JetBrains Launches New Open Source Grant Initiative for PHP Projects

JetBrains, the renowned developer tool company, is expanding its commitment to the PHP community by introducing a new structure for supporting open source projects. As part of its ongoing efforts, the company will financially support five open source projects or maintainers each year through a rotating sponsorship program commencing in 2025.

For the 2025/2026 sponsorship cycle, JetBrains has already allocated four of the five available sponsorship positions. The recipients include:

• Saif Eddin Gmati, who is developing Mago, a new linter and static analyzer for PHP, written in Rust.
• Markus Staab, involved in several initiatives such as PHPStan, Rector, and PHPUnit.
• Kyrian Obikwelu, who is exploring AI and MCP applications within the PHP ecosystem.
• Sjon Hortensius, known for managing 3v4l.org, a popular online shell within the PHP community.

The fifth sponsorship slot remains open, inviting community members to propose suitable candidates or projects. Detailed information on how to participate is available on the JetBrains blog.

In conjunction with this new initiative, JetBrains will conclude its support for two established projects: Xdebug, created by Derick Rethans, and CodeSniffer, led by Juliette Reinders Folmer. The company clarifies that this decision is not based on content-related issues but rather a strategic move to make room for new projects that can also benefit from sponsorship.

JetBrains encourages other companies and developers to contribute to open source funding, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts to enhance the PHP ecosystem. In a joint online conference titled betterCode() PHP, scheduled for November 25, hosted by iX and dpunkt.verlag in collaboration with thePHP.cc, interested individuals can engage in discussions and presentations about the PHP programming language. Early-bird tickets are available through the conference website.