PhpStorm 2026.3 adds Air, a workspace for AI coding agents, and support for PHP 8.6
JetBrains released PhpStorm 2026.3 on November 5. The main addition is Air, a new space inside the IDE where developers run and supervise AI coding agents such as Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini, GitHub Copilot and Junie. The update also adds support for PHP 8.6, due later in November, new Laravel inspections, easier Git worktrees and a new terminal based on the Ghostty engine.
Read the original on JetBrains — What's New in PhpStorm 2026.3 ↗
Why it matters
PHP developers increasingly work with AI agents, and the IDE is becoming the place where their changes are checked before they ship. JetBrains lets people use the agent subscriptions and API keys they already have, so no extra JetBrains AI plan is needed, and a free Junie Lite option works with just a JetBrains account.
What changes
- For developers
- Set the PHP language level to 8.6 to get new inspections for deprecated patterns, or keep an older level and get warnings when code uses 8.6-only syntax or functions such as clamp(). With the IDE's MCP server enabled, agents can run these inspections and apply the fixes themselves.
- For businesses
- Teams can review agent changes line by line in the editor and send comments back to the agent, which makes AI-written code easier to control without new tools or subscriptions.
Sources
- JetBrains — What's New in PhpStorm 2026.3 ↗ blog.jetbrains.com Primary source
- Laravel News ↗ laravel-news.com
Summarized by AI from official sources on November 7, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Let us know. How it works