PHP Code Beautifier and Fixer is a GitHub Action that checks your PHP code for style issues using the supported PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer and automatically attempts to fix them using phpcbf ensuring compatibility with Super-Linter. (Note that the original squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer was abandoned.) This action can either commit changes directly to the current branch or create a new branch if you prefer manual review via pull request.

• Automatic Fixes: Check PHP files for coding standard violations and attempts to automatically fix them when possible.
• Flexible Committing: Creates a new branch (prefixed with phpcbf/fix) if changes are required, making it easy to review and merge. Or you can set the input parameter commit-changes: true to commit to the current branch. (Recommendation: start with committing to another branch and review in order to avoid surprises. Then commit to the same branch for incremental changes.)
• Configurable: Adjust extensions, ignore and standard parameters of phpcs. Adjust PHP version, or commit-message.
• Caching: Cache vendor/ (for a unique combination of php-version and composer.json) after a successful run in order to speed up further runs.
• GitHub Action Chain: Either leave this GitHub Action non-blocking or set stop-on-manual-fix according to your automation process needs.
• Direct link to a new commit: A URL to the new commit is displayed as a notice to allow for a quick check of what's been changed.

This action is designed to be used as a reusable workflow. You can call it from another workflow in your repository or simply add the provided YAML configuration to your repository.

By default, if necessary, a new branch with a name starting with phpcbf/fix will be created, making it easy to review and merge fixes into your main branch.

Note 1: This action is non-blocking, so the status remains green even when changes are proposed via a new branch. A notice message is displayed, and it is then up to you to either create a pull request to merge the changes or delete the branch.

Note 2: However, you can mandate the action to stop if manual fixes are necessary by setting the input parameter stop-on-manual-fix: true.

This action requires the following permissions:

permissions:
  contents: write

To optimize execution time, the vendor folder is cached, allowing dependencies to be reused across workflow runs. The cache key is generated based on:

• composer.json – to track dependency changes.
• The runner's OS and PHP version – to account for environment-specific variations.

This approach enables cache sharing across branches. However, if the composer.json file in the referenced branch (e.g., dev) changes, it's recommended to invalidate the cache to ensure a fresh vendor folder is built from scratch.

The cache name (key) is phpcs-fix-${{ runner.os }}-PHP${{ inputs.php-version }}-vendor-${{ hashFiles('**/composer.json') }}