Training course · Claude Code · PHP & Laravel/Symfony

Claude Code for PHP Developers

Agentic coding with Claude Code in the terminal and IDE: CLAUDE.md, subagents, hooks, MCP, CI pipelines and secure permissions.

Duration
2 days (14 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

This course connects Claude Code with the everyday processes of PHP & Laravel/Symfony. Participants work on realistic scenarios and leave with prompts, workflows and checklists they can use straight away.

Claude Code is Anthropic’s agentic coding assistant, working directly in your terminal and in popular IDEs. Rather than completing individual lines, it reads your repository, plans changes across multiple files, runs commands, executes tests and prepares commits. Over two days you will learn to use it with deliberate control: clear project instructions in CLAUDE.md, careful context management, and a workflow in which you set the direction as a developer and can trace every change the agent makes back to a clear intention.

The course is built around real engineering work: diagnosing bugs, delivering features, refactoring legacy code and filling gaps in test coverage. You will configure subagents for specialised tasks, enforce quality checks with hooks, connect external systems through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and capture team knowledge as reusable skills. Finally, you will run Claude Code headless in CI pipelines and define permissions, sandboxing and approval rules so that its use remains defensible even in security-sensitive environments.

PHP powers a large share of the web – from Laravel and Symfony applications to Shopware and Magento stores and bespoke platforms that have evolved over many years. As a result, modern framework projects frequently sit alongside legacy code without types, tests or Composer structure. AI coding assistants and agents help on both fronts: they write PHPUnit and Pest tests, bring code up to modern language standards with Rector, work through PHPStan findings level by level, generate Eloquent or Doctrine models with migrations and explain tangled legacy logic. The prerequisite is good context on framework conventions, coding standards and the test environment. This course teaches you to use agents so that modernisation becomes predictable and safe.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • PHP developers working with Laravel or Symfony
  • Developers of e-commerce systems such as Shopware or Magento
  • Agency teams juggling many client projects in parallel
  • Teams modernising legacy PHP applications

Typical challenges we address

  • Legacy code without type declarations, namespaces or automated tests
  • Laborious upgrades of PHP versions and major framework releases
  • Security risks from SQL injection, XSS and unsafe file uploads in old code
  • Tight deadlines on agency projects combined with high quality expectations

What you will be able to do

  • You use Claude Code for multi-step development tasks while keeping full control over every change.
  • You maintain a CLAUDE.md that effectively conveys project conventions, commands and architectural guidance to the agent.
  • You extend Claude Code with subagents, hooks, MCP servers and skills tailored to your team.
  • You integrate Claude Code into Git workflows and CI pipelines with traceable, test-backed results.
  • Use AI agents for tests, static analysis and upgrades in Laravel, Symfony and legacy projects.
  • Modernise legacy code incrementally and safely with AI support.
  • Recognise typical security flaws in generated and existing PHP code and fix them in a targeted way.

Course outline

Day 1

Module 1 How Claude Code works
  • Installation, sign-in and use in the terminal, VS Code and JetBrains IDEs
  • Understanding the agentic loop: read, plan, act, verify
  • Using plan mode to agree on an approach before any code changes
  • Writing effective task briefs with goal, context and acceptance criteria
Module 2 Project context with CLAUDE.md and context management
  • Structuring CLAUDE.md at project, directory and user level
  • Documenting build, test and style conventions so the agent follows them reliably
  • Managing the context window with targeted file references, compaction and fresh sessions
  • Resuming sessions and breaking long tasks into manageable stages
Module 3 Extending Claude Code with subagents, hooks, MCP and skills
  • Defining subagents for code review, research or test generation
  • Using hooks to enforce formatting, linting or checks before and after tool calls
  • Connecting MCP servers for issue trackers, databases or internal documentation
  • Creating custom slash commands and skills for recurring team workflows
Module 4 Git workflows, testing and quality assurance
  • Creating branches, meaningful commits and pull requests with Claude Code
  • Test-first work: have tests written before the implementation
  • Reviewing diffs systematically and rejecting or refining changes
  • Organising parallel work with Git worktrees and multiple sessions

Day 2

Module 5 Headless operation, CI and security
  • Running Claude Code non-interactively in scripts and CI pipelines
  • Automated reviews and issue handling in GitHub or GitLab workflows
  • Configuring permission modes, allow and deny rules, and sandboxing
  • Handling secrets, prompt injection risks and organisation-wide policies
Module 6 Practice lab: PHP & Laravel/Symfony
  • Generating PHPUnit and Pest tests
  • Raising PHPStan levels step by step
  • Upgrades with Rector
  • Building Laravel and Symfony features
  • Understanding and untangling legacy code
  • Finding security vulnerabilities
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • PHP applications frequently process customer data from shops and portals, so database dumps and logs containing personal data must never go into prompts unfiltered. Check new Composer packages for licence and vulnerabilities, keep credentials from .env files out of context and, as an agency, agree contractually whether client code may be processed by AI services.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Generating PHPUnit and Pest tests

The agent writes unit and feature tests for controllers, services and models, uses factories and database transactions, and runs the tests iteratively until they pass consistently.

