Weekly update – 27 March 2026

[ryan]

This week I worked with Claude Code on refactoring the core WireHooks class to improve it in various ways. I do this work because I like to code, so am of course handling that part. But Claude has been very helpful in finding issues as well as reviewing all my code before it gets committed. In this case, Claude found several bugs that are now fixed, and also saved me from introducing more when I added new features. 

Working with Claude Code reminds me of 1989 when I was in high school learning Turbo Pascal and building a BBS, and getting help from a neighbor and good friend that was doing the same. I learned so much then and now it feels like that time again. But man have things come a long way since then.

I asked Claude about helping with the ProcessWire issues and requests GitHub repos, and now it's solving issue reports, replying to them and committing fixes. For simple fixes that involve a line or two, I'm going to let it handle the the whole thing. It's posting under my GitHub account, but it identifies itself as Claude in replies and and in commits. That way it's easy to tell what it does under my account. I had it just cover a couple of issue reports today as a test (see 2195 and 2192), but will be having it do a lot more going forward. 

Back to the WireHooks class, I asked Claude about writing a commit message for the WireHooks updates, and wow, check this out:

  Bug fixes in WireHooks:  
  - conditionalArgMatch(): Fix Selector mutation bug where the shared Selector
    object stored in hook options was permanently mutated after the first call,  
    causing argMatch hooks (e.g. addHook('WireLog::save(=errors)')) to stop  
    matching after their first invocation.  
  - getHooks(): Remove key variable from foreach to prevent shadowing $method param.  
  - getHooks(): Replace array_merge() in loops with direct array append.  
  - addHook(): Prevent 'noAddHooks' option from leaking into stored hook options.  
  - isHookedOrParents(): Use $className string consistently in cache key writes,  
    rather than $class which may be a Wire object.  
  - runHooks(): Scope $useHookReturnValue inside foreach so it resets per hook.  
  - runHooks(): Use strict null comparison ($toObject === null).  
  
  Bug fixes in HookEvent:  
  - arguments(): Allow setting an argument value to null (use func_num_args() > 1  
    instead of $value !== null check).  
  - arguments(): Use array_key_exists() instead of isset() for null-correct lookup.  
  - getArgumentNames(): Guard ReflectionMethod instantiation with method_exists()  
    to avoid uncaught ReflectionException for dynamically-added hook methods.  
  - __toString(): Fix argument list building (was appending to string instead of  
    array), add null/bool display, avoid PHP fatal for objects without __toString(). 
     
  New features in WireHooks:  
  - cancelHooks: Now accepts string values 'before' or 'after' (in addition to  
    boolean true) to cancel only hooks of a given type. For example, a before hook
    can set $event->cancelHooks = 'after' to cancel remaining after hooks without  
    affecting the hooked method call.  
  - Custom event data carry-forward: Custom data set on a HookEvent (via  
    $event->customKey = $value) is now carried forward to subsequent HookEvent  
    instances within the same runHooks() call. This allows before hooks to pass  
    data to after hooks without using external variables.  
  - getHooks('*'): Supports wildcard method to return all hooks for all objects.  
    Available in debug mode only (uses allStaticHooks/allLocalHooks aggregates).  
  - allStaticHooks: Now tracked alongside allLocalHooks when debug mode is on.  
  - addHooks() comment fix: "If there is a parenthesis" corrected to "no parenthesis".  
  - addHook() exception messages improved with additional context.  
  - runHooks() docblock updated to include 'either' type.  
  - hookTimer() PHPDoc: @param String corrected to lowercase string.  
  
  New features in HookEvent:  
  - $defaults static property: Defines the canonical set of standard HookEvent  
    fields, used to distinguish custom data from built-in event properties.  
  - $eid property: Each HookEvent instance gets a unique sequential event ID.  
  - set() override: Tracks non-default keys set on the event in $customKeys.  
  - getCustomData(): Returns only the custom (non-default) data set on the event,  
    used internally by runHooks() for the carry-forward feature.  
  - cancelHooks property updated to support bool|string type.  

Anyway, I know a lot of you here are deep into the AI stuff, and I'm just getting started, so none of this is surprising. But it sure is a pleasure collaborating with Claude Code on this stuff and it brings back that coding wonder and excitement from 1989. 

Some Claude and Claude Code podcasts I've enjoyed listening to or watching this week include one from AI for Humans Claude is Cooking, Wednesday's AI Daily Brief on How to use Claude's new upgrades, and the Get Educated AI video of how to setup Claude to use your computer and web browser, etc. (though I've not tried this just yet!). Lastly, last week I put together a ProcessWire powered JSON feed of bike tours, and the client prompted that they wanted a map and look what Claude Code did, I'm impressed!