Rector hangs indefinitely when processing model with self-referencing trait, generic PHPDoc, and Eloquent relationship

[BoyeMagnus]

Bug Report

Question	Answer
Rector version	2.3.8
PHP version	8.4
Laravel version	12.x

Description

Rector hangs indefinitely (infinite recursion in PHPStan's FileTypeMapper) when processing a Laravel Eloquent Model that combines:

1. A trait containing an anonymous class that uses itself (self-referencing trait)
2. A @method static Builder<static>|ClassName PHPDoc annotation
3. Any Eloquent relationship method (e.g. belongsTo, hasMany, morphMany)

Removing any one of these three components makes it work. PHPStan itself does not exhibit this issue, it only occurs through Rector's PHPStanNodeScopeResolver wrapper which doesn't have cycle detection when walking trait AST nodes.

Related: #3836 (similar symptom via @mixin, but different trigger - this repro uses no @mixin)

Minimal Reproduction

composer create-project laravel/laravel rector-hang-repro
cd rector-hang-repro
composer require --dev rector/rector

app/Traits/RecursiveTrait.php:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Traits;

trait RecursiveTrait {
    public function getRecursive(): object {
        return new class () {
            use RecursiveTrait;
        };
    }
}

app/Models/BaseModel.php:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use App\Traits\RecursiveTrait;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsTo;

/**
 * @method static Builder<static>|BaseModel query()
 */
class BaseModel extends Model {
    use RecursiveTrait;

    public function parent(): BelongsTo {
        return $this->belongsTo(self::class);
    }
}

rector.php:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Rector\Config\RectorConfig;
use Rector\DeadCode\Rector\ClassMethod\RemoveUnusedPrivateMethodRector;

return RectorConfig::configure()
    ->withPaths([__DIR__ . '/app'])
    ->withoutParallel()
    ->withRules([RemoveUnusedPrivateMethodRector::class]);

Run:

php vendor/bin/rector process app/Models/BaseModel.php --dry-run

Results in:

PHP Fatal error:  Maximum execution time of 0 seconds exceeded in
phar://.../vendor/phpstan/phpstan/phpstan.phar/src/Type/FileTypeMapper.php on line 332

(Line number varies between runs the recursion hits different points in FileTypeMapper, CachedParser, FileReader, etc.)

Expected Behavior

Rector should detect the cycle and stop recursing, or set a depth limit on trait processing.

The recursion originates in PHPStanNodeScopeResolver::processTrait() (line ~582):

1. Rector processes BaseModel.php -> finds use RecursiveTrait -> calls processTrait()
2. processTrait() processes the trait's statements -> finds the anonymous class containing use RecursiveTrait
3. Rector enters the anonymous class -> finds use RecursiveTrait -> calls processTrait() again
4. Infinite loop - at each level, PHPStan's FileTypeMapper re-resolves the Builder<static> generic types from the PHPDoc, which is where the timeout occurs

Standalone PHPStan handles this correctly because its NodeScopeResolver has built-in cycle detection and result caching. Rector's PHPStanNodeScopeResolver wrapper defeats this by manually walking into trait AST nodes without tracking already-visited traits.

[samsonasik]

I tried it, but only "fixable" in phpunit environment via tweak the Infinite recursion? message

• [DeadCode] Handle Infinite recursion on self referenced trait on PHPStanNodeScopeResolver rector-src#7925

On real bin/rector cli, it stuck on the internal phpstan calls, so doesn't solve the real issue.

I think instead of using recursive trait, you need to refactor the code to use real class over anonymous class, something like this:

+class InnerClass extends \stdClass
+{
+    use RecursiveTrait;
+}

trait RecursiveTrait {
    public function getRecursive(): object {
-        return new class () {
-            use RecursiveTrait;
-        };
+.      return new InnerClass();
    }
}