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Dev.to
5/11/2026
CLAUDE.md for PHP: 13 Rules That Make AI Write Modern, Secure, Idiomatic PHP

CLAUDE.md for PHP: 13 Rules That Make AI Write Modern, Secure, Idiomatic PHP

Short summary

A CLAUDE.md file tells AI assistants to write modern PHP 8.2+ with strict types, named arguments, readonly properties, dependency injection, and security best practices instead of legacy patterns. This guide covers 13 rules spanning declare(strict_types=1), full type declarations, PDO-only database access, exception-based error handling, and functional array operations. Implementing these standards prevents AI from defaulting to PHP 5-era code and significantly improves code quality, security, and maintainability.

  • CLAUDE.md establishes explicit PHP 8.2+ coding standards for AI assistants
  • Covers 13 rules: strict types, type declarations, PDO, error handling, dependency injection, security
  • Prevents AI from generating legacy PHP patterns; improves code quality, security, and testability

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