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What is Retina?

Retina is an open-source CLI-based static analyzer designed specifically for PocketMine-MP plugins. It scans your plugin code and identifies errors, deprecated API usage, thread safety issues, and other problems before you run it—helping you catch bugs early in development.

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Key features

Comprehensive analysis

Detects PHP standard issues, PocketMine-MP specific problems, and thread safety violations across your entire codebase.

Multiple report formats

Generate reports in Markdown, JSON, HTML, or plain text—perfect for both human review and CI/CD integration.

Configurable strictness

Adjust analysis levels from 1-9 to match your project’s needs, from quick checks to rigorous validation.

Flexible filtering

Exclude specific categories, analyzers, or severity levels to focus on what matters most to your project.

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What Retina detects

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PHP standard issues

  • Type safety: Undefined variables, methods, classes, constants, functions, and properties
  • Type mismatches: Parameter types, return types, and type compatibility errors
  • Code quality: Unused variables, parameters, imports, dead code, and syntax errors
  • Inheritance problems: Invalid inheritance, interface violations, abstract class issues
  • Safety: Null pointer issues, array access errors, static call problems

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PocketMine-MP specific issues

  • Plugin structure: Invalid plugin.yml, main class mismatches, API version format errors
  • Event handling: Invalid event handler signatures, unregistered listeners, priority errors
  • API usage: Deprecated PocketMine-MP API detection, thread safety violations
  • Resources: AsyncTask misuse, scheduler problems, config handling errors
  • Definitions: Permission mismatches, command definition issues, missing resource files

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Available analyzers

Retina includes 14 specialized analyzers:
  • PluginYml: Validates plugin.yml structure and required fields
  • MainClass: Checks main class exists and extends PluginBase
  • PhpFile: General PHP syntax and structure validation
  • EventHandler: Validates event handler methods
  • Listener: Checks listener registration
  • Command: Validates command implementations
  • Permission: Checks permission definitions
  • AsyncTask: Detects AsyncTask misuse
  • Scheduler: Validates scheduler usage
  • ThreadSafety: Detects thread safety violations
  • Config: Checks config file handling
  • Resource: Validates resource file access
  • DeprecatedApi: Finds deprecated PocketMine-MP API usage
  • PHPStan: Runs PHPStan analysis

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Who should use Retina?

Plugin developers

Catch bugs before testing and ensure your code follows PocketMine-MP best practices.

Team leads

Maintain code quality across your team with automated checks and configurable standards.

CI/CD pipelines

Integrate Retina into your build process with JSON output and machine-readable reports.

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Severity levels

Retina categorizes issues by severity to help you prioritize fixes:
  • error: Critical issues that will cause crashes or runtime failures
  • warning: Problems that should be fixed to prevent unexpected behavior
  • info: Suggestions for improvement and best practices
  • hint: Minor style or optimization suggestions
You can filter reports by severity level using --exclude-severities to focus on critical issues first.

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Next steps

Installation

Install Retina on macOS, Linux, or Windows

Quick start

Run your first scan in minutes

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