Foundation

infocyph/foundation is the performance-first application composition layer for the Infocyph PHP ecosystem. It owns application bootstrap, explicit runtime selection, provider graph composition, and application-level policy while specialist libraries retain their domain engines and public APIs.

Install

Foundation requires PHP ^8.4.

composer require infocyph/foundation

The package exposes the infbyte Composer binary:

vendor/bin/infbyte list
vendor/bin/infbyte --version
vendor/bin/infbyte help module:install

Applications using the standard root script can run the same commands with php infbyte. Metadata-only list, help, version, and completion commands do not boot the application.

Bootstrap

Select one of Foundation's four runtimes explicitly:

use Infocyph\Foundation\Foundation;

$web = Foundation::web(['base_path' => dirname(__DIR__)]);
$cli = Foundation::cli(['base_path' => dirname(__DIR__)]);
$worker = Foundation::worker(['base_path' => dirname(__DIR__)]);
$scheduler = Foundation::scheduler(['base_path' => dirname(__DIR__)]);

Foundation never infers the runtime from PHP_SAPI. Non-web commands, worker units, and scheduled invocations use stable semantic InterMix scopes. Web request and scope ownership belongs to Webrick's compiled execution plan, so a minimal route can remain Request-free and scope-free.

Application providers are assigned by runtime in bootstrap/providers.php:

return [
    'common' => [],
    'web' => [],
    'cli' => [],
    'worker' => [],
    'scheduler' => [],
];

Providers contribute deterministic graph definitions before production compilation; production boot does not reopen the mutable development container.

See Architecture and lifecycle, Configuration, and the Foundation 3 migration guide for the complete runtime contract.

Runtime hosts

The application modes are independent of the HTTP host. Ordinary PHP/FPM can use Webrick's SAPI path. Applications selecting Runwire use Webrick's Runwire bridge; Runwire owns native portable/prefork execution and its FPM, FrankenPHP, RoadRunner and Swoole/OpenSwoole host adaptation. Foundation supplies the compiled application and its scoped services.

Runwire is optional and does not activate merely because it is installed. See Runtime hosting for ownership, selection and the verification boundary.

Capabilities

Foundation modules describe optional application capabilities rather than package names. CacheLayer is a direct Foundation dependency and core cache infrastructure, but the cache capability still remains cold until explicitly selected. Other optional packages such as DBLayer, Omnibus, TalkingBytes, Epicrypt, Pathwise, ReqShield, OTP, or WebAuthn likewise do not activate themselves merely because they are installed.

Specialist module	Implementation
auth	Foundation auth with optional OTP and WebAuthn providers
communication	TalkingBytes
database	DBLayer
filesystem	Pathwise
messaging	Omnibus
security	Epicrypt
validation	ReqShield

The catalog also retains four built-in entries for configuration and schema operations: logging, operations, resources, and session. They require no additional Composer packages and cannot be removed. CacheLayer is core infrastructure, outside the module catalog; use cache:schema:status and cache:schema:install for core cache schemas. Notifications are native and use TalkingBytes only when its email integration is selected.

Use the module commands to inspect, install, configure, and provision a specialist capability:

php infbyte module:list
php infbyte module:show database
php infbyte module:install database
php infbyte module:config:publish messaging
php infbyte module:schema:status auth

Foundation composes these libraries without replacing their native query, cache, filesystem, validation, communication, cryptography, or messaging APIs. See Modules for package mappings, aliases, activation rules, and schema ownership.

Operate and deploy

The CLI provides explicit commands for the application lifecycle. Common entry points include:

php infbyte app:ready
php infbyte migrate --pretend
php infbyte schedule:run
php infbyte worker:list
php infbyte runtime:reload
php infbyte optimize

Production deployment publishes one immutable Foundation release generation. The generation owns the normalized config snapshot, compiled Webrick web bundle, compiled InterMix CLI/worker/scheduler containers, worker topology, and trust metadata. InterMix generated PHP remains the native DI production cache and is loaded directly through its own manifest/ProductionContainer path; Foundation does not redirect compiled containers through CacheLayer. Production release loading does not fall back to project route, provider, or config discovery when a generated artifact is missing or invalid.

Run php infbyte list for the active command catalog. Generated artifacts are deployment-owned and should not be committed. Use php infbyte optimize:clear for explicit build-plane cleanup.

Operational behavior and safety constraints are documented in CLI, schedules, and workers, Messaging, and Operations.

Documentation

The documentation index links the focused guides for HTTP, authentication, sessions, database, storage, communication, JSON resources, logging, testing, security, and Foundation 3 migration. Configuration templates under resources/config/ are the canonical key-by-key reference.

Verification

Run the complete release guard before publishing:

composer ic:release:guard

The Security & Standards workflow adds the PHP 8.4/8.5 lowest/stable matrices, service-backed integration checks, and a clean production install. Run the representative workload separately when validating performance-sensitive changes:

composer benchmark:representative

Only compare numeric benchmark results from matching, explicitly stable environments.