Catraca

PHP Quality Guardian that enforces the Catraca (ratchet) principle: quality metrics can only improve or stay the same, never regress.

Catraca (Portuguese for "turnstile" / "ratchet") — like a turnstile at a subway station, quality can only move forward.

Install

composer require --dev b7s/catraca

Quality Gates

Gates run in order. A failure blocks the PR.

#	Gate	Tool	Default Threshold
1	Security Audit	15 built-in checks	0 critical/high advisories, 0 findings
2	Code Style	`pint` or `php-cs-fixer`	0 violations
3	Static Analysis	`phpstan` or `psalm`	0 errors (level 5 if no config)
4	Test Coverage	`phpunit` or `pest`	85% minimum
5	Duplication	`phpcpd`	2% maximum
6	File Size	Built-in	1000 lines per file
7	Cyclomatic Complexity	`phpmetrics`	Block at 50, warn at 20
8	Performance	`php-cs-fixer` + Built-in	0 violations

Dependencies

Catraca wraps your existing PHP quality tools. Install the ones you need:

# Code style
composer require --dev laravel/pint
# or
composer require --dev friendsofphp/php-cs-fixer

# Static analysis
composer require --dev phpstan/phpstan
# or
composer require --dev vimeo/psalm

# Test coverage
composer require --dev phpunit/phpunit
# or
composer require --dev pestphp/pest

# Duplication detection
# PHP 8.3
composer require --dev systemsdk/phpcpd:^8.0
# PHP 8.4+
composer require --dev systemsdk/phpcpd:^9.0

# Cyclomatic complexity
composer require --dev phpmetrics/phpmetrics

Any tool not installed is skipped (not failed). Security audit uses composer audit (built-in) and 14 source-code checks.

Usage

`catraca init` — Initialize baseline

Creates catraca_baseline.json in your project root with default thresholds:

vendor/bin/catraca init

Default baseline:

Setting	Default
Source Dirs	`["src", "app", "lib"]`
Security	0 advisories, 14 checks all enabled
Code Style	0 violations
Static Analysis	0 errors (level 5 if no `phpstan.neon`)
Test Coverage	85% minimum
Duplication	2% maximum, min 3 lines, min 30 tokens
File Size	1000 lines maximum per file
Complexity	Block at CCN 50, warn at CCN 20
Performance	0 violations

You can edit catraca_baseline.json directly to adjust thresholds.

Configuration — `catraca_baseline.json`

{
    "source_dirs": {
        "paths": ["src", "app", "lib"]
    },
  "security": {
    "advisories": 0,
    "rules": {
      "hardcoded_secrets": true,
      "sql_injection": true,
      "command_injection": true,
      "csrf_protection": true,
      "path_traversal": true,
      "insecure_deserialization": true,
      "ssrf": true,
      "tls_verification": true,
      "insecure_rng": true,
      "gitignore_sensitive": true,
      "package_freshness": true,
      "weak_cryptography": true,
      "cors_config": true,
      "npm_audit": true
    },
    "fixers": []
  },
    "style": {
        "violations": 0
    },
    "static_analysis": {
        "errors": 0
    },
    "coverage": {
        "percentage": 85.0
    },
    "duplication": {
        "percentage": 2.0,
        "min_lines": 3,
        "min_tokens": 30
    },
    "file_size": {
        "max_lines": 1000
    },
    "complexity": {
        "max_ccn": 0
    },
    "performance": {
        "violations": 0,
        "rules": {
          "global_namespace_import": true,
          "no_unused_imports": true,
          "fully_qualified_strict_types": true,
          "lambda_not_used_import": true,
          "native_function_invocation": true,
          "no_redundant_readonly_property": true,
          "static_lambda": true,
          "array_push": true,
          "ereg_to_preg": true,
          "modernize_strpos": true,
          "pow_to_exponentiation": true,
          "random_api_migration": true,
          "set_type_to_cast": true,
          "autoload_optimization": true,
          "condition_order": true
        },
        "fixers": {
            "condition_order": false
        }
    }
}

source_dirs.paths — which directories Catraca scans for PHP files. Only directories that exist on disk are used. If none of the configured directories exist, the project root is used as fallback. Defaults to ["src", "app", "lib"].

