php-lsp

A high-performance PHP language server written in Rust.

Getting Started · Features · Editors & AI Clients · Configuration · Architecture · Contributing

php-lsp is a full-featured LSP implementation for PHP: real-time cross-file diagnostics, type-aware completions, navigation, and refactoring — written in Rust for low memory usage, fast startup, and zero GC pauses.

Unique strengths:

Full LSP 3.17 specification support — call hierarchy, type hierarchy, semantic tokens, inlay hints, selection range, linked editing, and more — features that competing servers lock behind premium tiers or skip entirely
Rich code actions — 10 actions (extract variable/method/constant, inline variable, generate constructor/getters/setters, implement missing methods, organize imports, add PHPDoc, add return type), all free
Clean separation of concerns — parsing (php-rs-parser, php-ast) and static analysis (mir-php) are dedicated crates, keeping the LSP layer lightweight and focused purely on protocol features
Rust-native performance — async-first with tokio, lock-free document store via dashmap, no GC pauses
Completion depth — type-aware -> / :: chains, match enum-case completions, auto use insertion, fuzzy camel/underscore matching

Install

cargo install php-lsp

Or download a pre-built binary (macOS, Linux) from Releases and place it on your PATH.

Verify:

php-lsp --version

For full installation options see docs/getting-started.md.

Editor Setup

Editor	Setup
VS Code	php-lsp extension
Neovim 0.11+	Native `vim.lsp.enable`
Neovim 0.10	`vim.lsp.start` in a `FileType` autocmd
Zed	`lsp` block in `~/.config/zed/settings.json`
Cursor	Settings → Features → Language Servers
PHPStorm	LSP4IJ plugin
Claude Code	`claude plugin add https://github.com/jorgsowa/claude-php-lsp-plugin`

Config snippets for every editor: docs/editors.md

Configuration

Pass options via initializationOptions:

{
  "phpVersion": "8.2",
  "excludePaths": ["cache/*", "storage/*"],
  "diagnostics": {
    "deprecatedCalls": false
  }
}

phpVersion is optional — the server auto-detects it in priority order: config.platform.php in composer.json (explicit platform pin), then the php binary on $PATH (actual runtime), then require.php in composer.json (compatibility range, last resort), then defaults to 8.5. The detected version and its source are logged on startup. Set phpVersion explicitly to override, e.g. when running PHP inside Docker.

See docs/configuration.md for all options including per-diagnostic toggles.

Comparison

Server	Language	License	Maintained
php-lsp	Rust	✅ Free/OSS	✅ Active
Intelephense	TypeScript	⚠️ Freemium	✅ Active
PHPantom	Rust	✅ Free/OSS	✅ Active
Phpactor	PHP	✅ Free/OSS	✅ Active
DEVSENSE	Node.js	🔒 Paid	✅ Active
Psalm LSP	PHP	✅ Free/OSS	✅ Active
phpls	Go	✅ Free/OSS	✅ Active
felixfbecker	PHP	✅ Free/OSS	❌ Abandoned

Feature matrix:

Feature	php-lsp	Intelephense	PHPantom	Phpactor	DEVSENSE	Psalm
Completion	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	⚠️ limited
Hover	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Go-to-definition	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Go-to-declaration	✅	🔒 Premium	❌	✅	✅	❌
Go-to-type-definition	✅	🔒 Premium	❌	❌	✅	❌
Find references	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Rename	✅	🔒 Premium	✅	✅	✅	❌
Call hierarchy	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Type hierarchy	✅	🔒 Premium	❌	❌	✅	❌
Implementations	✅	🔒 Premium	❌	✅	✅	❌
Semantic tokens	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Inlay hints	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌
Code lens	✅	🔒 Premium	❌	❌	✅	❌
Signature help	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Selection range	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Document highlight	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Folding	✅	🔒 Premium	❌	❌	✅	❌
On-type formatting	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Document links	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
PSR-4 autoload	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
PhpStorm meta	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Static analysis	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅✅
Embedded HTML/JS/CSS	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Laravel/framework aware	❌	⚠️ plugin	✅ built-in	❌	⚠️ plugin	❌
Debugger	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Deep generics / PHPStan types	⚠️ partial	⚠️ partial	✅	❌	✅	✅

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Open an issue before starting non-trivial work. PRs require clean cargo test and cargo clippy -- -D warnings.

License

MIT