maxbeckers/php-builder-generator

Generate builder patterns for PHP classes using attributes

2.0.2 2026-06-10 11:17 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.2
• composer-plugin-api: ^2.0
• symfony/console: ^7.0|^8.0
• symfony/finder: ^7.0|^8.0
• twig/twig: ^3.0

Requires (Dev)

• composer/composer: ^2.0
• phpunit/phpunit: ^10.0
• symfony/filesystem: ^7.0|^8.0

MIT

• Max Beckers

README

Generate builder patterns for PHP classes — a dev-only dependency.

Features

• 🚀 Dev-only: No production dependency — the library is never needed at runtime
• 🏃 Zero Runtime Overhead: Builders generated at build time, not runtime
• 📝 IDE Friendly: Full autocomplete and type checking support
• 🔧 Highly Configurable: Customize every aspect of generation via a single config file
• 🎯 Type Safe: Preserves all type information from original classes
• 🏗️ Constructor Aware: Intelligently handles constructor parameters

Quick Start

1. Install as dev dependency

composer require --dev maxbeckers/php-builder-generator

2. Allow the Composer plugin

Add to your composer.json:

{
  "config": {
    "allow-plugins": {
      "maxbeckers/php-builder-generator": true
    }
  }
}

3. Update Autoload for Generated Builders

{
  "autoload": {
    "psr-4": {
      "App\\": ["src/", "generated/php-builder-generator/App/"]
    }
  }
}

Important: The path must include the namespace (e.g. .../App/), not just the base output directory.

After updating, run:

composer dump-autoload

4. Create php-builder-generator.php

Add a config file to your project root:

<?php
// php-builder-generator.php

use MaxBeckers\PhpBuilderGenerator\Config\BuilderConfig;
use MaxBeckers\PhpBuilderGenerator\Config\PhpBuilderGeneratorConfig;

return PhpBuilderGeneratorConfig::configure()
    // Option A: explicit per-class config
    ->class(App\Model\User::class)
    ->class(App\Model\Company::class, new BuilderConfig(fluent: false, exclude: ['internalId']))

    // Option B: scan a whole directory (generates a builder for every class found)
    ->scanDirectory('src/DTO')
    ->scanDirectory('src/Model', new BuilderConfig(fluent: true))

    // Output settings
    ->outputDir('generated/php-builder-generator/')
    ->phpVersion('8.2');

Your production classes need no imports from this library — they stay completely clean:

<?php
// src/Model/User.php

namespace App\Model;

class User
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $name,
        public string $email,
        public ?int $age = null,
        public array $roles = []
    ) {}
}

5. Generate & Use

Builders are automatically generated during composer install/update, or run:

./vendor/bin/php-builder-generator

Use your generated builder:

$user = UserBuilder::builder()
    ->name('John Doe')
    ->email('[e-mail]')
    ->age(30)
    ->roles(['admin'])
    ->build();

Documentation

📚 Complete Documentation

Quick Links

• Installation & Setup - Detailed installation guide
• Basic Usage - Learn the fundamentals
• Configuration Guide - All configuration options
• Basic Examples - Common use cases
• Contributing - How to contribute

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or higher
• Composer 2.0 or higher

Show Your Support

If you find this package helpful, I would be happy to get a ⭐ star on GitHub! It helps others discover the project and motivates continued development.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Questions or Issues? Please open an issue on GitHub.

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