`catraca check` — Run quality gates

Runs all 8 gates and compares against baseline. If catraca_baseline.json doesn't exist, it is created automatically.

# Human-readable (default)
vendor/bin/catraca check

# Plain text (no colors)
vendor/bin/catraca check --plain

# JSON output for AI agents / CI
vendor/bin/catraca check --format=json
# or vendor/bin/catraca check --format=json-pretty

# GitHub Actions annotations
vendor/bin/catraca check --format=github

# Specify project path
vendor/bin/catraca check --path=/path/to/project

# Auto-fix issues if any gate fails, then verify
vendor/bin/catraca check --fix

AI Agent Detection: When Catraca detects it is running inside an AI agent (Cursor, Claude Code, OpenCode, etc.), it automatically switches to --format=json for structured output. You can still override this by explicitly passing --format.

`catraca fix` — Auto-fix issues

Runs auto-fixers for code style, performance, and autoload optimization.

vendor/bin/catraca fix

# Specify project path
vendor/bin/catraca fix --path=/path/to/project

# Skip the automatic check after fixing
vendor/bin/catraca fix --no-check

What it fixes:

Fixer	Tool	What it does
Condition Order	Built-in	Swaps expensive conditions to come after cheaper ones in `&&` / `
Code Style	`pint` or `php-cs-fixer`	Fixes all code style violations
Performance	`php-cs-fixer`	Adds missing imports, removes unused imports, cleans FQCNs, optimizes native calls and more
Autoload	`composer`	Runs `composer dump-autoload -o` if not optimized

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	All gates passed
1	One or more gates failed

Output Formats

Human (default)

Terminal-friendly output with ANSI colors:

  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ CATRACA — PHP Quality Gate Report                │
  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ✔ Security Audit          PASS     0 total advisories, 0 critical/high
  ✔ Code Style              PASS     0 violations (baseline: 0)
  ✘ Static Analysis         FAIL     3 errors (baseline: 0)
  ✔ Test Coverage           PASS     85.00% (baseline: 85.00%)
  ✘ Duplication             FAIL     5.22% (baseline: 2.00%, 2 clones)
  ✔ File Size               PASS     0 files exceed 1000 lines
  ✔ Cyclomatic Complexity   PASS     max CCN 8, 0 violations (>50), 1 warnings (>20)
  ✔ Performance             PASS     No performance improvements needed
  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  RESULT: FAIL — 6/8 gates passed

  ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
  │ Required Actions                 │
  └──────────────────────────────────┘
  [1] FIX SA — Fix 3 PHPStan errors
      → app/Service.php:42
      → app/Repository.php:15
      → app/Controller.php:88
  [2] REFACTOR DUP — Duplication increased from 2.00% to 5.20%
      → src/A.php:10-50 <-> src/B.php:100-140 (40L)

JSON (for AI agents)

Use catraca check --format=json to get structured JSON output for AI agents. If you want it formatted, use catraca check --format=json-pretty. Note: Consumes more AI agent tokens.

Catraca auto-detects AI agents (Cursor, Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Codex, Augment, and others) and automatically uses JSON output — no flag needed.

{
  "schema": "catraca/v1",
  "result": "fail",
  "timestamp": "2025-05-08T10:30:00+00:00",
  "summary": {
    "total": 7,
    "passed": 5,
    "failed": 2,
    "skipped": 0
  },
  "gates": [
    {
      "name": "security",
      "label": "Security Audit",
      "status": "pass",
      "severity": "block",
      "message": "0 total advisories, 0 critical/high",
      "baseline": { "advisories": 0 },
      "current": { "advisories": 0, "critical": 0 }
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "FIX SA",
      "priority": 0,
      "message": "Fix 3 PHPStan errors",
      "files": ["app/Service.php:42", "app/Repository.php:15"]
    }
  ]
}

GitHub Actions

Uses ::error::, ::warning::, and ::group:: annotations for native GitHub integration.

