Title: Installed standards
Author: WordPress VIP Documentation
Published: December 29, 2025
Last modified: December 31, 2025

---

 1. [PHPCS for WordPress VIP](https://docs.wpvip.com/php_codesniffer/)
 2. Installed standards

#  Installed standards

By following the instructions for installing PHPCS for WordPress VIP, the `[dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer](https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/composer-installer)`
Composer plugin package will also be installed in the background.

The presence of the `dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer` Composer plugin
package allows standards to be automatically registered with PHPCS. This eliminates
the need to register standards separately when new standards are added.

A list of installed standards can be returned by running the command `phpcs -i`.
After following the instructions for [installing PHPCS globally](https://docs.wpvip.com/php_codesniffer/install-globally/)
or [installing PHPCS at the project level](https://docs.wpvip.com/php_codesniffer/install-at-project-level/),
the returned standards should match this example:

    ```wp-block-preformatted
    $ phpcs -i
    The installed coding standards are MySource, PEAR, PSR1, PSR2, PSR12, Squiz, Zend, WordPress-VIP-Go, WordPressVIPMinimum, Modernize, NormalizedArrays, Universal, PHPCSUtils, VariableAnalysis, WordPress, WordPress-Core, WordPress-Docs and WordPress-Extra
    ```

**Note**

The `WordPress-VIP` standard should not appear in the returned list. This standard
has been deprecated, is not used in the latest version of VIPCS, and has been removed
completely from [WordPressCS 2.x](https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress-Coding-Standards/releases).

The current [VIP-Coding-Standards (VIPCS) 3.x release](https://github.com/Automattic/VIP-Coding-Standards/releases)
requires at minimum [WordPress-Coding-Standards (WordPressCS) 3.x](https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress-Coding-Standards/releases).
Refer to the [README](https://github.com/Automattic/VIP-Coding-Standards#minimal-requirements)
for the exact minimum version required.

Last updated: December 31, 2025