@throws

PHP has no native syntax at all for declaring what exceptions a function might throw, so @throws is the only way to document it. Listing the \Throwable types a function can raise lets callers know what is worth catching, and lets a static analyzer flag a catch block that can never be reached or a thrown type that was never declared.

"@throws" <Type> [ <Description> ]

Parsing a @throws tag produces a tag exposing $type — the parsed TypeNode naming the thrown type — plus the $name and $description every tag has.

abstract class TypedTag extends Tag
{
    public TypeNode $type {
        get => $this->statement->type;
    }

    public function __construct(
        string $name,
        protected readonly TypeReference $statement,
        ?DescriptionInterface $description = null,
    ) {
        parent::__construct($name, $description);
    }
}

final class ThrowsTag extends TypedTag {}

The misspelling @throw is also recognized — a fairly common typo that this component also recognizes and parses into the same kind of tag as @throws.

Defined by the PSR-19 draft §5.15 and phpDocumentor's own @throws reference.

05 July 2026