PrismManager needs to be extended for every new provider

[aimeos]

Currently, the PrismManager class needs to be extended for every new provider, which is problematic from a software engineering point of view.

Instead, the PrismManager should:

• Resolve provider by name (lower case) only and deprecate provider enum
• Resolve the class name by class_exists() and new operator
• Pass the config array as single parameter to each provider

Then, it would be possible to add new providers to Prism in separate packages.

[sixlive]

I want to make sure I understand the problem you're trying to solve. The PrismManager already has an extend() method that allows adding custom providers without modifying core code:

$this->app['prism-manager']->extend('custom', function ($app, $config) {
    return new CustomProvider($config);
});

We have full documentation showing how third-party packages can register new providers via a service provider. Could you help me understand what specific use case this doesn't cover?

Regarding the proposed changes, I have some concerns about the trade-offs:

Dynamic class resolution - This would lose compile-time validation and static analysis support. Provider names could have typos that only fail at runtime.

Single array parameter for all providers - Our providers have different constructor signatures (e.g., Anthropic needs version and anthropic_beta, OpenRouter has nested site config). Standardizing to __construct(array $config) would:

• Lose type safety and IDE autocomplete
• Move validation from constructor to runtime
• Hide what parameters each provider actually needs

Deprecating Provider enum - The enum provides discoverability and compile-time checks. I think I could compromise and do either string or class name e.g. Prism\Providers\Anthropic::class and then deprecate the enum.

I'm not opposed to improving extensibility, but I want to make sure we're solving a real problem without sacrificing type safety and developer experience. Can you share more about what you're trying to build that's blocked by the current design?

[aimeos]

I want to make sure I understand the problem you're trying to solve. The PrismManager already has an extend() method that allows adding custom providers without modifying core code:

$this->app['prism-manager']->extend('custom', function ($app, $config) {
return new CustomProvider($config);
});
We have full documentation showing how third-party packages can register new providers via a service provider. Could you help me understand what specific use case this doesn't cover?

I know but I aim to make your current code base simpler, more maintainable and with less boilerplate code to write - just like Laravel, which we all love :-)

Dynamic class resolution - This would lose compile-time validation and static analysis support. Provider names could have typos that only fail at runtime.

Single array parameter for all providers - Our providers have different constructor signatures (e.g., Anthropic needs version and anthropic_beta, OpenRouter has nested site config). Standardizing to __construct(array $config) would:

• Lose type safety and IDE autocomplete
• Move validation from constructor to runtime
• Hide what parameters each provider actually needs

There's no difference to the current situation as passing provider names as strings is already allowed and I don't value static analysis higher than simpler code. As all providers implement the same interface, so there's no loss of static analysis support after the object is created, only the constructor parameters are not checked when passed as array.

If you have a look at the current create*Provider() methods of the PrismManager, they either use ?? '' or ?? null to avoid constructor errors or use no checks (like $config['url']), which will result in undefined variable errors when the value isn't part of the configuration.

As the required configuration is different for each provider, only the provider class should care about what it needs from the software enginieering point of view (separation of concerns), check if everything is available or throw an exception otherwise.

Please keep in mind that PHP is not a compiled language and errors always occur when the code is executed, regardless if we use constructors with explicit parameters or passing a configuration array and throwing exceptions when something is missing or wrong.

Deprecating Provider enum - The enum provides discoverability and compile-time checks. I think I could compromise and do either string or class name e.g. Prism\Providers\Anthropic::class and then deprecate the enum.

Yes, that would be a good compromise because then, we don't have to extend the enum every time we add a new provider.