Laravel Pint is an opinionated code style fixer for Laravel projects. While Pint works out of the box with a sensible default configuration, many teams benefit from customizing it to better match their coding principles and project architecture.
In this post, we’ll walk through our tailored pint.json configuration — explain what we changed, why we changed it, and how it helps us write cleaner, safer, and more maintainable PHP code.
The default Laravel preset is a great start. But as your team grows or your codebase scales, you may want to:
To do this, we introduced a custom pint.json file.
Here’s the high-level structure of our pint.json file:
{
"preset": "laravel",
"rules": {
"array_push": true,
"backtick_to_shell_exec": true,
"date_time_immutable": true,
"declare_strict_types": true,
"lowercase_keywords": true,
"lowercase_static_reference": true,
"final_class": false,
"final_internal_class": false,
"final_public_method_for_abstract_class": false,
"fully_qualified_strict_types": true,
"global_namespace_import": {
"import_classes": true,
"import_constants": true,
"import_functions": true
},
"mb_str_functions": true,
"modernize_types_casting": true,
"new_with_parentheses": false,
"no_superfluous_elseif": true,
"no_useless_else": true,
"no_multiple_statements_per_line": true,
"ordered_class_elements": {
"order": [
"use_trait",
"case",
"constant",
"constant_public",
"constant_protected",
"constant_private",
"property_public",
"property_protected",
"property_private",
"construct",
"destruct",
"magic",
"phpunit",
"method_abstract",
"method_public_static",
"method_public",
"method_protected_static",
"method_protected",
"method_private_static",
"method_private"
],
"sort_algorithm": "none"
},
"ordered_interfaces": true,
"ordered_traits": true,
"protected_to_private": true,
"self_accessor": true,
"self_static_accessor": true,
"strict_comparison": true,
"visibility_required": true
}
}
We extend the Laravel preset and layer on our own rules. Let’s explore what we changed and why.
We enforce strict_types in every PHP file and require fully qualified declare(strict_types=1); declarations. This ensures our code behaves consistently and avoids silent type coercions.
We prefer DateTimeImmutable over DateTime to avoid unintended side effects caused by mutable date objects.
We discourage the use of array_push($array, $value) in favor of the cleaner $array[] = $value.
All string manipulation uses multibyte-safe functions like mb_strtolower instead of strtolower, making our code safer for UTF-8 content.
This replaces outdated casting syntax like (int) with modern functions like intval(), which is clearer and more predictable in edge cases.
Backtick syntax for executing shell commands is replaced with shell_exec() — it’s more readable, consistent, and avoids subtle syntax issues.
All PHP keywords and static calls are enforced to be lowercase, ensuring visual consistency and aligning with modern best practices.
We allow more flexibility in class inheritance, especially useful in a modular or package-driven architecture where extensibility is key.
We’re okay with omitting parentheses for object instantiation in expressive contexts, like $foo = new Foo;.
These rules define the exact order in which class members should appear (traits, constants, properties, constructors, public methods, etc.), making it easier for developers to read and understand our code.
Example structure:
"ordered_class_elements": {
"order": [
"use_trait",
"constant",
"property_public",
"construct",
"method_public"
]
}
We automatically import classes, constants, and functions from the global namespace, reducing noise and promoting clarity.
When a class member doesn’t need to be protected, we automatically convert it to private, enforcing encapsulation and avoiding accidental coupling.
We use === and !== for all comparisons, ensuring type-safe logic and preventing bugs due to loose equality (==, !=).
These rules clean up our control flow and make conditionals more readable and maintainable.
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