PHP · Workers Implementation

PHP with KERNSTACK workers

PHP runs on KERNSTACK as workers: "runtime": "php" container processes declared with their sizing, routing, and secrets in the same stack.json as everything else. The classic PHP application — server-rendered pages, an API, an admin tool — stops needing a hand-maintained LAMP stack and becomes one reviewed resource in an European project.

Container Workers stack.json IaC

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PHP Workers

The appeal is continuity: PHP’s enormous body of existing code keeps running while the operational surroundings modernise. The worker declares runtime, memory, and its HTTP port; the gateway route gives it a hostname; secrets resolve from declared references into its environment. No control panel, no hand-edited vhosts, no second deployment ritual for the PHP parts of a product.

Sizing is a deliberate, visible choice. A classic app serving customers keeps min_instances at 1 and pays for one warm process; an internal tool drops to zero and accepts the cold start in exchange for near-zero idle cost. Both shapes live in the same file, so the cost decision is reviewed like code.

Paired with KERNSTACK Tables, the stack covers the classic PHP product shape — pages plus keyed records — with the honesty that access is keyed, not SQL. Teams migrating from a MySQL past usually find the key-first redesign is precisely the simplification their schema was halfway to.

CLI

Plan PHP Workers, then deploy.

Terminal — CLI workflow kernstack cli

kernstack add worker --name api --blueprint work-php-minimal
kernstack plan
kernstack deploy

Docs for PHP Workers. Workers on the platform.

php-workers.txt PHP

kernstack add worker --name web --blueprint work-php-minimal
# workers/web: your PHP app; set http_port if it serves HTTP
kernstack plan
kernstack deploy --only worker:web

stack.json — PHP + workers plan · deploy

{
  "gateway": { "routes": [{ "name": "web", "target": { "kind": "worker", "name": "web" } }] },
  "resources": {
    "workers": [{ "name": "web", "runtime": "php", "http_port": 8080,
      "memory_mb": 512, "min_instances": 1 }]
  }
}

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can we bring an existing PHP application?

Yes, as a worker. Keep the codebase, declare the runtime and port, and move configuration to environment variables fed by declared secrets. The migration is mostly operational, not a rewrite.

Where do sessions and uploads live?

Sessions belong in a table (keyed by session id); uploads belong in a bucket, mounted as a volume when file-style access reads better. Both are declared beside the worker.

Is PHP a second-class runtime here?

It is a first-class worker runtime with the same plan review, secrets, metering, and route surface as Node.js and Python. The platform’s opinionated part is functions (Go only); workers are deliberately plural.

Connected in the Project Graph

Related capabilities, architectures, and comparisons

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