phpstanApi.runtimeReflection - Phpstan

Code example

php

<?php declare(strict_types = 1);

use PHPStan\Reflection\ReflectionProvider;
use PHPStan\Type\DynamicFunctionReturnTypeExtension;
use PHPStan\Type\Type;
use PHPStan\Analyser\Scope;
use PhpParser\Node\Expr\FuncCall;

class MyExtension implements DynamicFunctionReturnTypeExtension
{
	public function isFunctionSupported(\PHPStan\Reflection\FunctionReflection $functionReflection): bool
	{
		return true;
	}

	public function getTypeFromFunctionCall(\PHPStan\Reflection\FunctionReflection $functionReflection, FuncCall $functionCall, Scope $scope): ?Type
	{
		$ref = new \ReflectionClass('SomeClass');
		$parents = class_parents('SomeClass');

		return null;
	}
}

Why is it reported?

PHP runtime reflection functions and classes (class_parents(), class_implements(), is_a(), is_subclass_of(), class_uses(), new ReflectionClass(), new ReflectionMethod(), etc.) rely on classes being loaded at runtime. PHPStan uses a fully static reflection engine that analyses code without executing it, so these runtime reflection calls might not work correctly inside PHPStan extensions.

This error is reported when a class implementing a PHPStan interface (such as DynamicFunctionReturnTypeExtension, Rule, Type, etc.) uses runtime reflection. The classes being reflected may not be autoloadable during static analysis.

How to fix it

Use PHPStan's ReflectionProvider service to obtain class reflection instead of PHP's runtime reflection:

diff-php

 <?php declare(strict_types = 1);

 use PHPStan\Reflection\ReflectionProvider;

 class MyExtension implements DynamicFunctionReturnTypeExtension
 {
+	public function __construct(private ReflectionProvider $reflectionProvider)
+	{
+	}
+
 	public function getTypeFromFunctionCall(\PHPStan\Reflection\FunctionReflection $functionReflection, FuncCall $functionCall, Scope $scope): ?Type
 	{
-		$ref = new \ReflectionClass('SomeClass');
-		$parents = class_parents('SomeClass');
+		$classReflection = $this->reflectionProvider->getClass('SomeClass');
+		$parents = $classReflection->getParentClassesNames();

 		return null;
 	}
 }

The ReflectionProvider is available as a dependency injection service in PHPStan extensions and provides static reflection that works reliably during analysis.