Get Started

Create a PhalconKit application, run its first HTTP request, then connect a database when you are ready to build a resource.

Requirements

• PHP 8.5 or later, with the native Phalcon extension satisfying ^5.22.0.
• Composer 2 and the PHP extensions required by the package.
• MySQL or MariaDB for database-backed features.
• Swoole only if you run the optional WebSocket server.

Check the PHP executable Composer will use:

php --version
php -r 'echo phpversion("phalcon") ?: "phalcon not loaded", PHP_EOL;'
composer --version

See Runtime Requirements if CLI and PHP-FPM use different configurations.

Create Your Application

composer create-project phalcon-kit/app my-api
cd my-api
cp .env.example .env
composer check-platform-reqs

On PowerShell, use Copy-Item .env.example .env. For an existing project that does not use the skeleton, follow Application Integration.

Set your application's name and environment in .env:

APP_NAME="Project API"
APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_CACHE=false

Keep .env untracked. Put module definitions, providers, permissions, and model aliases in src/Config.php; put deployment-specific values in the environment.

Run An HTTP Request

From the application directory:

php -S 127.0.0.1:8080 -t public public/index.php

In another terminal:

curl --include http://127.0.0.1:8080/api

The skeleton's index action responds with HTTP 200 and this JSON shape; the timestamp changes on each request:

{
  "timestamp": "2026-09-29T10:00:00-04:00",
  "status": "OK",
  "code": 200,
  "response": [],
  "view": []
}

This verifies the HTTP bootstrap without a database. The built-in PHP server is for local development. In deployment, point your web server at public/; see Web Servers And WebSockets.

Check the CLI entrypoint separately:

./bin/phalcon-kit --help

On Windows, invoke PHP explicitly: php bin/phalcon-kit --help.

Connect A Database

Create an empty development database and an application database account, then set:

DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1
DATABASE_PORT=3306
DATABASE_DBNAME=my_api
DATABASE_USERNAME=my_api
DATABASE_PASSWORD="replace-with-your-local-password"

Core's default connection options target MySQL. For MariaDB, use the connection options in Configuration before running migrations or scaffolding.

A project-only resource can use just its own tables. Authentication, sessions, and other built-in features require their supporting tables. To install them in a fresh database with an empty migration directory, follow Database Migrations. Installing Composer dependencies does not create tables or user accounts.

Where To Put Your Code

Keep your application's composer.lock in version control so development, testing, and deployment install the same dependency versions.

Build Something

Continue with Your First REST Resource. It includes a complete table, controller, permission configuration, and requests with their results. Then add Authentication for protected actions.