PhpStormCopilot Class API

This page is a method-by-method reference for the PhpStormCopilot class defined in src/PhpStormCopilot.php It covers every public and protected method: its signature, parameter types, return type, and precise behavioral description.

For the conceptual role this class plays in the installation pipeline, see 4.1. For the WSL-specific methods provided by the WithWSL trait this class uses, see 8.2. For the service provider that registers this class with the framework, see 8.3.

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Class Overview

File: src/PhpStormCopilot.php

Namespace: Revolution\Laravel\Boost

PhpStormCopilot is the central agent implementation in this package. It extends the abstract Agent base class from laravel/boost and implements three contracts: SupportsGuidelines, SupportsMcp, and SupportsSkills. It also uses the WithWSL trait from Revolution\Laravel\Boost\Concerns\WithWSL.

Inheritance and contracts diagram:

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php1-18

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Method Reference

name()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php19-22

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	string

Returns the machine-readable identifier for this agent. Used by Boost::registerAgent and internally by Boost to key configuration and registration.

Return value: 'phpstorm-copilot'

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displayName()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php24-27

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	string

Returns the human-readable label shown to developers during boost:install agent selection.

Return value: 'PhpStorm with GitHub Copilot'

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useAbsolutePathForMcp()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php29-32

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	bool

Signals to the parent Agent that the PHP binary and artisan paths written into mcp.json must be absolute. PhpStorm's GitHub Copilot plugin spawns the MCP subprocess from a system-level config file, so relative paths would not resolve correctly.

Return value: true (always)

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systemDetectionConfig(Platform $platform)

src/PhpStormCopilot.php34-67

Visibility	public
Parameters	Platform $platform — a Laravel\Boost\Install\Enums\Platform enum case
Returns	array{paths?: string[], command?: string, files?: string[]}

Returns platform-specific filesystem paths used by the boost:install detection strategy to determine whether PhpStorm (with the GitHub Copilot plugin) is present on the developer's system.

Per-platform paths:

Platform case	Paths checked
Platform::Darwin	~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/PhpStorm*/plugins/github-copilot-intellij, /Applications/PhpStorm.app
Platform::Linux	/opt/phpstorm, /opt/PhpStorm*, /usr/local/bin/phpstorm, ~/.local/share/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/PhpStorm/ch-*, /mnt/c/Users/*/AppData/Local/github-copilot (WSL)
Platform::Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\github-copilot\intellij, %ProgramFiles%\JetBrains\PhpStorm*, %LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\Toolbox\apps\PhpStorm\ch-*, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PhpStorm

The Linux case includes a WSL path (/mnt/c/...) so that PhpStorm running on the Windows host is still detected when the project runs inside WSL.

For a detailed explanation of detection strategy behavior, see 4.2.

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php39-67

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projectDetectionConfig()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php69-79

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	array{paths?: string[], files?: string[]}

Returns project-level indicators that suggest this agent is already configured in the current Laravel project. The detection checks for the presence of .github/copilot-instructions.md — a standard GitHub Copilot configuration file that would exist if the project was previously set up.

Return value:

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php74-79

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guidelinesPath()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php81-89

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	string
Implements	SupportsGuidelines

Returns the path (relative to the Laravel project root) where the AI guideline file should be written during boost:install. The path is configurable via config('boost.agents.phpstorm_copilot.guidelines_path').

Default return value: '.github/instructions/laravel-boost.instructions.md'

This file instructs GitHub Copilot inside PhpStorm about project conventions and available tools. See 3.3 for the purpose and format of this file.

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php86-89

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skillsPath()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php91-97

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	string
Implements	SupportsSkills

Returns the directory path (relative to the Laravel project root) where agent skill files should be written during boost:install. Configurable via config('boost.agents.phpstorm_copilot.skills_path').

Default return value: '.github/skills'

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php94-97

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mcpConfigKey()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php99-102

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	string
Implements	SupportsMcp

Returns the top-level JSON key used in mcp.json under which individual MCP server entries are nested. PhpStorm's GitHub Copilot plugin expects server entries under "servers".

Return value: 'servers'

Example mcp.json structure this key governs:

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php99-102

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mcpConfigPath()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php104-114

Visibility	public
Parameters	none
Returns	string
Implements	SupportsMcp

Returns the absolute filesystem path to mcp.json for the current platform. Uses Platform::current() to detect the OS at runtime, and reads HOME from the environment for Unix-like systems.

Platform	Returned path
Platform::Darwin	{HOME}/.config/github-copilot/intellij/mcp.json
Platform::Linux	{HOME}/.config/github-copilot/intellij/mcp.json
Platform::Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\github-copilot\intellij\mcp.json

Note: In WSL environments, installFileMcp intercepts execution before mcpConfigPath() is used for writing, delegating instead to installMcpViaWsl(). See 5.3 for WSL details.

