README

Valkyrja Starter (App)

Starter template for building PHP applications on the Valkyrja framework.

This repository gives you a working Valkyrja application as a starting point — HTTP and CLI kernels pre-wired, example controllers and commands, configuration scaffolding, and a ready-to-customize App/ namespace. The starter passes the same linting, static analysis, and architectural rules as the Valkyrja framework itself, so you can focus on building your application rather than cleaning up the foundation.

What's in the Box

Pre-wired HTTP and CLI kernels — the application boots and responds to both web requests and command-line invocations out of the box
Example controllers and commands — working code showing typical routing, request handling, and command dispatch patterns
Configuration scaffolding — Config/ and Data/ layers with example files and environment-driven overrides
Testing setup — PHPUnit configured with example tests and the same structure used across Valkyrja's own components
Full CI pipeline — PHPStan, Psalm, PHPCodeSniffer, PHP CS Fixer, PHPArkitect, and Rector all configured and passing on a clean clone
Worker runtime integrations (optional) — OpenSwoole, FrankenPHP, or RoadRunner for persistent-worker deployments

Installation

Use this template (recommended)

This repository is a GitHub template. Click the Use this template button at the top of the repo to create a new repository in your own account, pre-populated with the starter code.

Via Composer

composer create-project valkyrja/application your-project
cd your-project

Clone manually (for contributing to the starter itself)

git clone git@github.com:valkyrjaio/valkyrja-starter-app-php.git
cd valkyrja-starter-app-php
composer install

Getting Started

Project Structure

The key directories you'll work in:

app/
├── src/
│   └── App/           # your application code lives here
│       ├── Cli/       # CLI commands, providers, and configuration
│       └── Http/      # HTTP controllers, providers, and configuration
├── bootstrap/         # application entry points (HTTP and CLI)
├── config/            # environment and runtime configuration
└── tests/             # your test suite

Your application code goes in the App\ namespace under app/src/App/. The starter provides example HTTP controllers and CLI commands you can study, modify, or replace.

Running Your Application

HTTP (built-in PHP server):

php -S localhost:8080 -t bootstrap/http

Navigate to http://localhost:8080 to see the example routes.

CLI:

php bootstrap/cli/valkyrja

Run with no arguments to see the list of available commands.

Writing Code

Adding a route: see the example controller in app/src/App/Http/Controller/ and the route definitions it registers. For the full routing API, see the Valkyrja HTTP documentation.

Adding a command: see the example command in app/src/App/Cli/Command/. For the full CLI API, see the Valkyrja CLI documentation.

Binding services: the dependency injection container is configured in the Provider classes under each App/ subdirectory. See the Valkyrja container documentation for the full API.

Running Tests

composer phpunit

For coverage:

composer phpunit-coverage

Running CI Checks Locally

The starter ships with the same CI pipeline as the Valkyrja framework. Run any check via its composer script:

composer phpstan
composer psalm
composer phpcodesniffer
composer phpcsfixer
composer phparkitect
composer rector

Deployment

The starter runs on any PHP 8.4+ environment. For production, Valkyrja supports several persistent-worker runtimes for significantly better performance than traditional PHP-FPM:

OpenSwoole — persistent worker via the OpenSwoole extension
FrankenPHP — persistent worker via the FrankenPHP embedded runtime
RoadRunner — persistent worker via the Go-based RoadRunner manager

See each integration's README for setup instructions specific to that runtime. For containerized deployment, valkyrja-docker-php provides ready-made Docker configurations.

Documentation

Full Valkyrja documentation lives in the framework repository and is baked into the source tree so you can browse it offline.

For starter-specific questions, open an issue on this repository. For framework questions, open an issue on the Valkyrja framework repository.

Contributing

Contributions to the starter itself — improvements to the example code, bug fixes, CI improvements — are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the submission process and VOCABULARY.md for the terminology used across Valkyrja.

License

The Valkyrja framework and this starter are open-source software licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE.md.

valkyrja / application

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