Turn a one-line hypothesis about php-src into a measurable prototype that proves or disproves the idea. Use when the user says "I have an idea for php-src", "prototype this idea", "/idea-prototype", "let's see if X would speed up Y", "what if PHP supported …", "explore whether …", or otherwise wants to test feasibility/sense of a php-src change before committing to an RFC. Drives a SPEC.md through Context → Hypothesis & Metric → Survey & Plan → Prototype → Measurement & Verdict. Resumable — re-run the same command to advance to the next phase.
Search for prior discussion of a php-src bug or idea across four sources: the php.internals mailing list (via externals.io Algolia), GitHub issues and PRs on php/php-src, and the php-src git log. Use when the user says "/research", "look up prior discussion", "search internals for this", "has this been discussed before", "find related PRs", "any prior art on this", "check if someone tried this", or otherwise wants prior-art sweep before committing to an implementation. Works for both bug and idea SPEC.md flows — detects type, extracts keywords from the right section, populates the Research phase. Gating differs by flow: soft gate for bug (downstream warns if Research is todo); hard gate for idea (/idea-prototype refuses past Hypothesis & Metric until Research is done or explicitly skipped).
Entry point for a php-src bug fix. Fetches a GitHub issue (and its linked PRs/commits) via the gh CLI, writes the Context phase of SPEC.md in the current directory, and stubs out the remaining phases. Use when the user says "fix GH-12345", "let's work on this php-src bug", "/bug-context", "start a bug fix for issue NN on php/php-src", "pull the context for php-src issue NN", or otherwise wants to begin a bug-fix workflow from a GitHub issue. Always invoke this skill FIRST in the bug flow — the bug-reproduce-test, bug-fix, and bug-verify skills refuse to run without a SPEC.md created here.
Locate the root cause in php-src C code and implement the fix so the failing .phpt now passes. Use when the user says "fix the bug", "implement the fix for GH-12345", "/bug-fix", "now write the patch", "find and fix the root cause", or otherwise wants to advance a bug-fix SPEC.md past Reproduction into Analysis & Plan and Implementation. Refuses if Reproduction phase is not done. Commits test + fix as a single commit on the current branch. Never pushes.
Reproduce a php-src bug captured in SPEC.md and convert it into a failing .phpt test. Use when the user says "reproduce the bug", "write a failing test for this issue", "/bug-reproduce-test", "make a phpt that captures GH-12345", "let's prove the bug exists", or otherwise wants to lock down a reproduction case for a php-src bug after /bug-context has been run. The test MUST fail on the current build — that is the post-guardrail.
Final step of the php-src bug-fix flow. Runs the related test suite, checks for new compiler warnings, optionally runs the full test suite or AddressSanitizer/Valgrind, and flips SPEC.md status to done. Use when the user says "verify the fix", "/bug-verify", "did I break anything", "run the regression checks", "check the fix", or otherwise wants to confirm the fix is safe to commit. Refuses if Implementation phase is not done.
Review a local php-src diff (your current branch vs origin/master, or a base ref you provide) against PHP coding standards and produce REVIEW.md. Use when the user says "review my changes", "review this branch", "/review-local", "review the diff before I push", "check my fix", "what would internals reviewers say about this", or otherwise wants a structured code review of unpushed local php-src work. Read-only; never modifies source code or git state.
Propagate a php-src bug fix from its lowest fix branch up through every higher maintained branch, applying the per-branch NEWS edit and producing one merge commit per hop. Use when the user says "upmerge", "merge up", "propagate fix to higher branches", "forward-port the fix", "/upmerge", or otherwise wants to mirror a fix that landed on a lower branch onto all newer maintained branches per CONTRIBUTING.md. Defaults to dry-run; `--execute` performs the merges locally. Never pushes, never fetches, never touches the remote.