PHPless

Serverless PHP hosting on Firecracker microVMs.

PHPless runs each PHP app in its own isolated Firecracker microVM with a dedicated FrankenPHP runtime. Deploy from the CLI, push from Git, or let an AI agent manage your apps via the built-in MCP server.

Features

• Firecracker VM isolation -- every app gets its own microVM with a dedicated kernel and filesystem. No containers, no shared runtimes.
• FrankenPHP performance -- static FrankenPHP binary serves PHP with automatic HTTPS, HTTP/2, and early hints.
• Fast cold starts -- VMs boot to ready in ~1.2 seconds.
• AI-native MCP server -- built-in Model Context Protocol server lets Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI tools deploy and manage your apps.
• Simple CLI -- one command to deploy, SSH into VMs, manage env vars, and stream logs.

Architecture

                        +-------------------------------------+
                        |         MANAGEMENT PLANE            |
                        |   Laravel 12 + React + Inertia      |
                        |   https://phpless.digitalno.de      |
                        +----------------+--------------------+
                                         | Unix socket
                        +----------------v--------------------+
                        |          CONTROL PLANE              |
                        |   Go daemon (phpless-manager)       |
                        |   /var/fc/manager.sock              |
                        +---+----------+----------+-----------+
                            |          |          |
                        +---v---+  +---v---+  +---v---+
                        |  VM 1 |  |  VM 2 |  |  VM N |
                        |Frank- |  |Frank- |  |Frank- |
                        |enPHP  |  |enPHP  |  |enPHP  |
                        +-------+  +-------+  +-------+
                             EXECUTION PLANE

Component	Technology	Role
Panel	Laravel 12 + React/Inertia + shadcn/ui	Web dashboard, REST API, team management
Manager	Go daemon	VM lifecycle, port forwarding, deploy orchestration
CLI	Go (Cobra)	Terminal client + MCP server for AI integration
RootFS	Debian + FrankenPHP	Firecracker VM filesystem with PHP runtime

Quick Start

1. Install the CLI

brew install phpless/tap/phpless

Or download a binary from GitHub Releases.

2. Log in

phpless login

3. Deploy

cd /path/to/your/php-project
phpless up

That single command creates the app (if it doesn't exist), writes a .phpless.toml config, and deploys your code. Your app is live at https://<slug>.phpless.app.

Documentation

• CLI Reference -- all commands, flags, and configuration
• Laravel Deployment Guide -- step-by-step Laravel deployment
• Panel Documentation -- web panel docs and API reference
• API Explorer (Swagger) -- interactive OpenAPI explorer

MCP / AI Integration

Add PHPless to Claude Code in one command:

claude mcp add phpless -- phpless mcp

Claude can then create apps, deploy code, check logs, set env vars, and SSH into VMs on your behalf. See the CLI README for full setup instructions.

Project Structure

phpless/
├── panel/                 # Laravel 12 management panel (React + Inertia + shadcn/ui)
├── phpless-manager/       # Go VM orchestration daemon
├── cli/                   # Go CLI + MCP server
├── rootfs/                # Firecracker microVM base filesystem (init, Caddyfile)
├── scripts/               # Setup and deployment scripts
├── docs/                  # Guides and documentation
└── Makefile               # Build and deploy targets

How It Works

1. Create an app via the panel, CLI, or MCP tool.
2. Panel calls the Go manager over a Unix socket to provision a Firecracker VM.
3. VM boots with the base rootfs (Debian + FrankenPHP) in ~1.2 seconds.
4. Deploy code -- the manager syncs app files and a merged .env into /app/ on the VM.
5. Caddy on the host routes <slug>.phpless.app traffic to the VM's internal IP.
6. Environment variables merge at two levels (team + app, app overrides team) and are injected as /app/.env.

VMs are child processes of the Go manager. On manager restart, all VMs are automatically restored from the database.

Development

Prerequisites

• Server: bare-metal with KVM support (tested on Hetzner AX41-NVMe)
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• Go 1.22+ (for manager and CLI)
• Node.js 20+ and npm (for frontend assets)
• PHP 8.2+ and Composer (for panel)

Panel (Laravel + React)

cd panel
composer install
npm install
php artisan serve
npm run dev

VM Manager (Go)

cd phpless-manager
go build ./cmd/manager/

CLI

cd cli
go build -o phpless ./cmd/phpless/

Makefile Targets

Target	Description
make build	Cross-compile Go manager for Linux amd64
make deploy	Build + rsync everything to server
make panel-deploy	Deploy panel only
make setup	Run server setup script
make rootfs	Build base rootfs on server

License

Proprietary. All rights reserved.