Psalm

tip

Before you start, make sure Composer is installed on your machine and initialized in the current project as described in Composer dependency manager.

When you install Psalm with Composer, IntelliJ IDEA automatically downloads the necessary scripts, registers them in the IDE, and, optionally, enables and configures the corresponding code inspection.

1. Inside composer.json, add the vimeo/psalm dependency record to the require or require-dev section. Press CtrlSpace to get code completion for the package name and version.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Click the Install shortcut link on top of the editor panel.

   • If the Non-installed Composer packages inspection is enabled, IntelliJ IDEA will highlight the declared dependencies that are not currently installed. Press AltEnter and select whether you want to install a specific dependency or all dependencies at once.

Click next to the package record in the composer.json editor gutter to jump to the corresponding Settings page and configure Psalm manually.

After Psalm is initially configured, further modifications in composer.json will not affect the inspection configuration. To apply newer changes, reset the Psalm configuration.

1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S), navigate to Languages & Frameworks | PHP | Quality Tools.

2. On the Quality Tools page that opens, expand the Psalm area and click next to the Configuration list.

3. In the Psalm dialog that opens, empty the Psalm path field.

   

4. Update the project Composer dependencies by clicking Update on top of the composer.json editor panel. See Update dependencies for details.

IntelliJ IDEA will perform the Psalm configuration anew and thus apply the changes in composer.json.

When you install Psalm with Composer, IntelliJ IDEA automatically detects Psalm's executable file in the vendor/bin folder and sets the PHP interpreter configured in the system path to run it.

In Settings (CtrlAlt0S) | Languages & Frameworks | PHP | Quality Tools | Psalm, you can change the default PHP interpreter, set the path to a manually downloaded and installed Psalm executable file, or add some options to be passed to Psalm when running it in IntelliJ IDEA.

• Configuration: in this field, you can change the default PHP interpreter and path to the Psalm executable file.

  1. To only change the interpreter, select the required item from the list of local and remote PHP interpreters configured in your project.

     tip

     The Psalm executable file (phpcs.bat for Windows or phpcs for Linux and macOS) contains a path to a PHP engine in it. IntelliJ IDEA lets you overwrite this path and use the PHP interpreter of your choice.

     note

     Learn more about configuring PHP interpreters in Configuring Remote PHP Interpreters or in Configuring Local PHP Interpreters.

  2. To change the path to the Psalm executable file, or both the interpreter and the path, click next to the Configuration list to open the Psalm dialog and edit the fields there as described on the Psalm Dialog reference page.

• Show ignored files: use this setting to exclude files from Psalm validation inspection. For details, see the Quality Tools reference page.

• Options: in this area, add the options to run Psalm as a IntelliJ IDEA inspection with. Edit the fields there as described on the Psalm reference page.

You can include the information on the Psalm configuration file inside the scripts section of composer.json. When you install or update project dependencies, the specified configuration file will be detected and the Psalm validation inspection will be enabled automatically.

If no configuration file is specified in the scripts section of composer.json, IntelliJ IDEA will additionally check the project root to locate the ruleset with the psalm.xml or psalm.xml.dist default name.

• In the scripts section of composer.json, add the psalm Psalm launch command into one of the leaf elements.

  Provide the --config argument and the path to the configuration file:

  "scripts": {
      "psalm": "vendor/bin/psalm --config=psalm.xml"
  }

note

After Psalm is initially configured, further modifications in composer.json will not affect the inspection configuration. To apply newer changes, reset the Psalm configuration on the Languages & Frameworks | PHP |Quality Tools page of the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) and update project dependencies.

1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S), click Inspections under Editor.

2. On the Inspections page that opens, expand the PHP | Quality Tools node and select the checkbox next to Psalm validation.

   tip

   If you have installed Psalm with Composer but the corresponding inspection is currently disabled, IntelliJ IDEA highlights its record in composer.json. Press AltEnter and use the provided Enable inspection quick-fix to enable the inspection and open the Inspections page.

   

3. On the right-hand pane of the page, configure how IntelliJ IDEA handles the Psalm inspection output:

   1. Scope: choose the scope to limit the inspection application to.

   2. Severity: choose the severity degree for the inspection. The selected value determines how seriously the detected discrepancies will be treated by IntelliJ IDEA and presented in the inspection results.

   3. Highlighting in editor: choose how the issues detected by the inspection are highlighted in the editor.

note

You can also enable and disable the PHPStan validation inspection in the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S) | PHP | Quality Tools by using the ON/OFF toggle in the Psalm section, but note that this action is applied only to the Project Default inspection profile.

While the Psalm validation inspection can be run on a single file, Psalm will still make a pass on the entire project. On large projects, waiting for Psalm response when running it for the first time can exceed the limit specified in the Tool process timeout field in the Psalm dialog. In such cases, IntelliJ IDEA displays the error message:

• Click the Init cache link to have Psalm make a pass on the entire project and generate caches in the configured cache directory. If you are using a remote interpreter, make sure to set the cache directory to the location, which is accessible from within the remote environment.

• Click the Exclude from Psalm analysis link to add the current file to the ignored files list.

1. From the main menu, select Code | Inspect code.

2. In the Specify Inspection Scope dialog that opens, select the inspection profile from the list, or click Configure to open the Inspections dialog and configure a new profile.

   You can also click Configure to check which fixes will be applied within the scope of the selected inspection profile, and make sure that the Psalm validation inspection is enabled.

3. View the inspection results in the Problems tool window. Errors and warnings reported by Psalm are prefixed with to distinguish them from IntelliJ IDEA internal inspections.

1. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S), navigate to Languages & Frameworks | PHP | Quality Tools.

2. On the Quality Tools page that opens, expand the Psalm area and click the Show ignored files link.

   • To add a file, click and locate the desired file in the dialog that opens.

   • To delete a file from the list and have Psalm process it again, select the file and click .

   • To remove all the files from the list, click .