Craft CMS 5 PHP Guidelines

Complete PHP coding standards and conventions for Craft CMS 5 plugin and module development. These extend Craft's official coding guidelines with project-specific conventions.

Core principles: PHPDocs on everything — classes, methods, and properties — regardless of type hints. No declare(strict_types=1) in plugin source files (matching Craft core convention).

Companion Skills — Always Load Together

• craftcms — Architecture patterns, element lifecycle, controllers, events, migrations. Required for any Craft plugin or module development.
• ddev — All commands run through DDEV. Required for running ECS, PHPStan, scaffolding, and tests.

Documentation

• Official coding guidelines: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/extend/coding-guidelines.html
• Class reference: https://docs.craftcms.com/api/v5/
• Generator reference: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/extend/generator.html

When unsure about a convention, WebFetch the coding guidelines page for the authoritative answer.

Common Pitfalls

• addSelect() is the convention in beforePrepare() — safely additive when multiple extensions contribute columns.
• $_instances is not a Craft convention — private properties use underscore prefix but meaningful names like $_items, $_sections.
• Records use the same class name as models (namespace distinguishes). Alias when importing both: use ...\records\MyEntity as MyEntityRecord;.
• Queue jobs have no "Job" suffix — ResaveElements, not ResaveElementsJob.
• declare(strict_types=1) is NOT used in plugin source files. Only in standalone config files like ecs.php.
• @author goes on classes and methods only — never on properties. (Craft core puts @author at the class level only; placing it on methods too is this project's house convention, not core style.)
• Don't use string|null — use ?string (short nullable notation).
• Forget parent::defineRules() and you lose all inherited validation.
• Using [$this, '_validateFoo'] callable arrays or inline closures in defineRules() — Craft core uses string method names: [['attr'], 'validateAttr']. The validator method is public, no underscore — Yii invokes it by name.
• DateTimeHelper in elements/queries, Carbon in services — never mix in the same class.
• Parsing a raw DB datetime with strtotime() or new DateTime() — those columns are naive UTC strings and the process timezone is system.timeZone, so the result is off by the full offset on any non-UTC install. Parse with an explicit UTC zone. See Date Handling below.
• Missing @throws chains — document exceptions from called methods too, not just your own throws.
• Using magic property access ($plugin->settings, $app->view) instead of explicit getters ($plugin->getSettings(), $app->getView()) — PHPStan can't resolve __get() calls, so magic access passes at runtime but fails static analysis. Always use explicit getters for Yii2 components and Craft plugin properties.
• Calling Craft-specific methods directly on Craft::$app (Craft::$app->getConfig()) — PHPStan can't resolve them because the static type is Yii's base union. Narrow with a typed local: /** @var \craft\web\Application $app */ $app = Craft::$app;. Don't use @phpstan-ignore-line.
• Duplicating contract constants as private const across multiple classes with "keep in lockstep" comments — PHPStan can't detect drift. Declare public const on the owning service, reference as OwnerService::CONSTANT_NAME everywhere else. This applies specifically to permission handles: a handle like 'my-plugin:manage-settings' is a contract string referenced from registration (EVENT_REGISTER_PERMISSIONS), the controller gate (requirePermission()), and the nav check (->can()); a bare literal drifts silently and a typo passes for admins (who hold every permission) while denying everyone else. Declare it as a public const on the controller that enforces it — SettingsController::PERMISSION_MANAGE_SETTINGS — and reference the const everywhere. (Craft core uses bare literals here; the const is a deliberately stricter house rule. See the craftcms skill's permissions.md.)
• Writing the same authorization check separately in a CP controller, a console command, and a GraphQL resolver — they drift, and the surface that drifts is the one nobody tests. One shared gate method called by every surface, with a test per surface. Console is not exempt (a documented cron path with no permission check is an unauthenticated capability), and GraphQL schema scope is not the plugin's permission matrix. See references/authorization-parity.md.
• Assuming Craft prevents self-approval / self-review — it has no such concept, and peer permissions are the opposite axis. Write the guard into the shared gate, orthogonal to role checks, with an explicit bypass permission. See references/authorization-parity.md.
• Shipping ../* path repositories in a plugin's composer.json — resolution works only on the author's disk. Unpublished sibling deps get a vcs entry; Packagist deps need nothing; composer.lock stays gitignored for plugins. Prove it with composer config --global repositories (expect empty) then a no-lock composer update --dry-run. See references/tooling.md (Composer Hygiene).
• Using Db::parseParam() for a literal comparison — a leading or trailing * becomes a SQL LIKE wildcard, so a uniqueness check on a stored pattern silently becomes a prefix match. Use a raw andWhere(['col' => $value]). See the craftcms skill's architecture.md.
• Registering EVENT_REGISTER_ELEMENT_TYPES / EVENT_REGISTER_FIELD_TYPES inside a getIsCpRequest() (or other request-context) branch in init() — component-type registration must run in every context (CP, console, site) or the type disappears from getAllElementTypes() in console/queue requests, and Gc::hardDeleteElements() silently stops purging its trashed rows. Register unconditionally; only CP-rendering/routing (URL rules, asset bundles, nav) may be gated. See the craftcms skill's events.md → "Registration scope".