Raising PHPStan levels step by step

The AI works through static analysis findings systematically, adds type declarations, generics annotations and return types, and raises the analysis level in controlled steps without changing behaviour.

Upgrades with Rector

Rector rules are configured and run, remaining incompatibilities in PHP or framework upgrades are fixed by hand and deprecations surfaced in logs and tests are cleared systematically.

Building Laravel and Symfony features

From a functional description, the assistant creates migrations, Eloquent or Doctrine entities, form requests or validators, controllers, policies and tests – all in line with framework conventions.

Understanding and untangling legacy code

The assistant explains procedural legacy logic, extracts functions into namespaced classes and introduces Composer autoloading, laying the groundwork for further modernisation. Characterisation tests pin down the existing behaviour first.

Finding security vulnerabilities

The AI checks code for unsafe SQL queries, missing output escaping, CSRF gaps and insecure uploads, replacing problem areas with prepared statements and built-in framework mechanisms.

Possible hands-on projects

Laravel admin panel

A small management back end with authentication, roles, CRUD screens and feature tests, built by an AI agent from a short specification.

Symfony console importer

A Symfony console command that validates CSV or XML data, imports it into Doctrine entities and logs errors in a clear, readable way.

Upgrade readiness check

A script that runs PHPStan, a Rector dry run and Composer audit against a PHP project and produces a plain-language report on upgrade effort.

Prerequisites

You have hands-on programming experience in at least one language and are comfortable with Git and the command line. Solid PHP skills and experience with Laravel or Symfony, Composer and Git.

Technical requirements

Your own laptop with admin rights, Git, a Node.js runtime and an up-to-date editor; a Claude subscription or Anthropic API access is required for the exercises.

Data protection & compliance

PHP applications frequently process customer data from shops and portals, so database dumps and logs containing personal data must never go into prompts unfiltered. Check new Composer packages for licence and vulnerabilities, keep credentials from .env files out of context and, as an agency, agree contractually whether client code may be processed by AI services.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Mon, 23 November 2026 – Tue, 24 November 2026 Online Request
  • Thu, 3 December 2026 – Fri, 4 December 2026 Kaiserslautern Request
  • Tue, 8 December 2026 – Wed, 9 December 2026 Online Request
  • Wed, 16 December 2026 – Thu, 17 December 2026 Bremen Request
  • Thu, 7 January 2027 – Fri, 8 January 2027 Augsburg Request
  • Tue, 19 January 2027 – Wed, 20 January 2027 Online Request

Frequently asked questions

How is Claude Code different from traditional code completion?

Code completion suggests the next few lines, whereas Claude Code acts as an agent that handles whole tasks: it searches the repository, plans changes across several files, runs tests and commands, and corrects itself based on the results. You define the goal and review the outcome instead of steering every single line yourself.

Is Claude Code secure enough for enterprise use?

By default, Claude Code asks for approval before editing files or running commands. Permission rules, sandboxing, managed settings and hooks let you define precisely what the agent may do. During the course you learn to configure these mechanisms to match your security and data protection requirements and to assess risks such as prompt injection.

Does Claude Code work with my language and tech stack?

Yes. Claude Code is language-agnostic because it works with files, terminal commands and your existing build and test tooling. Whether you use Python, Java, TypeScript, Go, SAP-related code or infrastructure as code, what matters most is a well-written CLAUDE.md describing your commands and conventions. Each course variant adds the relevant domain focus.

Is AI-assisted coding worthwhile for old PHP code without a framework?

That is exactly where it shines. AI assistants explain convoluted procedural logic, write characterisation tests that pin down existing behaviour and then introduce namespaces, autoloading and types step by step. This gives you a safe foundation for modernising legacy applications instead of attempting a risky full rewrite.

How should agencies handle client code and AI?

Agencies should agree with their clients contractually whether, and with which services, source code may be processed. On the course we discuss options such as business licences with no training on your data, exclusion rules for sensitive files and documented review processes that give your clients full transparency.

How much does “Claude Code for PHP Developers” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 2 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

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