PHPRegex CLI

The regex console: sixteen subcommands to parse, explain, validate, lint, hunt ReDoS, transpile, diagram and debug patterns — also shipped as a self-updating regex.phar.

Documentation: php-regex.com — the CLI guide takes the sixteen subcommands one by one.

Features

• Lints a whole codebase: patterns extracted from preg_* calls, RegexIterator and filter_var(), eight library presets and your own helpers, followed through the variables, constants and properties of the same file, then judged by 40 rules.
• ReDoS verdicts proven on a model of PCRE's backtracking, with the input that triggers a vulnerable pattern; confirmed mode replays it on the running PCRE — plus a benchmark command.
• Automata comparison of two patterns: intersection, subset, equivalence, with counter-examples.
• Transpiles PCRE patterns to JavaScript, HTML pattern attributes and Python; renders the AST as text or SVG and the NFA as DOT or Mermaid.
• CI-ready reports in five formats with three stable exit codes, and a self-updating regex.phar.

Installation

composer require --dev php-regex/regex-cli

The binary is vendor/bin/regex and requires PHP 8.1+.

Standalone phar

curl -Ls https://github.com/php-regex/php-regex/releases/latest/download/regex.phar -o ~/.local/bin/regex && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/regex
regex self-update

The phar is built from the release tag by a GitHub Actions workflow and attested: gh attestation verify ~/.local/bin/regex --repo php-regex/php-regex checks that yours is that build.

Commands

Command	Description	Command	Description
parse	Parse and recompile a pattern	highlight	Highlight a regex for display
analyze	Parse, validate, analyze ReDoS risk	validate	Validate a pattern
compare	Compare two patterns (automata)	transpile	Transpile to js, html or python
explain	Explain a pattern in plain language	lint	Lint patterns in PHP sources
debug	Deep ReDoS analysis, heatmap	version	Display version information
redos	Benchmark patterns for ReDoS	self-update	Update the phar in place
diagram	AST diagram, text or SVG	help	Display the help message
graph	NFA graph, DOT or Mermaid	format	Lay a pattern out over lines, or compact it
lsp	Run the language server (the phar carries it)

Configuration

Global options:

Option	Effect
--ansi / --no-ansi	Force or disable ANSI output
-q, --quiet, --silent	Suppress output
--no-visuals	Disable banner and section visuals
--php-version <ver>	Target PHP version for validation
--pcre-version <ver>	Target PCRE2 release for validation

lint reads defaults from regex.json or regex.dist.json in the working directory — paths, excludes, extraction interop, which checks run. Command-line options win; --output <file> writes the report to a file.

Every command exits 0 when it found nothing wrong, 1 when the patterns or files it judged have a problem, 2 when the command line or configuration cannot be used.

Usage

Validate a pattern — the hello world of the console (outputs below come from --no-visuals runs):

vendor/bin/regex validate '/^[a-z0-9._%+-]+@[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,}$/i' --no-visuals
#   Pattern: /^[a-z0-9._%+-]+@[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,}$/i
#   Status: OK

vendor/bin/regex validate '/(?<=a+)b/' --no-visuals  # exits 1
#   Pattern: /(?<=a+)b/
#   Status: INVALID
#   Lookbehind is unbounded. PCRE requires a bounded maximum length.
# Line 1: (?<=a+)b
#         ^

analyze adds a ReDoS report before explaining the pattern:

vendor/bin/regex analyze '/(a+)+$/' --no-visuals
#   Pattern: /(a+)+$/
#   Parse: OK
#   Status: OK
#   Status: Exponential backtracking (proven)
#   Severity: CRITICAL (score 10)
#   Mode: THEORETICAL
#   Confidence: MEDIUM
#   Attack: "a" x n . "!"
#   Hotspot:   1-3

lint walks PHP sources and reports in five formats; with --format=github each finding becomes an annotation GitHub renders natively:

vendor/bin/regex lint src/ --format=github --no-visuals
# Target: PHP 8.2, PCRE2 10.40 (composer.json require.php)
# ::notice file=src/demo.php,line=3,col=12,title=Lint (regex.lint.group.quantifiedCapture)::Quantified capturing group "(...)" with "+": only the last iteration's capture is retained.%0ASuggestion: Use a non-capturing group (?:...) for the repetition and capture the whole match, or restructure the pattern.
# ::warning file=src/demo.php,line=3,col=12,title=Lint (regex.lint.quantifier.nested)::Nested quantifiers can cause catastrophic backtracking.%0ASuggestion: Consider atomic groups (?>...) or possessive quantifiers — verify the rewrite still matches everything you need.

transpile writes the pattern for another engine:

vendor/bin/regex transpile '/[a-z]+\d/' --target=js --no-visuals
#   Target: JAVASCRIPT
#   Source: /[a-z]+\d/
#   ...
#   Constructor:
#     new RegExp("[a-z]+\\d", "")

Documentation

• Quick start — from installation to a first analysis.
• CLI guide — every subcommand in depth, the lint configuration file, CI recipes.
• ReDoS guide — the risky shapes, the two analysis modes, mitigation.
• Backward compatibility — the promise that holds across 2.x.

Resources

• Changelog
• All PHPRegex packages, released with their siblings under one version number
• Report issues and send pull requests in the main PHPRegex repository

Sponsors

If PHPRegex saves you time, consider sponsoring its maintenance.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.