🧠 Symfony CLI Cheat Sheet (PHP 8.4 / Symfony 7.x)

A quick reference for commonly used Symfony and Doctrine CLI commands.

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⚙️ Project Setup

Purpose	Command
Create new Symfony project (website skeleton)	composer create-project symfony/website-skeleton my_project
Create minimal API project	composer create-project symfony/skeleton my_api_project
Start local web server	symfony serve -d
Stop web server	symfony server:stop
Check environment & versions	symfony check:requirements
Clear cache	php bin/console cache:clear
Install dependencies	composer install
Update dependencies	composer update
Run migrations and clear cache	php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate --no-interaction && php bin/console cache:clear

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🧱 Doctrine (Database ORM)

Purpose	Command
Create database	php bin/console doctrine:database:create
Drop database	php bin/console doctrine:database:drop --force
Generate migration file	php bin/console make:migration
Run migrations	php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate
Rollback last migration	php bin/console doctrine:migrations:rollback
Show migration status	php bin/console doctrine:migrations:status
Update DB schema directly (no migration)	php bin/console doctrine:schema:update --force
Validate mapping	php bin/console doctrine:schema:validate
Run raw SQL query	php bin/console dbal:run-sql "SELECT * FROM travel_package"

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📦 Entities & Repositories

Purpose	Command
Create new entity	php bin/console make:entity
Add field to entity	(same command) php bin/console make:entity
Create repository	Automatically generated when entity is created
Regenerate getters/setters	php bin/console make:entity --regenerate

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🧩 Controllers, DTOs, Services

Purpose	Command
Create a new controller	php bin/console make:controller Api/BookingController
Create a service class	manually in src/Service/ or use: php bin/console make:service BookingService
Create a DTO (Data Transfer Object)	manually in src/Dto/, e.g. src/Dto/CreateBookingDto.php
Dump route list	php bin/console debug:router
Check container services	php bin/console debug:container
Check registered parameters	php bin/console debug:container --parameters
Debug environment variables	php bin/console debug:dotenv

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🧪 Validation & Fixtures

Purpose	Command
Validate database schema	php bin/console doctrine:schema:validate
Load fixtures (if using doctrine-fixtures)	php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load
Clear cache after fixtures	php bin/console cache:clear

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🧰 Debugging

Purpose	Command
Debug routes	php bin/console debug:router
Debug container services	php bin/console debug:container
Debug environment	php bin/console debug:dotenv
Debug event listeners	php bin/console debug:event-dispatcher
List all commands	php bin/console list

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🧑‍💻 User & Security (Optional)

Purpose	Command
Create new User entity with security	php bin/console make:user
Configure security	php bin/console make:security:form-login
Hash a password	php bin/console security:hash-password

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🧮 Testing & Linting

Purpose	Command
Run PHPUnit tests	php bin/phpunit
Lint Twig templates	php bin/console lint:twig templates/
Lint YAML config	php bin/console lint:yaml config/
Lint Doctrine mapping	php bin/console doctrine:schema:validate
Static analysis (PHPStan)	vendor/bin/phpstan analyse src

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📦 Cache, Logs & Environment

Purpose	Command
Clear cache	php bin/console cache:clear
Warm up cache	php bin/console cache:warmup
Show current environment	echo $APP_ENV
View logs	tail -f var/log/dev.log

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🐳 Docker Integration

Purpose	Command
Build containers	docker compose build
Start containers	docker compose up -d
Stop containers	docker compose down
View logs	docker compose logs -f php
Run Symfony command inside PHP container	docker compose exec php php bin/console cache:clear
Access container shell	docker compose exec php bash

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⚡ Developer Shortcuts

Shortcut	Command
Create a CRUD resource (entity + controller + form)	php bin/console make:crud
Create migration & apply	php bin/console make:migration && php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate
Reset DB & reload fixtures	php bin/console doctrine:database:drop --force && php bin/console doctrine:database:create && php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate && php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load

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🧾 Composer Helpers

Purpose	Command
Require a package	composer require symfony/validator
Remove a package	composer remove symfony/validator
Check outdated packages	composer outdated
Autoload dump (after adding classes)	composer dump-autoload

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🚀 Example Development Flow

# 1. Create entity and migration
php bin/console make:entity TravelPackage
php bin/console make:migration
php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate

# 2. Create controller
php bin/console make:controller Api/TravelPackageController

# 3. Create DTO manually
# src/Dto/TravelPackageDto.php

# 4. Create service manually
# src/Service/TravelPackageService.php

# 5. Run the Symfony server
symfony serve -d

# 6. Verify routes
php bin/console debug:router