Error Identifier: varTag.internalTrait

← Back to varTag.*

Every error reported by PHPStan has an error identifier. Here’s a list of all error identifiers. In PHPStan Pro you can see the error identifier next to each error and filter errors by their identifiers.

Code example #

<?php declare(strict_types = 1);

namespace Vendor {
	/** @internal */
	trait InternalTrait {
		public function doSomething(): void {}
	}

	class Foo {
		use InternalTrait;
	}
}

namespace App {
	function getHelper(): object {
		return new \stdClass();
	}

	/** @var \Vendor\InternalTrait $obj */
	$obj = getHelper();
}

Why is it reported? #

The @var PHPDoc tag references a trait that is marked as @internal. Internal traits are not part of the public API of the package that defines them. They may change or be removed in any version without notice.

Using an internal trait from another package in a @var tag creates a dependency on an implementation detail that is not guaranteed to be stable. Traits should generally not be used as types, since PHP does not support using traits as type hints.

How to fix it #

Use a public interface or class from the package instead of the internal trait:

 namespace App {
-	/** @var \Vendor\InternalTrait $obj */
+	/** @var \Vendor\PublicInterface $obj */
 	$obj = getHelper();
 }

If the trait is internal to your own project, the error will not be reported when referencing it from within the same root namespace.

How to ignore this error #

You can use the identifier varTag.internalTrait to ignore this error using a comment:

// @phpstan-ignore varTag.internalTrait
codeThatProducesTheError();

You can also use only the identifier key to ignore all errors of the same type in your configuration file in the ignoreErrors parameter:

parameters:
	ignoreErrors:
		-
			identifier: varTag.internalTrait

Rules that report this error #

• PHPStan\Rules\InternalTag\RestrictedInternalClassNameUsageExtension [1]