Analyzer

A static analysis engine for PHP. It builds a semantic model of the entire project, then walks every function, method, and expression to catch type errors and logical impossibilities before they ever run.

Analyzer vs linter

Both tools find issues, but they operate at different levels.

The linter looks at the shape of code: stylistic issues, inconsistencies, code smells. It does not need to know what the code does at runtime.

The analyzer looks at the meaning of code. It tracks the type of every variable through every branch, knows what each method on a class actually returns, and follows what exceptions can propagate. It catches impossibilities like calling a method that does not exist on the type at hand, passing a ?Order where Order is required, or returning null from a function annotated as never returning null.

If your code were an essay, the linter is the grammar pass and the analyzer is the fact-check.

What the analyzer offers

• Type inference. The analyzer understands the type of every expression even when type hints are partial. It supports Psalm and PHPStan annotations, generics, conditional types, and flow narrowing.
• Whole-program awareness. Analysis runs across the project, so calls into other files surface real signature mismatches.
• Speed. Rust core, parallelised, runs an entire project in seconds.
• Heuristic checks. A configurable set of advisory checks for code-quality concerns that are not strict errors but often indicate latent bugs.

Where to next

• Command reference: every flag mago analyze accepts.
• Configuration reference: every option Mago accepts under [analyzer].