Editor & AI Client Setup

This page covers setup for every supported editor and AI coding client.

Finding the binary path

The path to the php-lsp binary depends on how you installed it.

Installed via cargo install php-lsp:

~/.cargo/bin/php-lsp

Downloaded a pre-built binary from Releases:

Move it somewhere on your PATH, e.g.:

sudo mv php-lsp /usr/local/bin/php-lsp

Then the path is /usr/local/bin/php-lsp.

You can verify the path with:

which php-lsp

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AI Coding Clients

Claude Code

Install the official plugin:

claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/jorgsowa/claude-php-lsp-plugin
claude plugin install php-lsp

The plugin configures everything automatically. The server binary must be on your PATH (or set the full path in the plugin’s .lsp.json after installation).

To override initializationOptions, edit .lsp.json in the plugin directory:

{
  "command": "/usr/local/bin/php-lsp",
  "initializationOptions": {
    "phpVersion": "8.2",
    "excludePaths": ["cache/*"]
  }
}

---

Cursor

Open Settings → Features → Language Servers → + and set:

Field	Value
Command	/usr/local/bin/php-lsp
File pattern	*.php

Or add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "languageServers": {
    "php-lsp": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/php-lsp",
      "filetypes": ["php"],
      "initializationOptions": {
        "phpVersion": "8.5"
      }
    }
  }
}

---

OpenCode

Add to opencode.json (or opencode.jsonc) in your project root:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "lsp": {
    "php-lsp": {
      "command": ["/usr/local/bin/php-lsp"],
      "extensions": [".php"],
      "initialization": {
        "phpVersion": "8.5",
        "excludePaths": []
      }
    }
  }
}

---

Editors

Zed

Add to ~/.config/zed/settings.json:

{
  "lsp": {
    "php-lsp": {
      "binary": {
        "path": "/usr/local/bin/php-lsp"
      },
      "initialization_options": {
        "phpVersion": "8.5",
        "excludePaths": []
      }
    }
  },
  "languages": {
    "PHP": {
      "language_servers": ["php-lsp"]
    }
  }
}

---

VS Code

Install the php-lsp extension (source). It ships a pre-built binary — no separate install required.

Via the Quick Open palette (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P):

ext install jorgsowa.php-lsp

Available settings (VS Code settings.json):

Setting	Default	Description
php-lsp.serverPath	(auto)	Path to the php-lsp binary; leave empty for auto-detection
php-lsp.phpVersion	8.5	PHP version (7.4 – 8.6)
php-lsp.excludePaths	[]	Glob patterns to exclude from the workspace
php-lsp.diagnostics.*	true	Per-diagnostic toggles (undefined variables/functions/classes, arity errors, type mismatches, deprecated calls, duplicate declarations)

Note: If Intelephense (or another PHP extension) is installed, it will conflict with php-lsp. Disable it via Extensions → Intelephense → Disable before using this extension.

---

Neovim 0.11+

Create ~/.config/nvim/lsp/php_lsp.lua:

---@type vim.lsp.Config
return {
  cmd = { '/usr/local/bin/php-lsp' },
  filetypes = { 'php' },
  root_markers = { 'composer.json', '.git' },
  workspace_required = true,
  init_options = {
    phpVersion = '8.5',
    excludePaths = {},
  },
}

Then enable it in init.lua:

vim.lsp.enable('php_lsp')

---

Neovim 0.10 and older

Add to init.lua:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('FileType', {
  pattern = 'php',
  callback = function()
    vim.lsp.start({
      name = 'php-lsp',
      cmd = { '/usr/local/bin/php-lsp' },
      root_dir = vim.fs.root(0, { 'composer.json', '.git' }),
      init_options = {
        phpVersion = '8.5',
        excludePaths = {},
      },
    })
  end,
})

---

PHPStorm

Install the php-lsp plugin from the JetBrains Marketplace (Settings → Plugins → Marketplace → “php-lsp”).

The plugin handles everything automatically — no manual server configuration required. Source is available at jorgsowa/php-lsp-phpstorm-plugin.

See configuration.md for all available options.

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Configuration reference

See configuration.md for all available initializationOptions.