PHP Sniffer & Beautifier installs statistics

PHP Sniffer & Beautifier for VS Code

This linter plugin for Visual Studio Code provides an interface to phpcs & phpcbf. It will be used with files that have the “PHP” language mode. This extension is designed to use auto configuration search mechanism to apply rulesets to files within a workspace. This is useful for developers who work with many different projects that have different coding standards.

This extension is available on both VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX Registry.

Table of Contents

• PHPCS Version Support • Maintenance Status • Active Maintainers • Installation • Usage • Format on save • Multi-Root Workspace Support • Single File Mode Support • Linter Installation • System-wide Installation • Project-wide Installation • Plugin Installation • Docker support • Basic Configuration • phpsab.fixerEnable • phpsab.fixerArguments • phpsab.snifferEnable • phpsab.snifferArguments • phpsab.executablePathCS • phpsab.executablePathCBF • phpsab.standard • phpsab.autoRulesetSearch • phpsab.allowedAutoRulesets • phpsab.snifferMode • phpsab.snifferTypeDelay • phpsab.snifferShowSources • phpsab.snifferShowFixabilityIcons • Advanced Configuration • phpsab.composerJsonPath • phpsab.phpExecutablePath • phpsab.excludeGlobs • Diagnosing common errors • phpsab.debug • The phpcs report contains invalid json • Acknowledgements • Contributing and Licensing

PHPCS Version Support

This extension supports the latest stable version of PHPCS 3.x. If you are using an older version of PHPCS, please upgrade to the latest 3.x version.

NOTE: PHPCS 4.x is not currently supported.

As of v0.0.22, the extension will detect if PHPCS/PHPCBF version 4.x is being used and will display a warning message to the user. Some features may not work as expected when using version 4.x. Please consider downgrading to the latest 3.x version.

Maintenance Status

My focus has shifted away from PHP to .NET development, I'm currently unable to dedicate much time to maintaining this project. However, the extension is fully operational in its current state. If you're interested in contributing as a co-maintainer to address any outstanding issues, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Active Maintainers

In Sept of 2025 yCodeTech was added as a maintainer.

In June 2023 jonathanbossenger reached out to me and offered to help with maintaining the extension. I have added him as a contributor and he will be monitoring new issues and helping me review PRs. I will still be around to help out if needed.

In January 2024 seebeen signed on to be a maintainer for this project and has been granted contributor status. (Currently Inactive)

Installation

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) must be installed in order to use this plugin. If VS Code is not installed, please follow VS Code's instructions.

Usage

F1 -> PHPCBF: Fix this file

or keyboard shortcut alt+shift+f vs code default formatter shortcut

or right mouse context menu Format Document.

Format on save

You can also use this formatter with Format on Save enabled via the setting editor.formatOnSave.

Format on save has two modes: File and Modified, via the setting editor.formatOnSaveMode. To enable usage of the modified mode, this extension supports the Git Modified filter argument provided by PHPCBF: --filter=GitModified. Just add it to the extension's phpsab.fixerArguments setting.

Multi-Root Workspace Support

This extension now fully supports Multi-Root Workspaces. The extension previously used the first root folder in your workspace to configure and run both phpcs and phpcbf. The new system allows each workspace to be configured and run independently with respect to the root folder of the open file being sniffed. This means you can have phpcs functionality in one folder and have it disabled in another within a workspace.

Single File Mode Support

This extension now supports formatting single files without needing a workspace folder open (single file mode). Both phpcs and phpcbf will work in this mode.

When in single file mode:

• The global user settings are used instead of workspace settings. • The phpsab.autoRulesetSearch setting is ignored, and will essentially act as if it was set to false (and just return the value as set in phpsab.standard).

A global composer setup is required:

• The phpsab.executablePathCS and phpsab.executablePathCBF settings must be set to the full absolute path of phpcs and phpcbf respectively, *OR* set them to empty strings to allow the extension to automatically find the global composer installation and resolve the paths to the globally installed phpcs/phpcbf. • If the phpsab.standard setting is used for a ruleset file then it must be the full absolute path.

Linter Installation

Before using this plugin, you must ensure that phpcs is installed on your system. The preferred method is using composer for both system-wide and project-wide installations.

Once phpcs is installed, you can proceed to install the vscode-phpsab plugin if it is not yet installed.

NOTE: This plugin can detect whether your project has been set up to use phpcbf via composer and use the project specific phpcs & phpcbf over the system-wide installation of phpcs & phpcbf automatically. This feature requires that both composer.json and composer.lock file exist in your workspace root or the phpsab.composerJsonPath in order to check for the composer dependency. If you wish to bypass this feature you can set the phpsab.executablePathCS and phpsab.executablePathCBF configuration settings.

NOTE: phpcbf is installed along with phpcs.

System-wide Installation

The phpcs linter can be installed globally using the Composer Dependency Manager for PHP.

1. Install composer. 2. Require phpcs package by typing the following in a terminal:

3. You must specifically add the phpcs and phpcbf that you want to used to the global PATH on your system for the extension to auto detect them or set the executablePath for phpcs and phpcbf manually.

Project-wide Installation…

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.