An elegant PHP framework for WordPress plugins. This guide walks through integrating themeum/framework into a plugin named Kirki.

Contributors working on the library itself can use the local playground in example/README.md.

Maintainers can cut a release with a single command that bumps composer.json, commits, tags, and pushes.

Prerequisites: check out main, ensure the working tree is clean, and fix any failing unit tests before releasing.

composer release -- -v 1.0.6 -m "Fix validation handling"

The -- separator is required so Composer forwards -v and -m to the release script instead of treating them as Composer flags.

If -v or -m is omitted, the script prompts for the version and release message interactively:

composer release --

Preview the release steps without making changes:

composer release -- --dry-run -v 1.0.6 -m "Fix validation handling"

The script will:

1. Validate the version (semver x.y.z, greater than the current composer.json version)
2. Confirm you are on main with a clean working tree and no existing tag locally or on origin
3. Run composer test:unit
4. Update composer.json, commit with the release message, create an annotated tag (v1.0.6), and push the commit and tag to origin

Run composer release -- --help for full flag reference.

• PHP 7.0+
• WordPress 5.0+
• Composer
• WP-CLI (for CLI commands)

In your plugin’s composer.json, add a VCS repository and require dev-main:

{
    "repositories": [
        {
            "type": "vcs",
            "url": "https://github.com/themeum/framework"
        }
    ],
    "require": {
        "php": ">=7.0",
        "themeum/framework": "dev-main"
    },
    "minimum-stability": "dev",
    "prefer-stable": true
}

From the plugin root:

composer install

The unscoped package lands in vendor/themeum/framework. That copy is input for PHP-Scoper only — do not autoload it in production.

composer require --dev humbug/php-scoper:^0.18.18

Add a scope script to composer.json:

"scripts": {
    "scope": [
        "@php vendor/bin/php-scoper add-prefix --config=scoper.config.php --force"
    ]
}

Create scoper.config.php at the plugin root:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;

return [
    'prefix' => 'Kirki',
    'output-dir' => 'libraries/kirki/framework',
    'finders' => [
        Finder::create()
            ->files()
            ->in(__DIR__ . '/vendor/themeum/framework/src')
            ->exclude(['test', 'tests', 'Tests'])
            ->name(['*.php', '*.stub']),
    ],
    'exclude-files' => [],
    'exclude-namespaces' => [
        '~^$~',
        '/^(?!Framework($|\\\\))/',
    ],
    'expose-global-classes' => true,
    'expose-global-functions' => true,
    'expose-global-constants' => true,
];

PHP-Scoper rewrites Framework\ to Kirki\Framework\ and writes the result to libraries/kirki/framework/. The exclude-namespaces regex keeps every namespace except Framework\ unprefixed (Composer vendor code stays on its original PSR-4 paths).

WP-CLI generator stubs live under src/Console/stubs/ as *.stub files. Include them in the finder (->name(['*.php', '*.stub'])) so they are copied into the scoped tree. Stub templates use placeholders such as {{namespace}}, which PHP-Scoper cannot parse; after scoping, run scripts/prefix-scoped-console-stubs.php on libraries/<vendor>/framework/Console/stubs with your prefix (the example plugin does this via scripts/post-scope-console-stubs.php in its scope Composer script).

"autoload": {
    "psr-4": {
        "Kirki\\App\\": "app/",
        "Kirki\\Framework\\": "libraries/kirki/framework/"
    },
    "files": [
        "libraries/kirki/framework/helpers.php"
    ]
}

Never register PSR-4 autoload for vendor/themeum/framework alongside the scoped tree.

composer install in the plugin also installs every package themeum/framework requires into the plugin’s vendor/. Those stay unprefixed at runtime; only the scoped tree under libraries/ uses your prefix.

Before the first run, create a placeholder so Composer can load helpers.php:

mkdir -p libraries/kirki/framework
printf '<?php\n' > libraries/kirki/framework/helpers.php
composer run scope
composer dump-autoload

Re-run composer run scope after updating themeum/framework or when library source changes. Add libraries/ to .gitignore and generate the scoped tree in CI or before release.

Do not activate the plugin until scoping completes — missing Kirki\Framework\ classes will fatal.

