
It was technically possible to run JetBrains IDE inspections for the whole project in headless batch mode well before the CI era. The multitude of tools being actively developed and used clearly support this statement. Having all this while you are working in the editor is extremely helpful, but modern CI-centric workflows require having a reliable quality gate in your build pipeline. Thanks to all this static analysis, you are able to rename and move things around safely, get appropriate code completion, or be warned with a message saying “hey, this won’t run” from the code inspection as you are editing your code. They can track declarations, check references and types, and collect possible execution paths. PhpStorm and our other JetBrains IDEs are renowned for their ability to understand your code. Qodana is a new product from JetBrains that brings the “smarts” of JetBrains IDEs directly into your CI Pipeline. “We must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place” – Lewis Carroll
