Getting Started

Install

composer create-project monad/skeleton NewApp
cd NewApp
cp .env_example .env

Fill in APP_SECRET and the DB_* variables in .env, then create Monad's built-in tables and run your own migrations:

php mitosis setup
php mitosis migrate

Start the built-in development server:

php mitosis serve

This binds the PHP built-in server to http://127.0.0.1:8000, using public/router.php. Requires PHP >=8.2.

Your first route

Routes are registered in app/routes/web.php. Route::get() takes a URI and either a closure or a [ControllerClass::class, 'method'] pair — controller actions are static methods, so that pair is directly callable with no container resolving it:

use Monad\Clarity\Services\Response;
use Monad\Clarity\Services\Route;

Route::get('/hello', fn () => Response::text('Hello, Monad.'));

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/hello and you'll see the response text. Route also has post(), put(), patch(), delete(), and options(), plus named parameters ({id}, {id:int}, {slug:alpha}, {id:uuid}) and route groups.

Your first middleware

A middleware is any callable of the shape function (Request $request, callable $next): Response — call $next($request) to continue the pipeline, or return your own Response to short-circuit it. Register one with ->middleware():

use Monad\Clarity\Services\Request;
use Monad\Clarity\Services\Response;
use Monad\Clarity\Services\Route;

Route::get('/hello', fn () => Response::text('Hello, Monad.'))
    ->middleware(function (Request $request, callable $next): Response {
        $response = $next($request);

        return $response->withHeader('X-Powered-By', 'Monad');
    });

Reload /hello and check the response headers — X-Powered-By: Monad is there. This is the same contract every built-in middleware uses (Csrf, RateLimiter, Authentication, and the rest), so a closure like this one and a fully-configured class both plug into ->middleware() the same way.

Next steps

Quickstart — build a slightly larger app: a controller, a view, and a named route group.
Routing — the full Route API: groups, named routes, typed parameters, the 404-vs-405 distinction.
Middleware Pipeline — how the pipeline is built and run, and when to use a class instead of a closure.