zphp

A high-performance PHP runtime built in Zig.

zphp is an experimental PHP 8.x-compatible runtime focused on speed, low memory usage, and modern deployment. It combines a custom runtime with a built-in HTTP server, WebSocket support, TLS, HTTP/2, database drivers, cURL bindings, package management, testing, formatting, and standalone compilation.

Built with Zig, zphp is designed to give PHP workloads lower-level control, reduced overhead, and a more performance-oriented runtime architecture.

zphp run app.php
zphp serve app.php --port 8080
zphp build --compile app.php
zphp test
zphp fmt src/*.php
zphp install

Features

• PHP 8.x compatibility
• Runtime written in Zig
• Built-in HTTP server
• HTTP/2, TLS, and WebSockets
• SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
• cURL bindings
• Composer package support
• Standalone executable compilation
• Performance and low-memory focused architecture

Comparison

Task	PHP	zphp
Run script	php app.php	zphp run app.php
HTTP server	PHP-FPM + nginx	zphp serve app.php
Dependencies	composer install	zphp install
Tests	PHPUnit	zphp test
Formatting	PHP-CS-Fixer	zphp fmt
Standalone binary	External tooling	zphp build --compile

Installation

Download builds from GitHub Releases.

Asset	Platform	Notes
zphp-linux-x86_64-musl	Any Linux distribution, x86_64	Static. The matching .libs.txt lists the archives built in.
zphp-linux-aarch64-musl	Any Linux distribution, aarch64	Static. The matching .libs.txt lists the archives built in.
zphp-linux-x86_64	Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64	Links the system libraries listed in the matching .libs.txt.
zphp-linux-aarch64	Ubuntu 24.04 aarch64	Links the system libraries listed in the matching .libs.txt.
zphp-macos-aarch64	macOS 15 or newer, Apple Silicon	Links Homebrew libraries listed in the matching .libs.txt.

The glibc and macOS builds run on the platform they were made for; the musl builds run anywhere, and for anything else, build from source. Every release ships a SHA256SUMS file, a .libs.txt per binary naming the native libraries it was linked against, and a build provenance attestation you can check with gh attestation verify zphp-<platform> --repo nvms/zphp.

See the documentation for build instructions and usage guides.

Extensions

zphp loads native extensions written against a C ABI. An extension registers functions, classes, constants, ini defaults, and resource types once at load time, and every PHP call into it goes straight to a resolved function pointer. The header is include/zphp_extension.h; the same source builds as a shared library or gets compiled into zphp.

#include "zphp_extension.h"

static void hello_add(zphp_ctx *ctx) {
    zphp_return_int(ctx, zphp_get_int(zphp_arg(ctx, 0)) + zphp_get_int(zphp_arg(ctx, 1)));
}

static int module_init(zphp_module *m) {
    return zphp_register_function(m, "hello_add", hello_add);
}

static const zphp_extension hello = {
    .abi = ZPHP_EXTENSION_ABI, .name = "hello", .version = "1.0.0", .module_init = module_init,
};

ZPHP_EXTENSION(hello, &hello)

zig cc -shared -O2 -I include -o hello.so hello.c
zphp --extension=hello.so run app.php          # dynamic
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast -Dextension=hello.c   # static, compiled into zphp

ZPHP_EXTENSION_DIR names a directory whose libraries load automatically. Extensions get module, worker, and request lifecycle hooks, a request-local and a worker-local data slot, and a destructor per resource type that runs when the PHP value is unset, goes out of scope, unwinds through an exception, or the request ends. Values cross the boundary as opaque handles, so the runtime's internals can change without breaking compiled extensions; an ABI version in the descriptor rejects mismatches at load time. The static musl release binaries cannot load shared libraries and take static extensions only. tests/extensions/demo.c exercises the whole API.

Project Status

zphp was originally developed and maintained heavily through AI-assisted development.

The project is now being actively reviewed and hardened with a stronger focus on security, correctness, memory safety, testing, performance validation, and production readiness.

AI may still be used as a development tool, but critical runtime code is expected to be reviewed, tested, and independently verified.

zphp is still experimental and should be thoroughly tested before production use.

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PHP on the surface. Zig at the core. Built for speed.