Install Foundation

Foundation requires PHP 8.3 or newer. Composer resolves the dependencies required by the aggregate package or selected components.

Building a production WordPress plugin?

Do not install stellarwp/foundation only to get the Foundation CLI. The aggregate package includes the developer CLI as a normal dependency, so composer install --no-dev will not remove it.

Require only the split runtime packages the plugin ships, then install stellarwp/foundation-cli separately with --dev.

Install runtime components

Install the packages the application uses in production:

composer require \
  stellarwp/foundation-container \
  stellarwp/foundation-log \
  stellarwp/foundation-lock

Add other components as the application needs them rather than installing integrations speculatively.

Install developer tooling separately

The CLI package generates project code and normally does not belong in a production WordPress plugin archive:

composer require --dev stellarwp/foundation-cli

Production builds can then exclude developer dependencies:

composer install --no-dev --classmap-authoritative

If generated code extends a runtime Foundation class, install that runtime package normally. For example, generated WP-CLI commands require stellarwp/foundation-wpcli in require.

Install every component

Install the aggregate package when one application intentionally owns the complete Foundation installation and expects to use most components:

composer require stellarwp/foundation

This provides every runtime component and the developer CLI at vendor/bin/foundation. It is convenient for a complete application or development environment, but it is not the lean installation path for a distributable WordPress plugin.

Load Composer before Foundation

Load Composer’s generated autoloader from the application entrypoint before constructing the container or registering providers:

<?php declare(strict_types=1);

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

WordPress projects may use a build tool such as Strauss to prefix production dependencies. That packaging step does not change which Foundation packages belong in require or require-dev.

Continue

Configure the container that providers and application services will share.