--- title: Build a repeatable PHP-to-Java migration engine with Kiro description: A reusable engine turns PHP-to-Java migration into a measurable, repeatable process using Kiro, an AI IDE. It runs a mechanical discovery scanner first, then... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-repeatable-php-to-java-migration-engine-with-kiro-nmmhixdxi twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Build a repeatable PHP-to-Java migration engine with Kiro | daily.dev og:description: A reusable engine turns PHP-to-Java migration into a measurable, repeatable process using Kiro, an AI IDE. It runs a mechanical discovery scanner first, then... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-repeatable-php-to-java-migration-engine-with-kiro-nmmhixdxi og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NmMhixdxi.png og:image:alt: Build a repeatable PHP-to-Java migration engine with Kiro og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Build a repeatable PHP-to-Java migration engine with Kiro **[AWS](https://daily.dev/sources/aws)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A reusable engine turns PHP-to-Java migration into a measurable, repeatable process using Kiro, an AI IDE. It runs a mechanical discovery scanner first, then an eight-phase workflow that treats the original PHP app as the specification and verifies the Java port with a parity harness. The scanner, discover-models.php, detects Eloquent models, Doctrine attributes, and ORM XML mappings into one JSON manifest. A working example migrates Book, Chapter, Page, and User models from a Laravel app to Spring Boot 3.4.1 on Java 21, though only 4 of 37 models were ported and the parity harness was never built for that slice. The same skill files can also run through AWS Transform for portfolio-scale, agentic migrations. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does the Kiro PHP-to-Java migration engine verify the Java port actually matches the PHP original? It builds a parity harness before any Java is written, in phase 1 of an eight-phase workflow, which replays request and response pairs against both the PHP original and the Java port. The harness must pass against working PHP and fail when deliberately broken, since a harness that misses injected breakage isn't trusted; the port is considered done only when the harness agrees or each mismatch is logged as an approved change. _Teams planning a legacy rewrite can track parity-testing approaches like this one on daily.dev._ ### What does the discovery scanner in the PHP-to-Java migration engine actually detect in a Laravel or Symfony codebase? A single-file, dependency-free PHP command-line tool called discover-models.php runs three strategies: Eloquent model discovery by walking the class inheritance chain to Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model, Doctrine attribute detection via the #[ORM\Entity] attribute, and ORM XML mapping from *.orm.xml files. It outputs one JSON manifest with a models array and a flags array for anything ambiguous, such as a $fillable list built from a runtime expression. _Developers scoping a PHP migration can follow tooling like this scanner on daily.dev before committing to a rewrite._ ### How complete was the example migration from a Laravel Eloquent app to Spring Boot in this PHP-to-Java migration project? Only 4 of 37 models were ported, migrating the Book, Chapter, Page, and User models to Spring Boot 3.4.1 on Java 21 with Maven and an in-memory H2 database. The project itself calls the missing parity harness for this slice 'the single biggest gap,' since the harness that verifies PHP-to-Java behavioral equivalence was never built for it. _Engineers weighing migration tool maturity can watch how projects like this one evolve via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Automating application migration with MigIQ](https://daily.dev/posts/automating-application-migration-with-migiq-bmmgwjxu1) · Red Hat Developer · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Reverse Engineering with Hibernate 7.4 and IntelliJ IDEA](https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-with-hibernate-7-4-and-intellij-idea-ftoyzdfii) · JetBrains · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How 3 Java Champions are using GitHub Copilot for increased productivity](https://daily.dev/posts/how-3-java-champions-are-using-github-copilot-for-increased-productivity-mpzvcsryu) · GitHub Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#java](https://daily.dev/tags/java), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#spring-boot](https://daily.dev/tags/spring-boot), [#kiro](https://daily.dev/tags/kiro) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-repeatable-php-to-java-migration-engine-with-kiro-nmmhixdxi) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Build a repeatable PHP-to-Java migration engine with Kiro","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-repeatable-php-to-java-migration-engine-with-kiro-nmmhixdxi","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-repeatable-php-to-java-migration-engine-with-kiro-nmmhixdxi"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T21:47:05.132Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T21:48:30.752Z","description":"A reusable engine turns PHP-to-Java migration into a measurable, repeatable process using Kiro, an AI IDE. 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