Security Gate

The Security gate runs composer audit (always) plus 14 source-code checks (all enabled by default):

Rule	What it detects
`hardcoded_secrets`	API keys, tokens, private keys, and other credentials in source code
`sql_injection`	Raw SQL with interpolated variables (`DB::select("...$var")`, `whereRaw`)
`command_injection`	`exec`/`shell_exec`/`system`/`passthru` with unsanitized variables
`csrf_protection`	Missing `@csrf` in Laravel forms with POST/PUT/DELETE methods
`path_traversal`	`file_get_contents`, `Storage::`, `include` with user-controlled paths
`insecure_deserialization`	`unserialize()` with dynamic input or `base64_decode` chains
`ssrf`	`Http::`, Guzzle, `curl_setopt(CURLOPT_URL)` with user-controlled URLs
`tls_verification`	`withoutVerifying()`, `'verify' => false`, disabled `CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER`
`insecure_rng`	`rand()`/`mt_rand()`/`uniqid()` used for tokens/secrets (should use `random_bytes`)
`gitignore_sensitive`	Missing `.env`, `.key`, `.pem` entries in `.gitignore`
`package_freshness`	Composer packages released less than 3 days ago (untested)
`weak_cryptography`	`mcrypt_*`, ECB mode, DES/3DES/RC4, `md5`/`sha1` in security contexts
`cors_config`	`Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *` with credentials in Laravel CORS config
`npm_audit`	Known vulnerabilities in npm packages (if `package-lock.json` exists)

All rules are configurable in catraca_baseline.json under security.rules. Set any rule to false to disable it:

{
  "security": {
    "advisories": 0,
    "rules": {
      "hardcoded_secrets": true,
      "sql_injection": true,
      "command_injection": true,
      "csrf_protection": false,
      "path_traversal": true,
      "insecure_deserialization": true,
      "ssrf": true,
      "tls_verification": true,
      "insecure_rng": true,
      "gitignore_sensitive": true,
      "package_freshness": true,
      "weak_cryptography": true,
      "cors_config": true,
      "npm_audit": false
    }
  }
}

CSRF and CORS checks only apply to Laravel projects — they are skipped (not failed) when no Laravel directory structure is detected.

Performance Gate

The Performance gate runs php-cs-fixer with configurable rules (all enabled by default):

Rule	What it detects
`global_namespace_import`	Missing `use class/const` statements
`no_unused_imports`	Dead imports that slow parsing
`fully_qualified_strict_types`	`\Foo\Bar` when `use Foo\Bar` already exists
`lambda_not_used_import`	Closures importing variables they don't use
`native_function_invocation`	Native function calls without `\` prefix optimization
`no_redundant_readonly_property`	Redundant readonly property declarations
`static_lambda`	Lambdas not using `$this` that should be `static`
`array_push`	`array_push()` calls — use `$arr[] =` instead
`ereg_to_preg`	Deprecated `ereg` function calls
`modernize_strpos`	`strpos()` calls — use `str_contains`/`str_starts_with`/`str_ends_with`
`pow_to_exponentiation`	`pow()` calls — use `**` operator instead
`random_api_migration`	`rand()`/`mt_rand()` calls — use `random_int()` instead
`set_type_to_cast`	`settype()` calls — use type casting instead
`autoload_optimization`	Missing `composer dump-autoload -o`
`condition_order`	Expensive conditions placed before cheaper ones in `&&` / `

All rules are configurable in catraca_baseline.json under performance.rules. Set any rule to false to disable it, or true to enable it.

The condition_order check is enabled by default — it detects expensive conditions placed before cheaper ones. However, the auto-fix is disabled by default and marked as experimental because it modifies source code using AST transformations. Review all changes before committing. To enable automatic fixing, set performance.fixers.condition_order to true:

{
    "performance": {
        "rules": {
            "condition_order": true
        },
        "fixers": {
            "condition_order": true
        }
    }
}

PHPStan Configuration

If your project has a phpstan.neon, phpstan.neon.dist, or phpstan.dist.neon, Catraca uses it as-is. If no config file exists, it defaults to level 5.

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

# .github/workflows/catraca.yml
name: Catraca Quality Gate

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  quality-gate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.3'
          coverage: pcov
          tools: composer, phpstan, pint, phpmetrics

      - run: composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist
      - run: vendor/bin/catraca init --plain
        continue-on-error: true
      - run: vendor/bin/catraca check --format=github --plain

GitLab CI

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - test

catraca:
  stage: test
  image: php:8.3-cli
  cache:
    key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
    paths:
      - vendor/
  before_script:
    - apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -yqq unzip
    - curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
    - composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist
  script:
    - vendor/bin/catraca init --plain || true
    - vendor/bin/catraca check --plain

Forgejo Actions

Uses the same --format=github output — Forgejo Runner supports GitHub Actions workflow commands (::error::, ::warning::, ::group::).

