Getting Started

MonkeysLegion is a full-stack PHP framework focused on developer joy and production-grade defaults.

If you’ve used Laravel’s elegance, Symfony’s rigor, or Next.js’s DX, you’ll feel at home in minutes—minus the heavyweight baggage.

Why MonkeysLegion?

• Modular: Every feature—routing, templates, auth, i18n—lives in a separate Composer package. Pick only what you need.

• Typed: PHP 8.4+, constructor DI, strict DTO validation, and reflection-powered auto-wiring.

• Zero-config DX: Hot-reload dev server, one CLI for every workflow, and .mlc files for human-friendly config.

• Batteries included: JWT auth, attribute-based policies, PSR-14 event bus, Prometheus metrics, and more.

1 · Create a new project

composer create-project monkeyscloud/monkeyslegion-skeleton myapp
cd myapp
php vendor/bin/ml key:generate    # RSA keypair for JWT signing
php vendor/bin/ml serve --open    # starts the hot-reload dev server

Open http://localhost:8000 and you’ll see “Hello MonkeysLegion!” served by the Router and Template engine.

2 · Project anatomy

myapp/
├─ app/
│  ├─ Controller/      # HTTP / CLI controllers
│  ├─ Entity/          # Attribute-mapped domain objects
│  └─ Repository/      # Query + data-access classes
├─ config/             # .mlc environment config
├─ database/
│  ├─ migrations/      # Generated migration classes
│  └─ seeders/         # Data fixtures
├─ public/             # Web root (index.php, JS/CSS, images)
├─ resources/
│  └─ views/           # .ml.php templates and components
└─ vendor/             # Composer dependencies

Everything is PSR-4 autoloaded; add namespaces anywhere under app/.

3 · Your first route

src/Http/Controller/PostController.php

use MonkeysLegion\Router\Attribute\Route;
use Laminas\Diactoros\Response\JsonResponse;

final class PostController
{
    #[Route('GET', '/posts')]
    public function index(): JsonResponse
    {
        return new JsonResponse([
            ['id'=>1,'title'=>'First post'],
            ['id'=>2,'title'=>'Second post'],
        ]);
    }
}

Save—dev server auto-refreshes—and http://localhost:8000/posts returns JSON.

4 · Persisting data

php vendor/bin/ml make:entity Post

Edit the generated entity, then:

php vendor/bin/ml migrate

A migration class is created and executed; your MySQL schema is now in sync.

Use the out-of-the-box EntityRepository:

$posts = $container->get(App\Repository\PostRepository::class)->findAll();

5 · Adding auth

php vendor/bin/ml make:controller AuthController

Inside:

#[Route('POST','/login')]
public function login(LoginUser $dto, AuthService $auth): JsonResponse
{
    [$token] = $auth->attempt($dto->email, $dto->password);
    return new JsonResponse(['token'=>$token]);
}

Protect routes with a policy:

#[Can('edit', Post::class)]
#[Route('PUT','/posts/{id}')]
public function update(...) { … }

JwtAuthMiddleware + AuthorizationMiddleware enforce everything.

6 · Next steps

• Join #monkeyslegion on Slack.

• File issues or feature requests on GitHub.

• Read the full package docs linked above.

Happy coding—you’re officially a Legionnaire! 🐒🎉