MCP PHPCS Server (Local, No Dependencies)

A minimal Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implemented in pure PHP that exposes two tools:

• phpcs_check: Runs PHP_CodeSniffer and returns a readable report.
• phpcbf_fix: Runs PHP Code Beautifier and Fixer.

No Composer dependencies. Designed to be copied into any project.

Structure (DDD)

• src/Domain: Tool contracts and results
• src/Application: JSON-RPC MCP server and registry
• src/Infrastructure: Process runner, config, ruleset discovery, tool implementations
• bin/mcp-phpcs: STDIO entrypoint

Configure

You can configure via environment variables or config/config.json:

• MCP_PHPCS_PATH – path to phpcs binary (default: phpcs on PATH)
• MCP_PHPCBF_PATH – path to phpcbf binary (default: phpcbf on PATH)
• MCP_PHPCS_RULESET – path to a ruleset (e.g. phpcs.xml)

If no ruleset is provided, the server searches upwards from the current working directory for one of: phpcs.xml, phpcs.xml.dist, ruleset.xml.

Run

Mark the script executable once:

chmod +x mcp/phpcs-server/bin/mcp-phpcs

Then configure your MCP client to start the server via stdio using the command:

/absolute/path/to/mcp/phpcs-server/bin/mcp-phpcs

Example: Claude Desktop config

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "phpcs": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/mcp/phpcs-server/bin/mcp-phpcs",
      "env": {
        "MCP_PHPCS_PATH": "/usr/local/bin/phpcs",
        "MCP_PHPCBF_PATH": "/usr/local/bin/phpcbf",
        "MCP_PHPCS_RULESET": "/path/to/your/phpcs.xml"
      }
    }
  }
}

The server speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over STDIN/STDOUT and implements:

• initialize
• tools/list
• tools/call

Tools

phpcs_check

Input schema:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "path": {"type": "string"}
  },
  "required": ["path"]
}

phpcbf_fix

Same input schema as phpcs_check.

Notes

• Output to STDOUT is strictly JSON-RPC messages. Logs go to STDERR.
• Non-zero exit codes from phpcs are treated as violations (not necessarily fatal errors).