--- title: I built an open-source static flow analyzer for Symfony... description: A new open-source static flow analyzer called PHPFlow has launched for PHP/Symfony applications, aiming to answer questions like what happens when a given... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-an-open-source-static-flow-analyzer-for-symfony-phpflow-v0-1-0-s638p1ilc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I built an open-source static flow analyzer for Symfony — PHPFlow v0.1.0 | daily.dev og:description: A new open-source static flow analyzer called PHPFlow has launched for PHP/Symfony applications, aiming to answer questions like what happens when a given... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-an-open-source-static-flow-analyzer-for-symfony-phpflow-v0-1-0-s638p1ilc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/S638P1iLc.png og:image:alt: I built an open-source static flow analyzer for Symfony — PHPFlow v0.1.0 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. # I built an open-source static flow analyzer for Symfony — PHPFlow v0.1.0 **[Symfony Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/symfonydevs)** · [@patryyyck](https://daily.dev/patryyyck) · 2 min read · 5 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A new open-source static flow analyzer called PHPFlow has launched for PHP/Symfony applications, aiming to answer questions like what happens when a given route is called by tracing through controllers, services, Messenger handlers, repositories, and database or external API calls. It works without executing the target application, reconstructing execution flows as a graph and generating an interactive HTML viewer with search, functional lanes, and critical-path exploration. Version 0.1.0 supports Symfony routing, dependency injection, Messenger, Doctrine DBAL/QueryBuilder, HTTP calls, and exceptions. The tool is deliberately conservative, avoiding inferred relationships it cannot prove statically. The creator is seeking feedback from real-world Symfony codebases to identify missed patterns. ## Content Hi everyone, I’ve just released the first public version of **PHPFlow**, an open-source static flow analyzer for PHP/Symfony applications. The idea came from a problem I regularly run into on larger applications: answering a question like **“what actually happens when this route is called?”** can mean jumping through a controller, several services, Messenger dispatches and handlers, repositories, database queries and external APIs. PHPFlow analyzes the source code without running the target application and reconstructs those flows as a graph. For example, it can help answer: - What happens when this Symfony route is called? - Which routes/messages can reach this database table? - What depends on this service? - Where is this Messenger message handled? - Which flows call this external API? - Where can this exception surface? v0.1.0 currently understands Symfony routes, dependency injection, Messenger, repositories, Doctrine DBAL/QueryBuilder, external HTTP calls, exceptions and a number of control-flow patterns. It also generates a self-contained interactive HTML viewer with search, functional lanes, Messenger boundaries, minimap, path-to-effects and critical-path exploration. PHPFlow is deliberately conservative: **if it cannot prove a relationship statically, it doesn’t invent one.** It also never boots or executes the application being analyzed. There’s a bundled Symfony demo, so after cloning: ``` make setup make demo ``` I’m especially interested in trying it against real-world Symfony applications now. If you give it a try and it misses a pattern used by your project, I’d really like to hear about it. GitHub: [github.com/patryyyck/phpflow](https://github.com/patryyyck/phpflow?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Feedback, bug reports and criticism are very welcome. ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@derroylo** · 0 upvotes > Looks interesting, will give it a try :) ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Zero-Waste Symfony: Stripping the Overhead ‣ harasim.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/zero-waste-symfony-stripping-the-overhead-harasim-dev-eugyu8yvd) · Harasim.dev · 6 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#symfony](https://daily.dev/tags/symfony) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-an-open-source-static-flow-analyzer-for-symfony-phpflow-v0-1-0-s638p1ilc) ```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":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-an-open-source-static-flow-analyzer-for-symfony-phpflow-v0-1-0-s638p1ilc","headline":"I built an open-source static flow analyzer for Symfony — PHPFlow v0.1.0","text":"A new open-source static flow analyzer called PHPFlow has launched for PHP/Symfony applications, aiming to answer questions like what happens when a given route is called by tracing through controllers, services, Messenger handlers, repositories, and database or external API calls. 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