require.php allows. The status bar shows the current level; click it to switch. Also on this page:
  • Include paths: folders outside the project that Intelephense indexes too, such as a platform your module extends.
  • Additional stubs: Intelephense stub sets on top of its defaults (for example wordpress). Each ext-* in require / require-dev of composer.json adds its own stubs automatically.

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Composer

In a Composer project without vendor/, or whose installed packages differ from composer.lock, a banner “Composer dependencies are not installed” appears above PHP files and composer.json, with Install (runs composer install on the configured PHP) and Ignore.

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Static analysis and formatting

  • PHPStan: when the project has vendor/bin/phpstan, saved files are checked with it and its findings appear as diagnostics. The PHPStan › Configuration file setting picks the config; empty uses phpstan.neon, phpstan.neon.dist or phpstan.dist.neon in the project root.
  • PHP-CS-Fixer: when a folder above the file has .php-cs-fixer.php or .php-cs-fixer.dist.php and the project has vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer, Reformat Code (⌥⌘L / Ctrl+Alt+L) uses PHP-CS-Fixer instead of the language server.

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Run and test

Detected when the project has composer.json or a PHPUnit configuration:
  • composer <script> for each script in composer.json (Composer event hooks are skipped); a script named test is a test configuration.
  • PHPUnit (or Pest, when vendor/bin/pest exists) when there is phpunit.xml, phpunit.xml.dist, phpunit.dist.xml, a phpunit/phpunit or pestphp/pest dependency, or a runner in vendor/bin.
  • artisan serve in Laravel projects.
The PHPUnit run configuration type has Target, Configuration file, Test filter and PHPUnit options fields. Run Context Configuration (⌃⇧R / Ctrl+Shift+F10) runs a *Test.php file through the PHPUnit configuration, and any other PHP file with the selected interpreter. In *Test.php files and files under test/ or tests/, gutter icons run a single test class or method, or a Pest test. Results appear in the test tree with Rerun Failed Tests. See Testing.

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Debugging

Debugging uses PHP Debug (vscode-php-debug) with Xdebug. The selected PHP must load the Xdebug extension; the PHP settings page shows whether it does.
  • Debug works on PHP files, PHPUnit/Pest and artisan serve. The IDE turns on Xdebug for the session with -d options and a free port, so you don’t need to edit php.ini, and another IDE listening on 9003 doesn’t conflict.
  • PHP Remote Debug (Xdebug) is a run configuration type that listens for incoming Xdebug connections (default port 9003), for requests served elsewhere such as php-fpm or a container. Its Start the remote side with field shows the matching php -dxdebug.mode=debug … command; for web requests use the XDEBUG_SESSION cookie or query parameter. Set Local root and Remote root to map paths.
See Debugging.

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Framework support

  • Laravel: Laravel LSP for config(), route() and view() strings, and an artisan serve configuration.
  • WordPress and similar platforms: add their stubs under Additional stubs and the platform folder under Include paths.

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Limitations

  • No Blade or Twig template support; only .php files get PHP code insight.
  • phpactor is not installed by the IDE.
  • Run with Coverage is not available for PHPUnit.
  • Debugging needs the Xdebug extension in your PHP; the IDE does not install it.