Bump minimum PHP requirement to 7.4.12 to avoid covariant return type… by vyskoczilova · Pull Request #247 · WordPress/php-ai-client

vyskoczilova · 2026-06-04T09:26:21Z

Summary

Fixes #240 — PHP 7.4.0–7.4.11 have a known PHP engine bug (bug #80126) that causes a fatal error with the covariant return type pattern used throughout this library's DTOs:

Declaration of GenerativeAiResult::fromArray(array $array): GenerativeAiResult must be compatible with WithArrayTransformationInterface::fromArray(array $array): WithArrayTransformationInterface

The bug was fixed in PHP 7.4.12. This PR raises the declared minimum from >=7.4 to >=7.4.12 and adds a runtime guard so the problem surfaces as a clear, actionable message rather than a cryptic fatal error.

Changes

`composer.json`

require.php: >=7.4 → >=7.4.12
config.platform.php: 7.4 → 7.4.12

`src/polyfills.php`

Added a trigger_error(E_USER_WARNING) guard at load time for PHP 7.4.0–7.4.11. This file is autoloaded via Composer's files mechanism, so the warning fires on the very first request — before any DTO class is loaded and before a cryptic fatal can occur.

`README.md`

Added a Requirements section listing PHP 7.4.12+ with a link to the PHP bug report.

`CONTRIBUTING.md`

Updated the PHP Compatibility section to state 7.4.12 as the minimum and explain why.

`AGENTS.md`

Updated the key constraints list to reflect 7.4.12.

`phpcs.xml.dist`

Updated the inline comment to reference 7.4.12+. The testVersion value stays 7.4- because PHPCompatibility does not support patch-level version filtering — this is correct and intentional.

Notes

No logic changes, no API surface changes.
All 1088 unit tests pass.
The trigger_error approach (rather than throwing an exception) is deliberate: it fires early without hard-aborting, matches the WordPress-agnostic nature of the library, and follows the same conditional-check pattern already used in polyfills.php.

Closes #240

https://profiles.wordpress.org/vyskoczilova/

… fatal (#1) PHP 7.4.0–7.4.11 have a known engine bug (https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=80126) that causes a fatal error when a class method returns a more specific type than its interface declares. The DTO inheritance pattern used throughout this project (e.g. GenerativeAiResult::fromArray returning GenerativeAiResult instead of WithArrayTransformationInterface) triggers this exact bug on affected patch releases. The bug was fixed in PHP 7.4.12. Updates composer.json require and platform config, CONTRIBUTING.md compatibility note, and AGENTS.md key constraints to reflect 7.4.12 as the true minimum. Fixes WordPress#240 Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

github-actions · 2026-06-04T09:29:20Z

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs. You can also manually ask me to refresh this list by adding the props-bot label.

Unlinked Accounts

The following contributors have not linked their GitHub and WordPress.org accounts: @claude, @sensahin.

Contributors, please read how to link your accounts to ensure your work is properly credited in WordPress releases.

If you're merging code through a pull request on GitHub, copy and paste the following into the bottom of the merge commit message.

Unlinked contributors: claude, sensahin.

Co-authored-by: vyskoczilova <vyskoczilova@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: felixarntz <flixos90@git.wordpress.org>
Co-authored-by: johnbillion <johnbillion@git.wordpress.org>

To understand the WordPress project's expectations around crediting contributors, please review the Contributor Attribution page in the Core Handbook.

Regenerates the content-hash after bumping config.platform.php from 7.4 to 7.4.12 in composer.json, which caused the lock file to be flagged as out of date in CI. https://claude.ai/code/session_0196NorwZgGmwBVudD4Q3eQz

Corrects the content-hash after bumping config.platform.php from 7.4 to 7.4.12. The previous hash was computed with extra config fields; this one matches Composer's Locker::getContentHash() exactly (only config.platform is included). Passes `composer validate` locally. https://claude.ai/code/session_0196NorwZgGmwBVudD4Q3eQz

Updates the baked-in platform and platform-overrides values in composer.lock to match the new >=7.4.12 requirement in composer.json. The old lock file had platform-overrides.php: 7.4, causing `composer install` to fail because 7.4 < 7.4.12. https://claude.ai/code/session_0196NorwZgGmwBVudD4Q3eQz

codecov · 2026-06-04T09:42:27Z

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 88.12%. Comparing base (99a65e8) to head (ec55a84).

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff            @@
##              trunk     #247   +/-   ##
=========================================
  Coverage     88.12%   88.12%           
  Complexity     1213     1213           
=========================================
  Files            60       60           
  Lines          3934     3934           
=========================================
  Hits           3467     3467           
  Misses          467      467

Flag	Coverage Δ
unit	`88.12% <ø> (ø)`

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

Since composer.json enforces >=7.4.12, PHP_VERSION_ID is always >=70412 at runtime, making the 7.4.0-7.4.11 trigger_error check unreachable. PHPStan correctly flags both comparisons as always-false/always-true. The composer.json minimum version requirement is sufficient protection. https://claude.ai/code/session_0196NorwZgGmwBVudD4Q3eQz

vyskoczilova · 2026-06-04T09:45:16Z

Done, sorry for the mess with the composer.lock, but fixed now.

felixarntz

@vyskoczilova Thank you for the PR!

Generally, this seems reasonable to me, but we need to consider how this affects WordPress Core, which relies on this package.

@johnbillion What is the exact minimum PHP version supported by WordPress now? is it 7.4 exactly? or any particular patch version of it?

johnbillion · 2026-06-09T09:22:39Z

The minimum is 7.4.0: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/01/09/dropping-support-for-php-7-2-and-7-3/

claude added 3 commits June 4, 2026 09:33

felixarntz reviewed Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Bump minimum PHP requirement to 7.4.12 to avoid covariant return type…#247

Bump minimum PHP requirement to 7.4.12 to avoid covariant return type…#247
vyskoczilova wants to merge 5 commits into
WordPress:trunkfrom
vyskoczilova:trunk

vyskoczilova commented Jun 4, 2026

Uh oh!

github-actions Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

codecov Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

vyskoczilova commented Jun 4, 2026

Uh oh!

felixarntz left a comment

Uh oh!

johnbillion commented Jun 9, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

Conversation

vyskoczilova commented Jun 4, 2026

Summary

Changes

composer.json

src/polyfills.php

README.md

CONTRIBUTING.md

AGENTS.md

phpcs.xml.dist

Notes

Uh oh!

github-actions Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Unlinked Accounts

Uh oh!

codecov Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Codecov Report

Uh oh!

vyskoczilova commented Jun 4, 2026

Uh oh!

felixarntz left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

johnbillion commented Jun 9, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

`composer.json`

`src/polyfills.php`

`README.md`

`CONTRIBUTING.md`

`AGENTS.md`

`phpcs.xml.dist`

github-actions Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 •

edited

Loading

codecov Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 •

edited

Loading