PHP: clearly-wrong calls edges in the repro neighborhood (.parent() --calls--> .setUp(); .handle() --calls--> test methods) — failure mode #3 evidence

[filipechagas]

Observation (evidence capture, not yet diagnosed)

Measured 2026-08-06 on the api.lawnstarter.com repro graph @ d2d4bed7ae (48,529 nodes), probing call-context edges around ChargeCustomerService:

• app_servicecategory_servicecategory_parent (.parent()) --calls--> .setUp() of both ChargeCustomerServiceTest variants and of BalanceCustomerAccountServiceTest — a model accessor does not call test fixtures.
• app_services_billing_chargecustomerservice_chargecustomerservice_handle (.handle()) --calls--> several ChargeCustomerServiceTest test methods (e.g. .test_integration_execute_payment_failure_charge_successfully_charges_the_customer()) — production code does not call tests; the direction/target is wrong.

Repro: load the graph and list edges with context == "call" whose endpoint ids contain chargecustomerservice / balancecustomeraccountservice (probe script preserved in #37's step-through notes).

Why it matters

These edges feed the "all test noise" impression in #37's phrasing-A output and inflate every call-filtered traversal near billing. This is the PE-78803 spike's failure mode #3 (node-identity / wrong-edge territory) — kept deliberately separate from #37's seeding fix per its scope decision.

Next step

Diagnose the minting path (bare-name legacy resolution vs. member-call resolver vs. stub shadowing) before proposing a fix; this issue exists to carry the measured evidence and keep #37 unconflated.

[filipechagas]

Triage + diagnosis (2026-08-07)

Diagnosed during the #46 triage sweep, probing the raw pinned graph (/tmp/api-d2d4bed/graphify-out/graph.json, 46,406 nodes / 139,497 links — the 48,529 figure in the body was the loaded graph, i.e. raw + the 2,123 dangling endpoints serve materializes, per #46). Fork code referenced @ a9adfc6.

Correction: the evidence edges were direction-flipped by the probe

The step-through drivers used a CLI-faithful undirected load, so both evidence items printed in arbitrary orientation. In the raw graph:

• .handle() --calls--> test methods is actually test method --calls--> .handle() — correct edges (tests do call handle()). Not a bug.
• .parent() --calls--> .setUp() is actually *Test.setUp() --calls--> ServiceCategory.parent() — genuinely wrong, and far bigger than the anecdote: app_servicecategory_servicecategory_parent has 1,698 inbound calls edges, one for every parent::__construct() / parent::setUp() / parent::boot() in the corpus.
• Same mechanism, second family found during the probe: GetProviderBillingEventsTest.event() (a unit-test helper) has 848 inbound calls edges — every Laravel event(...) global-helper call in production code (e.g. ChargeCustomerService.php:76).

Minting path (root-caused)

1. The scoped_call_expression handler takes the scope text as the callee name (graphify/extractors/engine.py:4807-4811): parent::setUp() → callee parent. It never checks the scope against _PHP_NON_CONCRETE_TYPE_NAMES (engine.py:714 — which already contains parent/self/static), even though the (new X())->m() branch at engine.py:4858 applies exactly that refusal.
2. Unresolved in-file, the raw call reaches the shared cross-file pass (graphify/extract.py:6092), which matches by normalized label — strip("()").lstrip("."), case-folded for PHP (extract.py:6006-6014). parent has effectively one callable candidate corpus-wide (ServiceCategory::parent(), label .parent()) → 1,698 confident wrong edges. event has 4 candidates (3 Event classes + the test's .event() method); the tie-break picked the test method → 848 wrong edges.

Not #46 territory: every endpoint here is a real sourced node — no sourceless stubs involved. Independent bug, none of #47–#49 touches it.

Scope for ready-for-agent

Fix the relative-scope family: in the scoped_call_expression branch, refuse parent/self/static (and the rest of _PHP_NON_CONCRETE_TYPE_NAMES) as callee names, matching the engine.py:4858 precedent. (self::/static:: calls that should resolve within the declaring class would need inheritance context the raw-call facts don't carry — refusal over guessing, same discipline as #4/#38.)

Acceptance:

• Red-first: fixture with class A { function setUp() { parent::setUp(); } } + unrelated class B { function parent() {} } currently mints A.setUp --calls--> B.parent; after the fix, no such edge
• api-scale: inbound calls on ServiceCategory::parent() drops from 1,698 to genuine callers only
• Legit scoped calls (Helper::format() → callee Helper) unaffected

Deliberately out of scope (needs a maintainer policy call before spec): whether a PHP function_call_expression (global helper like event()) may ever bare-match a method node cross-file — the 848-edge family. That policy interacts with legitimate global-function resolution; propose separately once the relative-scope fix lands.

[filipechagas]

Fixed on the fork feature branch fix/stub-shadowing-46 (commit 075038e, cherry-picked from fix/39-relative-scope-refusal), headed for the single PR into v8.

What landed: the scoped_call_expression branch (graphify/extractors/engine.py) now refuses any scope whose written text is in _PHP_NON_CONCRETE_TYPE_NAMES (parent/self/static and the rest of the set) as a callee name, matching the (new X())->m() refusal precedent. No resolution attempt for self::/static:: — refusal over guessing.

Acceptance criteria:

• Red-first fixture (A.setUp() calling parent::setUp() + unrelated B.parent()): base minted A.setUp --calls--> B.parent (INFERRED/0.8); after the fix, no such edge. Same shape covered for self:: and static:: (tests/test_php_relative_scope_calls.py, verified red on base by an independent review session).
• Legit scoped calls unaffected: Helper::format() and \App\Helper::format() still resolve (positive controls green on base and slice).
• api-scale check (inbound calls on ServiceCategory::parent() drops from 1,698 to genuine callers) — deferred to Stub-shadow fix 4/4: release + acceptance grading on the pinned api corpus #50's grading rebuild, as specced.

Out of scope, untouched as agreed: the event() global-helper family (848 edges) — function_call_expression and the cross-file matching in extract.py are unmodified; still pending a maintainer policy call.

Adversarial review verdict: APPROVE (full trace of the refusal path, empirical probe of base vs slice, base-red verification of the new tests, full suite green: 4288 passed / 3 skipped on the integrated branch).