Psalm 7 release: PHP security&static analysis software
Comments on “Psalm 7 release: PHP security&static analysis software”
Claim-checked. Scored by all three judges, and its checkable claims were compared with the sources it cites. How far stories are checked
Psalm 7, the PHP static analyzer, was released on November 2 by maintainer Daniil Gentili. Taint-based security analysis now runs by default in the same pass as type checking and dead code detection, and the project says it is up to 10x faster, though no benchmark is given. It adds NoSQL, LLM prompt and URL taint kinds, a Hack-style capabilities model replacing the old purity annotations, and graph-based dead code detection. Framework plugins load automatically, and the plugin API is versioned separately. Projects can opt out of taint analysis.
Why it ranked
No. 20 of 51 with a score of 0.61. The panel rated it highest on new information (0.93) and technical depth (0.91), lowest on audience breadth (0.41). Placed No. 20, No. 19 by score alone: the fourth Programming & dev tools story of the day (−0.020), and close to “Psalm 7.0.0 [PHP static analysis tool by Vimeo]”, No. 24 on Tuesday 3 November 2026 (−0.021). The placement terms move stories; they are not part of the score.
- AI judgeJudge 2claude-haiku-5-5
- Major release of a PHP static analyzer with substantial technical detail on taint tracking and purity modelling; well-featured but niche to PHP developers, with some promotional tone and release-note breadth.
- AI judgeJudge 3gpt-5.6-luna
- A technically detailed major release of a PHP analyzer, with substantially expanded taint tracking, purity/capability modeling, dead-code analysis, type-system support, and practical upgrade guidance. It is promotional in format but contains substantial actionable technical information.
Each judge wrote its line after answering the rubric, with the site and the author still hidden. Every answer behind this is in the table under Score.
Score
0.61total under rubric v2.3
- Significance0.57
- Reader interest0.66
- Audience breadth0.41
- Practical relevance0.75
- Substantiated0.82
- Technical depth0.91
- New information0.93
- Counts against: Promotional0.13
- Counts against: Overclaim0.20
Each judge’s answer per question (0–1), their mean and spread, and what the question adds to the score (weight × mean).
| Question | Judge 1 | Judge 2 | Judge 3 | Mean | Spread | Weight | Contribution (weight times mean) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SignificanceHow much does this change what people in tech know or can do? | 0.61 | 0.40 | 0.70 | 0.57 | 0.30 | +0.24 | +0.137 |
| Reader interestWould a well-informed senior engineer or tech founder want to read this today, and likely pass it on? | 0.62 | 0.55 | 0.82 | 0.66 | 0.27 | +0.26 | +0.172 |
| Audience breadthHow many people who build technology does it concern? | 0.47 | 0.35 | 0.42 | 0.41 | 0.12 | +0.13 | +0.054 |
| Practical relevanceHow useful is it to someone who builds software or tech products? | 0.86 | 0.60 | 0.78 | 0.75 | 0.26 | +0.22 | +0.164 |
| SubstantiatedHow well is it backed? Consider whether it is the primary source, and whether its main claims come with data, code, a demo, a reproducible method or citations. | 0.89 | 0.70 | 0.88 | 0.82 | 0.19 | +0.05 | +0.041 |
| Technical depthHow technically substantive is it? | 0.97 | 0.85 | 0.90 | 0.91 | 0.12 | +0.05 | +0.045 |
| New informationDoes it contain information absent from the stories covered in the last 7 days (list provided)? | 0.90 | 0.90 | 0.98 | 0.93 | 0.08 | +0.05 | +0.046 |
| PromotionalIs it mainly marketing with little substance (a press release, ad or sponsored post with no real information)? A launch post that carries real news is not promotional. | 0.07 | 0.25 | 0.08 | 0.13 | 0.18 | −0.19 | −0.025 |
| OverclaimDo the headline or conclusions claim more than the body supports? | 0.17 | 0.30 | 0.12 | 0.20 | 0.18 | −0.11 | −0.022 |
| Sum of contributions | +0.613 | ||||||
| Claim-check penalty | 0.000 | ||||||
| Total, as published | 0.614 | ||||||
Spread is the highest minus the lowest judge answer. marks a spread above 0.40: the judges disagree, and the story is marked contested.
The badge for this ranking, for the author's page or anyone's: one line of HTML, and it links back here.
<a href="https://rubric.hrih.si/editions/2026-11-08/20/"><img src="https://rubric.hrih.si/badge/2026-11-08/20.svg" alt="Ranked #20 on Rubric, 8 Nov 2026" width="238" height="28"></a>Claim check
Claim check: 2 no source given · 6 couldn’t check. Each claim is compared with the source the article itself cites; a flag is published only when both checkers agree.
No source givenCausal conclusion
Psalm 7's security analysis is up to 10x faster because taints are stored as a bitmask and the taint graph is resolved over compact summaries of each function.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “Taints are now stored as a bitmask, and the taint graph is resolved over compact summaries of each function. This makes security analysis up to 10x faster”
The source says No source to compare with.
Couldn’t checkVersion
Psalm 7 runs type checking, security analysis and dead code detection together in one combined run, so taint analysis is on by default.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “Combined analysis (#11384) runs type checking, security analysis and dead code detection together in one run, so taint analysis is now on by default”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/vimeo/psalm/pull/11399
No source givenVersion
Psalm 7 runs on 64-bit PHP 8.2 to 8.6.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “Psalm 7 runs on 64-bit PHP 8.2 to 8.6”
The source says No source to compare with.
Couldn’t checkNumber
Taint analysis results no longer change between runs or with the thread count.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “The results no longer change between runs or with the thread count”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/vimeo/psalm/pull/11946
Couldn’t checkVersion
The @psalm-pure, @psalm-mutation-free and @psalm-external-mutation-free annotations are replaced by capabilities modelled on Hack's contexts and capabilities.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “psalm-pure, @psalm-mutation-free and @psalm-external-mutation-free are replaced by capabilities, modelled on”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/vimeo/psalm/pull/11984
Couldn’t checkVersion
Psalm 7 uses a graph of references for dead code detection, reporting code reachable only from other unused code, including cycles.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “Code is used only if it can be reached from an entry point, so classes and methods referenced only by other unused code, cycles included, are reported”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/vimeo/psalm/pull/11939
Couldn’t checkVersion
Psalm 7's version number no longer tracks the plugin API; the psalm/psalm-plugin-api metapackage tracks breaking plugin API changes instead.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “Psalm's version number no longer tracks the plugin API. Breaking changes to the plugin API may ship in any Psalm release, including minor and patch releases”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/vimeo/psalm/pull/11739
Couldn’t checkVersion
Psalm ships bundled plugins for PHPUnit, Mockery, Symfony, Laravel and sabre/event, enabled automatically when composer.json uses the matching library.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “Psalm requires psalm/plugin-phpunit, plugin-mockery, plugin-symfony, plugin-laravel and plugin-sabre-event, and enables each one”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/vimeo/psalm/pull/12568
Also covered by
No other coverage was clustered with this story.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere: HN 1 pts, not on front page
Recorded for context only, checked 8 Nov 2026, 05:46 UTC. It played no part in the ranking.