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php104-114

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installFileMcp(string $key, string $command, array $args = [], array $env = [])

src/PhpStormCopilot.php116-132

Visibility	protected
Parameters	string $key — entry name in mcp.json; string $command — the executable; array $args — CLI arguments; array $env — environment variables
Returns	bool
Throws	Exception if running inside Testbench
Overrides	Agent::installFileMcp

This is the primary dispatch method for writing the MCP configuration. It applies environment-specific branching before delegating to the parent class.

Decision flow:

Behavior summary:

1. Testbench guard — If TESTBENCH_CORE is defined, throws an Exception. This prevents the boost:install command from writing system-level config during test runs.
2. WSL branch — If WSL_DISTRO_NAME is set in the environment, delegates entirely to installMcpViaWsl() from the WithWSL trait. The WSL path writes to the Windows-side mcp.json via PowerShell.
3. Standard branch — Passes command and args through transformSailCommand() to handle Sail environments, then calls parent::installFileMcp() which writes the config to disk at mcpConfigPath().

For the complete WSL pipeline, see 5.3. For Sail handling, see 5.4.

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php119-132

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transformSailCommand(string $command, array $args)

src/PhpStormCopilot.php134-162

Visibility	public
Parameters	string $command — the base command (e.g., ./vendor/bin/sail or an absolute PHP path); array $args — the arguments (e.g., ['artisan', 'boost:mcp'])
Returns	array{command: string, args: array}

Detects whether the command is a Sail invocation and, if so, wraps it in a bash -c 'cd {projectPath} && ./vendor/bin/sail {args}' shell invocation. This ensures PhpStorm's MCP subprocess runs Sail from the correct working directory.

Decision logic:

Examples:

Input command	Input args	Output command	Output args
/usr/bin/php	['/path/artisan', 'boost:mcp']	/usr/bin/php	['/path/artisan', 'boost:mcp']
./vendor/bin/sail	['artisan', 'boost:mcp']	bash	['-c', "cd /path/to/project && ./vendor/bin/sail 'artisan' 'boost:mcp'"]
/home/user/project/vendor/bin/sail	['artisan', 'boost:mcp']	bash	['-c', "cd /path/to/project && ./vendor/bin/sail 'artisan' 'boost:mcp'"]

The condition checked is $command !== './vendor/bin/sail' && !str_ends_with($command, '/vendor/bin/sail'), so both relative and absolute paths to the Sail binary are caught src/PhpStormCopilot.php144

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php141-162

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removeEmptyArrays(array $data)

src/PhpStormCopilot.php163-181

Visibility	protected
Parameters	array $data — the config array to clean
Returns	array

Recursively removes any array values that are empty ([]) from a nested config array. This prevents compatibility issues with MCP clients that fail on empty arrays (such as "headers": [] in a config entry). Called by installMcpViaWsl() in the WithWSL trait before serializing the config to JSON.

The method walks the array depth-first: if a value is an array and empty, the key is unset; if it is a non-empty array, removeEmptyArrays is called recursively on it; scalar values are left unchanged src/PhpStormCopilot.php168-180

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php164-181 src/Concerns/WithWSL.php48

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isRunningInTestbench()

src/PhpStormCopilot.php183-186

Visibility	protected
Parameters	none
Returns	bool

Detects whether the code is currently executing inside an Orchestra Testbench environment by checking for the TESTBENCH_CORE constant. Used exclusively as a guard inside installFileMcp() to abort execution before any filesystem or process side effects occur.

Return value: defined('TESTBENCH_CORE')

This is a protected method rather than a public one — tests that need to verify its behavior do so indirectly by observing that installFileMcp() throws an exception.

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php183-186

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Method Visibility Summary

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php1-187 src/Concerns/WithWSL.php1-129

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Contract Implementation Map

Interface / Base	Method	Defined In
Agent (abstract)	installFileMcp	PhpStormCopilot (overrides)
Agent (abstract)	name, displayName, useAbsolutePathForMcp, systemDetectionConfig, projectDetectionConfig	PhpStormCopilot
SupportsGuidelines	guidelinesPath	PhpStormCopilot
SupportsMcp	mcpConfigKey, mcpConfigPath	PhpStormCopilot
SupportsSkills	skillsPath	PhpStormCopilot
WithWSL (trait)	isWSL, installMcpViaWsl, transformMcpCommandForWsl	Concerns/WithWSL.php
PhpStormCopilot (own)	transformSailCommand, removeEmptyArrays, isRunningInTestbench	PhpStormCopilot

Sources: src/PhpStormCopilot.php15-17 src/Concerns/WithWSL.php9