🚀 Building a Production-Ready PHP REST API Framework (Open Source)

#opensource #architecture #api #php

After building and managing 25+ enterprise applications (ERP, HRM, CRM, LMS, SaaS), I realized most PHP frameworks are powerful but heavy for small, API-only or microservice projects.

So, I decided to build a custom, production-ready REST API framework in raw PHP — clean, lightweight, and fully modular — now open-sourced on GitHub! 🎉

⚙️ Why I Built This

I wanted complete control over every layer: routing, middleware, authentication, and performance.

I needed something faster and leaner than Laravel for internal APIs and microservices.

I wanted to learn deeply how an API framework works under the hood — HTTP handling, dependency injection, error management, and versioning.

🧩 Framework Highlights

✅ Lightweight & Fast – built on raw PHP 8+, PSR-4 autoloading
✅ JWT Authentication – secure token-based access
✅ Clean Modular Structure – controllers, routes, middleware
✅ Built-in CLI & Job Queue System
✅ Debug Mode – track queries, memory, and response time
✅ API Versioning Support
✅ Error Handling, CORS, and Rate Limiting
✅ Ready for Docker & Production

🏗 Folder Structure Example
app/
├── core/
├── controllers/
├── middleware/
├── models/
├── routes/
├── storage/
public/
└── index.php

This structure keeps everything modular, testable, and scalable.

🧠 Learn the Full Process

I documented every step — from architecture planning to deployment — in this detailed Medium article:
👉 Building a Production-Ready PHP REST API Framework — A Complete Guide

💻 Explore the Source Code

You can explore, fork, or contribute on GitHub:
👉 https://github.com/jmrashed/php-rest-api-pro-kit

🤝 Contribute & Feedback

I’d love your feedback and suggestions!
If you find it useful:

⭐ Star the repo

🐛 Report issues

💬 Share ideas to improve

Let’s make this the go-to starting point for developers who want to build fast, clean, production-ready APIs with PHP!