Reference Files

Read the relevant reference file(s) for your task:

Task	Read
Writing PHPDocs, @author, @since, @throws, @var, @param, type references	references/phpdoc-standards.md
Class structure, section headers, ordering, enums, control flow, comments, whitespace	references/class-organization.md
Naming classes, methods, properties, files, services, events, migrations	references/naming-conventions.md
CP Twig templates, form macros, translations, file headers, validation	references/templates-and-patterns.md
ECS, PHPStan, scaffolding commands, composer hygiene for plugin repos, commit messages	references/tooling.md
Authorization parity across CP / console / GraphQL / queue surfaces, self-referential guards, one shared gate	references/authorization-parity.md

Critical Rules

1. PHPDocs on everything: classes, methods, properties. No exceptions.
2. @throws chains: document every exception including uncaught from called methods.
3. @author and @since at the bottom of class/method docblocks, after a blank line.
4. Section headers with // ========================================================================= on every class. (Craft core itself uses dash separators — // ---- — with functional/domain labels like // Statuses or // Events. The ===== separators and visibility labels below are a deliberate house convention for consistency across this project's plugins, not core style.)
5. declare(strict_types=1) is NOT used in plugin source files — Craft's internal type coercion depends on PHP's default weak typing mode.
6. Private methods/properties prefixed with underscore: _registerCpUrlRules(), $_items.
7. addSelect() convention in beforePrepare() — additive across extensions, prevents column conflicts.
8. DateTimeHelper in elements/queries, Carbon in services — separate concerns prevent mixing date APIs in the same class.
9. Always scaffold with ddev craft make <type> --with-docblocks, then customize.
10. ddev composer check-cs and ddev composer phpstan must pass before every commit.

PHP Standards

• Minimum PHP 8.2 (Craft CMS 5 requirement).
• PSR-12 baseline with Craft modifications (trailing commas, constant visibility).
• craftcms/ecs with SetList::CRAFT_CMS_4 preset (covers both Craft 4 and 5).
• Short nullable notation: ?string not string|null.
• Always specify void return types.
• Typed properties everywhere. No untyped public properties.
• Strict comparison always: $foo === null, in_array($x, $y, true).
• Casts over functions: (int)$foo not intval($foo).

Section Header Order

// Traits
// Const Properties
// Static Properties
// Public Properties
// Protected Properties
// Private Properties
// Public Methods
// Protected Methods
// Private Methods

Only include sections that have content. Blank line after the separator, before the first item.

Control Flow

• Happy path last. Handle error conditions first with early returns.
• Avoid else — use early returns instead.
• Prefer match over switch for value-mapping and returns. The official guideline is "don't use switch when a single if suffices"; switch remains acceptable where it reads more clearly (and is common in core).
• Always use curly brackets even for single statements.
• Separate compound conditions into nested if statements for readability.
• Named arguments when calling methods with 3+ parameters.

Date Handling

• Elements and element queries: craft\helpers\DateTimeHelper.
• Services (date arithmetic): Carbon\Carbon.
• Never mix both in the same class.
• Name the timezone when parsing a value that came out of the database. Datetime columns hold naive UTC strings (Db::prepareDateForDb() formats in UTC without an offset), while Craft sets the PHP process timezone to system.timeZone — so strtotime() or bare new DateTime() on a raw column value shifts every comparison by the full UTC offset on a non-UTC install, and is silently correct on a UTC one. Use DateTimeHelper::toDateTime($value) (naive input is assumed UTC by default) or Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $value, 'UTC'). See the craftcms skill's architecture.md (Record-to-Model Hydration Boundary → Those strings are naive UTC).

Environment Access

• craft\helpers\App::env('VAR'), never getenv() — in plugin code AND in every config-file example that appears in docs. getenv() is not thread-safe, returns string|false, and skips values only present in $_SERVER; App::env() is Craft's own convention, normalizes 'true'/'false' to booleans, and is what core docs show. A config example gets the use craft\helpers\App; line.
• App::parseEnv() when the stored value may be a $VAR reference or an alias (settings-model getters resolving env-able fields). It resolves a whole-string $VAR or a slash-delimited …/$VAR/… segment only. Since 5.11.0 a $ inside free text ("$58 million") is left untouched; 5.0–5.10 stripped the unresolved token out of the string (craftcms/cms#19522), so don't route arbitrary user copy through it on a pre-5.11 install.
• Craft::$app->getConfig()->doesEnvVarExist('NAME') (5.11.0+) before offering to write a variable to the project's .env. It greps the file, so it answers "declared in .env", not "set in the environment"; use App::env() for the latter.

