getting-started.md

Getting Started with QuillPHP

Build high-throughput APIs in minutes using the Quill Binary Core.

Requirements

Requirement	Version
PHP	8.3+ (CLI)
PHP Extensions	ffi, pcntl, posix, json, mbstring
php.ini	ffi.enable=on
Quill Binary Core	libquill.so / libquill.dylib (bundled via Composer)

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Installation

composer create-project quillphp/quill my-api
cd my-api

The quillphp/quill-core Composer dependency ships a pre-built binary for Linux and macOS. No manual build step is required.

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Start the Server

# Single worker (development)
php bin/quill serve

# Multiple workers (production)
QUILL_WORKERS=4 php bin/quill serve --port=8080

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Your First Route

Edit routes.php to define a GET endpoint:

use Quill\App;
use Quill\Http\Request;

$app = new App();

$app->get('/hello', function (Request $request): array {
    return ['message' => 'Hello from Quill!'];
});

$app->run();

Start the server and test it:

curl http://localhost:8080/hello
# {"message":"Hello from Quill!"}

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Project Structure

my-api/
├── attributes/          # Custom validation attributes
├── bin/
│   └── quill            # CLI entry point
├── domain/              # Business / domain logic
├── dtos/                # Data Transfer Objects
├── handlers/            # Action handlers (ADR pattern)
├── public/
│   └── index.php        # Application bootstrap
├── routes.php           # Route definitions
├── scripts/
│   └── http-bench.sh    # Local benchmark runner
└── src/                 # Framework source
    ├── Http/            # Request, Response, Cors
    ├── Routing/         # Router, RouteMatch
    ├── Runtime/         # Server, Runtime (FFI), Json
    └── Validation/      # Validator, DTO

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Next Steps

• Architecture — How the binary core and PHP interact.
• Routing — Groups, parameters, and ADR handlers.
• DTOs & Validation — Type-safe request bodies.
• Middleware — CORS, auth, and custom pipelines.