 |
VOOZH | about |
|
VOOZH | about |
This section establishes the conceptual vocabulary used throughout the codebase. It covers three interlocking ideas: the Agent abstraction from laravel/boost, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) that connects PhpStorm's Copilot plugin to your Laravel project, and the guidelines and skills system that shapes AI behavior.
For step-by-step installation instructions, see Getting Started. For low-level implementation details of each component, see Core Implementation.
The package is built around three independent but cooperating mechanisms:
| Pillar | What it is | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | A named integration registered with laravel/boost | src/PhpStormCopilot.php, src/PhpStormCopilotServiceProvider.php |
| MCP Server | A subprocess that serves structured context to the IDE | php artisan boost:mcp (provided by laravel/boost) |
| Guidelines & Skills | Markdown files that instruct Copilot how to behave | .github/instructions/, .github/skills/ |
These three pillars serve distinct roles. The Agent handles installation-time configuration (detecting the platform, writing mcp.json). The MCP server handles runtime context delivery (answering Copilot's queries while you code). Guidelines and skills shape the quality of AI responses by giving Copilot project-aware instructions.
Sources: README.md1-128 .github/copilot-instructions.md1-40
An Agent is the primary extension point in laravel/boost. Each Agent describes a specific AI tool integration — in this case, PhpStorm's GitHub Copilot plugin.
Agent responsibilities:
name() and displayName() identify the agent in boost:install menus.systemDetectionConfig() and projectDetectionConfig() tell Boost where to look for the IDE on each OS.SupportsGuidelines, SupportsMcp, or SupportsSkills opts the agent into each feature category.installFileMcp() writes the mcp.json configuration to the correct system-wide location.Class diagram — Agent inheritance and interfaces:
The agent is registered at framework boot by PhpStormCopilotServiceProvider, which calls Boost::registerAgent('phpstorm-copilot', PhpStormCopilot::class). Laravel's package auto-discovery ensures this provider is loaded automatically.
For full implementation details, see Laravel Boost Integration.
Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php src/PhpStormCopilotServiceProvider.php .github/copilot-instructions.md19-35
MCP is a protocol that allows an AI assistant (the client) to call structured tools on a local server subprocess. In this package:
mcp.json on startup and spawns the server.php artisan boost:mcp, provided by laravel/boost, responds to tool calls over stdin/stdout.mcp.json, a system-wide config file that contains the absolute paths needed to launch the server.Why system-wide? PhpStorm's Copilot plugin reads a single mcp.json at a fixed OS-level path — it is not per-project. This means the file must be rewritten each time you switch projects. The paths it contains (to php and artisan) must be absolute.
MCP config file locations by OS:
| OS | Path |
|---|---|
| macOS / Linux | ~/.config/github-copilot/intellij/mcp.json |
| Windows (native) | %LOCALAPPDATA%\github-copilot\intellij\mcp.json |
| WSL | Written to the Windows path above via PowerShell from within WSL |
Minimal mcp.json structure:
Runtime data flow diagram:
For the full architecture description, see MCP Server Architecture.
Sources: README.md113-124 .github/copilot-instructions.md99-170
Guidelines and skills are Markdown files installed into the project repository. They are not part of the MCP runtime — they are read by GitHub Copilot directly from the repository's .github/ directory.
Guidelines provide persistent, project-level instructions to Copilot. After installation, the file lives at:
.github/instructions/laravel-boost.instructions.md
The template source is at resources/boost/guidelines/core.blade.php
Skills are reusable instruction sets for specific tasks (for example, writing Pest tests). After installation, they live under:
.github/skills/
The paths are declared in PhpStormCopilot via guidelinesPath() and skillsPath(), which implement the SupportsGuidelines and SupportsSkills interfaces respectively.
How these three pillars interact:
For full details on what these files contain and how Copilot consumes them, see AI Guidelines and Skills.
Sources: README.md98-108 .github/copilot-instructions.md27-34 resources/boost/guidelines/core.blade.php
At install time, boost:install orchestrates all three pillars by delegating to the PhpStormCopilot agent. At runtime, MCP and the Markdown files operate independently — Copilot reads both in parallel to form enriched AI responses.
Install-time vs. runtime responsibilities:
Sources: README.md96-124 .github/copilot-instructions.md19-40 src/PhpStormCopilot.php src/PhpStormCopilotServiceProvider.php