Database Conventions

• [[column]] quoting in Yii2 join conditions.
• addSelect() in beforePrepare() — safely additive.
• postDate and expiryDate in addSelect() and indexed on element tables.
• Db::parseParam() for query parameters. Db::parseDateParam() for dates. But not for literal comparison — it treats a leading/trailing * as a LIKE wildcard; use a raw andWhere(['col' => $value]) when comparing stored values exactly.
• Foreign keys with explicit CASCADE / SET NULL behavior.

Permission Handles

Permission handles are kebab-case (handle:manage-settings); never camelCase. Both halves are lowercase kebab — savepoint:manage-settings, multiplayer:take-over-field, not savepoint:manageSettings.

Craft lowercases permission names into userpermissions.name, so case is discarded on the way to storage: manageSettings collapses to managesettings, while manage-settings keeps its word boundaries and stays readable in the database, in exports, and in debug output.

Craft core's own permissions are camelCase (accessCp, editUsers, viewPeerEntries). This is a deliberate divergence for plugin-owned handles — don't "correct" plugin handles back to camelCase for consistency with core, and don't rewrite core's handles.

The PHP constant holding the handle stays SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE (PERMISSION_MANAGE_SETTINGS); only the string value is kebab. Full mechanics in the craftcms skill's permissions.md.

Naming Quick-Reference

Thing	Convention	Example
Services (resource)	Plural	Entries, Volumes, Users
Services (utility)	Domain noun	Auth, Search, Gc
Queue jobs	Action verb, no suffix	ResaveElements, UpdateSearchIndex
Records	Same name as model	Namespace distinguishes
Events	Three patterns	SectionEvent, RegisterUrlRulesEvent, DefineHtmlEvent
Element actions	Action verb, no suffix	Delete, Duplicate, SetStatus
Enums	PascalCase cases, string/int backed	PropagationMethod, CmsEdition

For the complete naming reference including file structure conventions, read references/naming-conventions.md.

Copy style

Never use em-dashes (—) or en-dashes (–) in user-facing copy: field labels and instructions, Craft::t() strings, CP notices and flash messages, console command output, plugin/module README, and docs. Use commas, periods, colons, or parentheses instead; for ranges write "4 to 10" or a plain ASCII hyphen ("4-10"). Plain hyphens are fine. Code comments and PHPDoc are exempt. Grep for — and – in your Craft::t() strings, templates, and docs before finishing. (Front-end Twig copy: see the craft-twig-guidelines skill, which carries the same rule for |t strings and template text.)

Console controller docblocks are terminal help

Yii renders console controller docblocks VERBATIM as operator-facing help, with no inline-tag resolution: the class docblock's second line becomes the command summary in craft help, the prose up to the first @tag becomes the help <command> body, each action method's docblock first line becomes that action's description, and option properties' @var text becomes --option help. Therefore, in every class extending yii\console\Controller: no {@see}/{@link}/{@inheritdoc} in class/property docblocks or action-method first lines (write command ids as plain text instead), no ========= section-header rule as docblock line 2 (it prints as the command summary), no hanging-indent continuation lines on option @var tags (they render as ragged indents; match craftcms/cms ResaveController's flush style), and the summary sentence goes on line 2. Verify with ddev craft help <plugin> — craft help | grep '{@' must return nothing.

Three specifics that survive that rule and still bite:

• The summary is docblock line 2 physically, not the first sentence. parseDocCommentSummary() (yii\console\Controller) returns trim($docLines[1]) and nothing more — a first sentence that wraps onto line 3 prints only the fragment on line 2 (real summaries truncated at "and writes", "whether every row", "prints the new"). Keep the whole summary sentence on one physical line, even if it exceeds the usual wrap width.
• A scaffolded * Class FooController on line 2 becomes the craft help summary verbatim. Replace generator boilerplate with a real summary before shipping.
• getHelpSummary() / getHelp() overrides make the docblock dead code. Once a class overrides them, the docblock and the printed help are two sources of truth that disagree silently — and if getHelp() returns the summary verbatim, the command has no help body at all. Prefer docblocks alone; if an override exists (or you add one), delete or align the prose it shadows, and check help <command> prints an actual body.

Verification Checklist

Before every commit:

1. ddev composer check-cs passes
2. ddev composer phpstan passes
3. Tests green
4. PHPDocs complete on all new/modified code
5. @throws chains verified
6. Section headers present and correct
7. Imports flat alphabetical (ECS-enforced, not "PHP globals first")
8. No em-dashes (—) or en-dashes (–) in user-facing copy (Craft::t() strings, labels, CP notices, README, docs)