Switching PHP versions automatically with Laravel Valet

2023-08-11: There is a newer version of this article that covers the latest version of Laravel Valet

I recently made a contribution to Laravel Valet which adds the ability to specify the PHP version via a .valetphprc file in the project root to make it easier working with the different versions of PHP that some projects may use.

Just make sure you're using Laravel Valet v2.16.0 or higher on macOS and then add this simple script in your ~/.zshrc file:

autoload -U add-zsh-hook
load-valetphprc() {
  [[ -a .valetphprc ]] || return
  local php_version=$(php -r "echo PHP_MAJOR_VERSION . '.' . PHP_MINOR_VERSION;")
  local valetphprc_path=".valetphprc"

  if [ -f "$valetphprc_path" ]; then
    local valetphprc_version="$(cat "${valetphprc_path}")"

    if [ "php@$php_version" != "$valetphprc_version" ]; then
      valet use
    fi
  fi
}
add-zsh-hook chpwd load-valetphprc

Now when you cd into your project directory, if a .valetphprc file with a valid version of PHP is found (e.g. php@7.4) the valet use command will be run automatically giving you one less thing to think about when working across multiple projects.