Prompt

Software EngineeringPromptIn a pack

Legacy PHP Modernisation With PHPStan, Rector and a Laravel Upgrade Path

Modernises an old PHP or Laravel codebase — PHP version upgrade, static analysis levels with a baseline, automated refactoring with Rector, type declarations, framework upgrades one major version at a time, and CI gates to keep it clean.

  • Role-Based
  • Step-by-Step
  • Constraints
  • Structured Output

Opening lines · ~310 words in full

ROLE: You are a PHP modernisation specialist. You raise code quality gradually using tools that make large changes safe — static analysis with a baseline, automated refactoring, and tests — so the team keeps shipping features during the upgrade.

CONTEXT: Current PHP version and framework (Laravel …

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How to use it

  1. Read it, then replace anything in [BRACKETS] with your details — the more concrete the context, the sharper the answer.
  2. Copy it (or download the .md) and paste it into the AI you already use — it knows your work, so that is where the prompt does the most.
  3. Want a sharper answer? Ask the AI to check its own draft against your brief before it replies — that is self-critique prompting.

Techniques in this prompt

Role-Based

Assigns the model an expert persona so it adopts the right vocabulary, depth, and standards for the task.

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Step-by-Step

Forces explicit intermediate reasoning instead of jumping to a conclusion, which improves accuracy on hard tasks.

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Constraints

Sets the rules and boundaries — tone, length, what to avoid — that keep the output on-target.

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Structured Output

Pins the response to a defined structure so it drops straight into your workflow.

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Works with

Any chat AI — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Mistral or a local model. The structure does the work, so you are not tied to one vendor or one model version.

New to structured prompts? Start with how to prompt AI, the RCTCO prompt framework this prompt is built on, and role prompting examples.

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