Intervention/image · critical · MissingDependencyException

Imagick PHP extension must be installed to use this driver

Error message

Imagick PHP extension must be installed to use this driver

What it means

The Imagick driver's health check found the imagick extension not loaded or the Imagick class absent. It fires as soon as an ImageManager is created with the Imagick driver on a PHP runtime that cannot back it. It is a MissingDependencyException (environment problem), not an image problem.

Source

Thrown at src/Drivers/Imagick/Driver.php:46

     *
     * @see DriverInterface::id()
     */
    public function id(): string
    {
        return 'Imagick';
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     *
     * @see DriverInterface::checkHealth()
     *
     * @codeCoverageIgnore
     */
    public function checkHealth(): void
    {
        if (!extension_loaded('imagick') || !class_exists('Imagick')) {
            throw new MissingDependencyException(
                'Imagick PHP extension must be installed to use this driver',
            );
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     *
     * @see DriverInterface::createImage()
     *
     * @throws InvalidArgumentException
     * @throws DriverException
     */
    public function createImage(int $width, int $height): ImageInterface
    {
        if ($width < 1 || $height < 1) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException('Invalid image size. Must be int<1, max>');
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5598b9e397)

Solutions

Install the extension: apt install php-imagick (Debian), apk add php83-imagick (Alpine), or pecl install imagick plus extension=imagick.so in the ini
Verify with `php -m | grep imagick` and `php --ri imagick` (also shows the linked ImageMagick version)
Confirm the ini file lives in the scanned directory shown by `php --ini` after rebuilding the container
If the extension cannot be installed in that environment, construct the manager with the GD driver instead

Example fix

# before: Dockerfile without imagick
FROM php:8.3-fpm

# after
FROM php:8.3-fpm
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libmagickwand-dev \
    && pecl install imagick \
    && docker-php-ext-enable imagick

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!extension_loaded('imagick') || !class_exists('Imagick')) {
    $manager = new \Intervention\Image\ImageManager(['driver' => 'gd']);
} else {
    $manager = new \Intervention\Image\ImageManager(['driver' => 'imagick']);
}

Type guard

function imagickDriverAvailable(): bool
{
    return extension_loaded('imagick') && class_exists('Imagick');
}

Try / catch

try {
    $manager = new \Intervention\Image\ImageManager(['driver' => 'imagick']);
} catch (\Intervention\Image\Exceptions\MissingDependencyException $e) {
    $manager = new \Intervention\Image\ImageManager(['driver' => 'gd']);
}

Prevention

Run `php -m | grep imagick` in your Docker build/CI to fail fast on missing extensions
Bake ext-imagick plus delegate libraries into dedicated image variants
Re-verify extensions after every PHP major upgrade (compiled extensions silently drop on API mismatch)

When it happens

Trigger: new ImageManager(['driver' => 'imagick']) or ImageManager::imagick() on a host without ext-imagick: bare PHP CLI, a container built without the PECL extension, or after a PHP upgrade left a version-mismatched extension silently unloaded.

Common situations: Production Docker image differs from dev; PHP major-version upgrade breaks the compiled extension (API mismatch -> not loaded); Alpine images missing php8X-imagick; CI matrix testing drivers the runner cannot support.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Intervention/image@5598b9e397 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/56374b178ad9a734. Report an issue: GitHub.