After installation, create this layout under the plugin root (empty directories are fine until generators fill them):

kirki/
├── kirki.php
├── composer.json
├── scoper.config.php
├── bootstrap/
│   ├── app.php
│   └── providers.php
├── app/                         # Kirki\App\
├── config/
│   └── hooks.php
├── routes/
│   └── api.php
├── database/
│   ├── migrations/
│   └── seeders/
├── resources/                   # optional
├── libraries/kirki/framework/   # generated — do not commit
└── vendor/

The application resolves these paths by default: app/, bootstrap/, config/, database/, resources/ relative to the plugin base path. Override with use_app_path(), use_config_path(), use_database_path(), use_bootstrap_path(), or use_resource_path() on the application instance if needed.

<?php

if (!defined('ABSPATH')) {
    exit;
}

if (!defined('KIRKI_PATH')) {
    define('KIRKI_PATH', plugin_dir_path(__FILE__));
}

if (!defined('KIRKI_URL')) {
    define('KIRKI_URL', plugin_dir_url(__FILE__));
}

if (!defined('KIRKI_PREFIX')) {
    define('KIRKI_PREFIX', 'kirki');
}

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

add_action('init', 'kirki_boot_application', 0);

function kirki_boot_application()
{
    require_once KIRKI_PATH . 'bootstrap/app.php';
}

Configure and boot the application on the init hook so WordPress is fully loaded.

<?php

use Kirki\Framework\Application;

return Application::configure(KIRKI_PATH)
    ->use_routing(KIRKI_PATH . 'routes/api.php')
    ->use_prefix(KIRKI_PREFIX)
    ->use_app_mode('development')
    ->boot();

use_prefix() sets the options key prefix (snake_cased). Access it with app()->prefix().

Return a list of provider classes:

<?php

use Kirki\App\Providers\AppServiceProvider;

return [
    AppServiceProvider::class,
];

Place providers under Kirki\App\Providers\.

Register hook handler classes:

<?php

use Kirki\Framework\Wordpress\Hooks\Actions\SampleActionHook;
use Kirki\Framework\Wordpress\Hooks\Filters\SampleFilterHook;

return [
    'actions' => [
        SampleActionHook::class,
    ],
    'filters' => [
        SampleFilterHook::class,
    ],
];

<?php

use Kirki\Framework\Http\Request;
use Kirki\Framework\Route;

use function Kirki\Framework\app;
use function Kirki\Framework\response;

Route::set_namespace('kirki/v1');

Route::get('/ping', function (Request $request) {
    return response()->json([
        'status'   => 'ok',
        'dev_mode' => app()->is_dev_mode(),
        'prefix'   => app()->prefix(),
    ]);
});

• Migrations — PHP files in database/migrations/. Run with wp kirki migrate. See docs/migrations.md.
• Validation — Rules on form requests and validators provided by the framework.
• Container and facades — Resolve services via app() and framework facades after boot.

Test documentation will be added in a future release.

Commands register when the application boots under WP-CLI. The command namespace is kirki:

wp kirki <command>

Create a migration file in database/migrations/.

wp kirki make:migration create_users_table
wp kirki make:migration create_orders_table --prefix=wp_
wp kirki make:migration add_slug_to_posts --table=posts

The generated class is appended to config/migrations.php automatically.

Run all pending migrations. Migrations that have already run are skipped.

wp kirki migrate

Show which migrations have run, and the batch each belongs to.

wp kirki migrate:status

Undo the migrations of the most recent batch.

wp kirki migrate:rollback
wp kirki migrate:rollback --step=2

Drop all plugin tables, clear migration history, and re-run migrations.

wp kirki migrate:fresh
wp kirki migrate:fresh --seed
wp kirki migrate:fresh --seed --class=DatabaseSeeder

Run database seeders from database/seeders/.

wp kirki db:seed
wp kirki db:seed --class=UsersSeeder
wp kirki db:seed --class=UsersSeeder,ProductsSeeder

Create a model class in app/Models/.

wp kirki make:model User

Create a controller in app/Http/Controllers/.

wp kirki make:controller UserController

Supports optional flags for API or resource controllers (see wp help kirki make:controller).

Create a form request class.

wp kirki make:request StoreUserRequest

Create a service provider class.

wp kirki make:provider AppServiceProvider

Create a seeder in database/seeders/.

wp kirki make:seeder DatabaseSeeder

Create a generic class under app/.

wp kirki make:class ExampleService

Supports an optional folder argument (see wp help kirki make:class).

GPL-2.0-or-later