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arhimede merged 1 commit into from
Sep 15, 2026
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Align README with dotkernel.com wording and simplify installation #119

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62 changes: 48 additions & 14 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -2,14 +2,9 @@

Dotkernel Light is the smallest complete Mezzio application — a PSR-15 pipeline, routing and templating, with nothing to strip out.
A real starting point for a simple site.
Underneath it uses Laminas Service Manager as the PSR-11 container and Laminas Diactoros for PSR-7 messages, with FastRoute for routing and Twig for templating.

> Check out our [demo](https://light.dotkernel.net/).

## Documentation

Documentation is available at: https://docs.dotkernel.org/light-documentation/

## Badges

![OSS Lifecycle](https://img.shields.io/osslifecycle/dotkernel/light)
Expand All @@ -28,8 +23,41 @@ Documentation is available at: https://docs.dotkernel.org/light-documentation/
[![PHPStan](https://github.com/dotkernel/light/actions/workflows/static-analysis.yml/badge.svg?branch=1.0)](https://github.com/dotkernel/light/actions/workflows/static-analysis.yml)
![PHPstan Level](https://img.shields.io/badge/PHPStan-level%208-brightgreen)

## What's Inside

Light is built on [Mezzio](https://docs.mezzio.dev/mezzio/) and Laminas components, around the PSR standards:

| Concern | Standard | Implementation |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Containers | [PSR-11](https://github.com/php-fig/container) | [Laminas Service Manager](https://github.com/laminas/laminas-servicemanager) |
| HTTP messages | [PSR-7](https://github.com/php-fig/http-message) | [Laminas Diactoros](https://github.com/laminas/laminas-diactoros) |
| Middleware pipeline | [PSR-15](https://github.com/php-fig/http-server-middleware) | Mezzio |
| Routing | — | [FastRoute](https://github.com/nikic/FastRoute) |
| Templating | — | [Twig](https://twig.symfony.com/), through [Mezzio TwigRenderer](https://github.com/mezzio/mezzio-twigrenderer) |

Two Dotkernel components are registered out of the box in [`config/config.php`](config/config.php):

- [dot-log](https://github.com/dotkernel/dot-log) — generic logging component
- [dot-errorhandler](https://github.com/dotkernel/dot-errorhandler) — error logging component

## The Dotkernel Family

Dotkernel is a collection of open-source PHP application skeletons built on Mezzio and Laminas, which can be adopted separately or together:

- [API](https://github.com/dotkernel/api) — REST APIs on a readable PSR-15 middleware pipeline
- [Admin](https://github.com/dotkernel/admin) — table-based backend for managing platform records, plus tools to build reports and dashboards
- [Queue](https://github.com/dotkernel/queue) — background job processing for the platform
- [Frontend](https://github.com/dotkernel/frontend) — web starter package for frontend applications
- **Light** — this repository, for the simplest use cases

## Documentation

Documentation is available at: https://docs.dotkernel.org/light-documentation/

## Contents

- [What's Inside](#whats-inside)
- [The Dotkernel Family](#the-dotkernel-family)
- [Requirements](#requirements)
- [Composer](#composer)
- [Choosing an Installation Path](#choosing-an-installation-path)
Expand All @@ -39,6 +67,7 @@ Documentation is available at: https://docs.dotkernel.org/light-documentation/
- [Running the Application](#running-the-application)
- [Testing and Code Quality](#testing-and-code-quality)
- [Going Live](#going-live)
- [Resources](#resources)

## Requirements

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -75,20 +104,14 @@ Example:

After you choose the path for Dotkernel light (`dk` will be used for the remainder of this example), let's move onto installation.

Clone the repository into that path — git creates the directory for you:
Composer creates the directory, installs the application with its dependencies, and enables development mode — all in one step:

```shell
git clone https://github.com/dotkernel/light.git dk
composer create-project dotkernel/light dk
cd dk
```

This method ensures that the default branch is installed, even if it is not released.

The dependencies have to be installed separately by running this command:

```shell
composer install
```
### Installation Prompts

During installation, the `laminas/laminas-component-installer` Composer plugin prompts for some configuration settings, for example the lines below:

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -131,6 +154,9 @@ It will also make sure that any existing config cache is cleared.
composer development-enable
```

> `composer create-project` already runs this for you, so you only need it after a `composer development-disable`.
> Run `composer development-status` to check which mode you are in.

## Bundling Static Modules

> Prerequisite software: Node.js `^20.19.0 || >=22.12.0`
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -215,3 +241,11 @@ Before deploying to production, rename the robots file and adjust it for your si
```shell
mv public/robots.txt.dist public/robots.txt
```

## Resources

- [Documentation](https://docs.dotkernel.org/light-documentation/) — installation, request lifecycle, file structure and how-tos
- [Changelog](CHANGELOG.md) — release history
- [Security policy](SECURITY.md) — supported versions and how to report a vulnerability
- [License](LICENSE) — MIT
- [Issues](https://github.com/dotkernel/light/issues) — bug reports and feature requests