Automating Code Governance: Moving Beyond CLAUDE.md Instructions

Overview

AI coding assistants rely heavily on context files like

CLAUDE.md
to follow project standards. However, LLMs often overlook text-based instructions in large files. This tutorial explores shifting these rules from passive documentation to active automation using
Laravel
 tools. By offloading linting, type-checking, and architecture validation to the machine, you ensure 100% compliance while saving valuable context window tokens.

Prerequisites

To follow this guide, you should be comfortable with the PHP ecosystem and

Laravel
framework. Familiarity with
Composer
 for package management and basic knowledge of CI/CD concepts like pre-commit hooks will help you implement these automations effectively.

Automating Code Governance: Moving Beyond CLAUDE.md Instructions
Prompt to Automate Some CLAUDE.md Rules #claudecode

Key Libraries & Tools

  • Laravel Pint
    : A zero-config PHP code style fixer built on top of PHP-CS-Fixer.
  • Larastan
    : A wrapper around
    PHPStan
     specifically designed to handle Laravel's magic methods and relationships.
  • Pest PHP
    : A testing framework that includes powerful architectural testing capabilities.

Code Walkthrough

Automating Style with Pint

Instead of asking an AI to "always use curly braces," define these in pint.json. This ensures the rules are enforced every time you run the tool.

{
    "preset": "laravel",
    "rules": {
        "braces": true,
        "no_empty_comment": true,
        "no_unused_imports": true
    }
}

You can trigger this via a pre-commit hook or directly through

Claude Code
events to fix styling immediately after the AI edits a file.

Enforcing Strict Types with Larastan

Move rules regarding return types and type hints out of your markdown files.

Larastan
catches missing type hints in relationship methods and method signatures far more reliably than an LLM.

# phpstan.neon
parameters:
    level: 5
    paths:
        - app
    checkMissingIterableValueType: true

Architectural Tests with Pest

Use

Pest PHP
to prevent developers (and AI) from using forbidden functions or violating folder structures.

// tests/ArchTest.php
arch('globals')
    ->expect(['dd', 'dump', 'ray'])
    ->not->toBeUsed();

arch('app')
    ->expect('App\Models')
    ->toOnlyBeUsedIn('App\Repositories');

Syntax Notes

When configuring pint.json, notice the use of boolean flags to toggle specific PSR standards. In

Larastan
(and
PHPStan
), the level parameter is your primary lever for strictness; higher levels require more explicit type definitions.

Practical Examples

By moving 22 lines of text-based rules into these tools, you save roughly 800 tokens per prompt. In a real-world CI/CD pipeline, this setup prevents "style drift" where different AI models might interpret

3 min read