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CodeIgniter 4

Latest Release PHPUnit Static Analysis License

CodeIgniter 4 is a modern, lightweight PHP full-stack framework focused on developer productivity, speed, and security. It provides a collection of expressive libraries, a powerful CLI, and an intuitive MVC structure that helps you ship production-ready applications quickly.

Overview

  • Lightweight core with optional packages so you only ship what you need.
  • Secure by design thanks to CSRF protection, content security features, and built-in validation.
  • Developer friendly CLI (php spark) for scaffolding, migrations, tasks, and testing.
  • Flexible architecture that embraces PSR standards, Composer autoloading, and namespacing.

Requirements

  • PHP 8.1 or newer
  • ext-intl and ext-mbstring enabled
  • Recommended: ext-curl, ext-json, and database-specific extensions (ext-mysqli, ext-pgsql, etc.)

PHP 8.1 reaches end of life on December 31, 2025. Upgrade sooner to stay supported.

Quick Start

  1. Clone and install dependencies 
    git clone https://github.com/codeigniter4/CodeIgniter4.git
cd CodeIgniter4
composer install
  2. Bootstrap your environment 
    cp env .env
php spark key:generate
    On Windows use copy env .env instead of cp. Update .env with your app name, base URL, and database credentials.
  3. Serve the application 
    php spark serve
    Visit http://localhost:8080 to confirm the welcome page loads.

Common Tasks

  • php spark make:controller Home – scaffold a controller.
  • php spark make:migration CreateUsers – generate a database migration.
  • php spark migrate – run pending migrations.
  • php spark routes – inspect the current routing table.
  • php spark help – list available CLI commands.

Composer scripts streamline maintenance tasks:

  • composer test – run the PHPUnit suite.
  • composer analyze – run static analysis (PHPStan + Rector dry run).
  • composer cs – check coding standards.
  • composer cs-fix – automatically fix coding standards.
  • composer metrics – generate PhpMetrics reports.

Project Structure

  • app/ – application code (controllers, models, views, configuration).
  • public/ – web server document root containing index.php.
  • system/ – framework core (avoid editing directly).
  • tests/ – PHPUnit test suite.
  • writable/ – runtime storage (cache, logs, sessions, uploads).

Configure your web server (Apache/Nginx) to serve the public/ directory to keep application files outside the public web root.

Documentation & Guides

Contributing

We welcome bug reports, documentation updates, and pull requests from the community. Before contributing:

  1. Review the contributing guide.
  2. Search existing issues to avoid duplicates.
  3. Use GitHub Issues for confirmed bugs and approved enhancements; use the forum for support or feature ideas.

PRs should include tests when applicable and follow the project's coding standards (composer cs / composer cs-fix).

Security

Report security issues via the responsible disclosure process. Please do not open public GitHub issues for vulnerabilities.

License

CodeIgniter 4 is open-source software released under the MIT License.