Symfony development with Mago, Serena, and AI Mate

A reproducible Docker environment for exploring PHP source, inspecting Symfony services, and diagnosing requests with coding agents. It includes a pinned Symfony Demo application, Mago's PHP tools, Serena's semantic Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, AI Mate inspection tools, and independent checks.

Use it for development in a disposable application or for reproducing the included coding exercises. The integration is experimental: the image includes repository patches to Mago and Serena. See capabilities for supported paths and the scope of their verification.

Get started

Install Git, a host Python 3 interpreter, uv, Node.js for fast tests, and Docker with Compose v2. Host launchers use POSIX user and group IDs; use Linux or a Linux environment such as WSL2. Hosted acceptance runs on Ubuntu. See setup requirements for platform, network, and proxy details.

git clone https://github.com/xormania/mago-serena_v2-poc.git
cd mago-serena_v2-poc
uv sync --frozen --python 3.12.12
./bin/poc fast
./bin/poc up
./bin/poc doctor

The first build compiles Rust software and downloads dependencies; allow several minutes and several GB of memory and disk. No model account or API key is needed for setup and deterministic checks. Open http://localhost:8000/en/blog/.

Edit workspaces/dev/app/, mounted at /app in the container. The checked-in app/ directory is fixture input. Every up invocation runs setup again, replacing the workspace's dev/test databases and .env.local. Save data and local settings before repeating it.

Related MCP server: lsp-mcp

Use the tools

./bin/poc mago --run dev -- analyze --reporting-format json
./bin/poc exec --run dev -- php vendor/bin/phpunit
./bin/poc mate-prepare --run dev
./bin/mate --run dev -- tools:list --format=json

Mago retains native findings and exits; the fixture has existing analysis/lint findings, so analysis can exit 1 while producing a valid report. See daily workflows for lint, fixes, scoped formatting, service-aware analysis, profiler/log inspection, and request repair.

Connect an agent using bin/serena-mcp, an absolute launcher path, and the selected run ID. Model, reasoning, and permission settings belong to your native client. The transcript verifier currently reads Codex JSONL for the rename exercise; client connection and task verification have separate support requirements.

Checks and exercises

Build the image with up before container-based checks.

The numbered command names identify existing exercises; users can select them independently. See testing and results for the LSP extension checks, output locations, and differences between replays and agent sessions.

./bin/poc down --run dev          # Stop the service; retain files.
# After saving edits and data elsewhere:
./bin/poc down --run dev --purge  # Delete the workspace; retain artifacts/dev/.

Documentation

• Documentation index, Getting started, and Troubleshooting.

• Commands and configuration, Workflows, and Agent clients.

• Capabilities, Symfony coverage, and Architecture.

• Contributing, CI, and Sources and licenses.

The default build contains a patched Mago LSP; Symfony extension contributions still require explicit workspace configuration. The extension reference describes opt-in and baseline differences. A known external-edit span defect has a reproduced failure and restart workaround. Passing its expected-failure check does not establish that the defect is fixed.