Apivalk

Apivalk - The OpenAPI-First Framework for REST APIs That Soar

A Lightweight, Framework-Agnostic REST API Ecosystem for PHP. Built for speed, precision, and type-safe development.

Harness the power of the Valkyrie. APIs that soar instead of crawl. Apivalk gives you an OpenAPI-first mind that brings structure, automation, and clarity to your backend.

⚡ OpenAPI-first 🔒 Scope-based Security 🧠 Type-safe 🪶 Lightweight 🔮 Framework-agnostic

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🔒 Security & Authorization

Apivalk features a robust, OpenAPI-compliant security system out of the box.

• Identity System: Unified handling of UserAuthIdentity and GuestAuthIdentity.
• Scope Objects: Granular, type-safe authorization using Scope objects instead of simple strings.
• JWT & OAuth: First-class support for JWK-based JWT validation via JwtAuthenticator (based on firebase/php-jwt).
• Middleware Pipeline: Dedicated AuthenticationMiddleware and SecurityMiddleware for clean, decoupled authorization.

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Why Apivalk?

• OpenAPI-First: One definition powering models, validation, routing, and documentation.
• REST APIs, Done Right: A clean, modern approach with structure and best practices built in.
• Unified Standards: Eliminating fragmentation in PHP API development.
• Framework-Agnostic: Use it with Laravel, Symfony, Slim, or native PHP. No lock-in.

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Key Capabilities

🚀 Fast Routing Engine

Ultra-light, minimal, and optimized routing layer inspired by PSR-7/15 conventions, with support for route caching.

🔒 Type-Safe Architecture

Strong typing for all requests and responses, strict DTOs, and predictable interfaces, even on PHP 7.2.

🔄 Middleware System

A modern middleware pipeline for Auth, Rate Limiting, CORS, and more.

📝 API Documentation

Automatic OpenAPI documentation generation from PHP code annotations with Swagger UI support.

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Framework Bridges

While Apivalk is fully framework-agnostic, we offer dedicated integration bridges:

• Apivalk Laravel Bridge: Automatic bootstrapping, uses Laravel's Request/Response, and drop-in {any} fallback route.
• Apivalk Symfony Bridge: Registered as a HttpKernel controller, integrates with Symfony routing and DI container.

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Getting Started

Installation

composer require apivalk/apivalk

Typical Structure

app/Http/Api/Controller/Pet/CreatePetController.php
app/Http/Api/Request/Pet/CreatePetRequest.php
app/Http/Api/Response/Pet/CreatePetResponse.php

Bootstrapping

use apivalk\apivalk\Apivalk;
use apivalk\apivalk\ApivalkConfiguration;
use apivalk\apivalk\Router\AbstractRouter;
use apivalk\apivalk\Http\Renderer\RendererInterface;
use Psr\Container\ContainerInterface;

$apivalkConfiguration = new ApivalkConfiguration(
    $router, // AbstractRouter instance
    $renderer, // Optional: RendererInterface
    $exceptionHandler, // Optional: callable
    $container // Optional: ContainerInterface
);

$apivalk = new Apivalk($apivalkConfiguration);
$response = $apivalk->run();

// $response is an AbstractApivalkResponse instance.
// If you want to output the response using the configured renderer:
$apivalk->getRenderer()->render($response);

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Apivalk Ecosystem

• Apivalk: OpenAPI-first REST API framework for PHP.
• Apivalk CLI (Planned): Scaffolding and generators for local DX.
• Apivalk Cloud (In Research): Managed platform for Apivalk APIs.

Official Website: apivalk.com | Documentation: docs.apivalk.com

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Sponsors ❤️

We love our Sponsors! (Platinum, Gold, and Bronze sponsors list)

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© 2025 Apivalk. All rights reserved. Main maintainer and founder: Dominic Poppe.