# .forgejo/workflows/catraca.yml
name: Catraca Quality Gate

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  quality-gate:
    runs-on: docker
    container:
      image: php:8.3-cli
    steps:
      - uses: https://code.forgejo.org/actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install Composer
        run: |
          apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -yqq unzip
          curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

      - name: Install Dependencies
        run: composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist

      - name: Init Baseline
        run: vendor/bin/catraca init --plain
        continue-on-error: true

      - name: Run Quality Gate
        run: vendor/bin/catraca check --format=github --plain

Note: Adjust runs-on to match your runner's labels (e.g., docker, ubuntu-latest, self-hosted).

GrumPHP Integration

Create a custom task in your project:

// app/GrumPHP/CatracaTask.php
use GrumPHP\Runner\TaskResult;
use GrumPHP\Task\AbstractExternalTask;
use GrumPHP\Task\Config\EmptyTaskConfig;
use GrumPHP\Task\Config\TaskConfigInterface;

class CatracaTask extends AbstractExternalTask
{
    public function getConfig(): TaskConfigInterface
    {
        return new EmptyTaskConfig;
    }

    public function run(): TaskResult
    {
        $process = $this->processBuilder->build(['vendor/bin/catraca', 'check', '--plain']);
        $process->run();

        if (!$process->isSuccessful()) {
            return TaskResult::createFailed($this, $this->getContext(), [
                $process->getOutput(),
            ]);
        }

        return TaskResult::createPassed($this, $this->getContext());
    }
}

Register it in grumphp.yml:

# grumphp.yml
grumphp:
  tasks:
    catraca: ~

services:
  CatracaTask:
    class: App\GrumPHP\CatracaTask
    arguments:
      - '@process_builder'
      - '@formatter.raw_process'
    tags:
      - { name: grumphp.task, task: catraca }

Programmatic Usage

use B7S\Catraca\Catraca;
use B7S\Catraca\Output\JsonFormatter;
use B7S\Catraca\Output\HumanFormatter;

$catraca = new Catraca('/path/to/project');
$result = $catraca->check();

if ($result->isPass()) {
    echo "All quality gates passed!\n";
} else {
    foreach ($result->getActions() as $action) {
        echo sprintf("[%s] %s\n", $action->type->value, $action->message);
    }
}

// Get structured JSON for AI agents
echo json_encode($result->toArray(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);

Tool Resolution

Each tool is resolved in this order:

Local — vendor/bin/<tool> (project-level)
Global — <tool> in $PATH
Composer global — ~/.composer/vendor/bin/<tool>
Skip — gate is skipped if tool not found

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 103 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
bin		bin
src		src
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
catraca_baseline.json		catraca_baseline.json
composer.json		composer.json
logo.webp		logo.webp
phpstan-baseline.neon		phpstan-baseline.neon
phpstan.neon		phpstan.neon
phpunit.xml		phpunit.xml
version		version

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Repository files navigation

Catraca

Install

Quality Gates

Dependencies

Usage

`catraca init` — Initialize baseline

Configuration — `catraca_baseline.json`

`catraca check` — Run quality gates

`catraca fix` — Auto-fix issues

Exit Codes

Output Formats

Human (default)

JSON (for AI agents)

GitHub Actions

Security Gate

Performance Gate

PHPStan Configuration

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Forgejo Actions

GrumPHP Integration

Programmatic Usage

Tool Resolution

License

About

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Contributors

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Repository files navigation

Catraca

Install

Quality Gates

Dependencies

Usage

catraca init — Initialize baseline

Configuration — catraca_baseline.json

catraca check — Run quality gates

catraca fix — Auto-fix issues

Exit Codes

Output Formats

Human (default)

JSON (for AI agents)

GitHub Actions

Security Gate

Performance Gate

PHPStan Configuration

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Forgejo Actions

GrumPHP Integration

Programmatic Usage

Tool Resolution

License

About

Topics

Resources

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases 16

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Contributors

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Languages

`catraca init` — Initialize baseline

Configuration — `catraca_baseline.json`

`catraca check` — Run quality gates

`catraca fix` — Auto-fix issues