54 built-in features. Zero dependencies. One require, everything works.
Documentation • Quick Start • Features • CLI Reference • tina4.com
# Install
composer require tina4stack/tina4php
# Create entry point
echo '<?php require "vendor/autoload.php"; (new Tina4\App())->start();' > index.php
# Create .env
echo 'TINA4_DEBUG=true' > .env
# Run
php -S localhost:7146 index.phpOpen http://localhost:7146 -- your app is running.
Every feature is built from scratch -- no bloated vendor trees, no third-party runtime dependencies in core.
| Category | Features |
|---|---|
| Core HTTP (7) | Router with path params ({id:int}, {p:path}), Server, Request/Response, Middleware pipeline, Static file serving, CORS |
| Database (6) | SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, Firebird -- unified adapter, connection pooling, query cache, transactions, race-safe ID generation, SQL dialect translation |
| ORM (7) | Active Record with typed fields, relationships (has_one/has_many/belongs_to), soft delete, QueryBuilder + MongoDB support, Auto-CRUD generator, migrations with rollback |
| Auth & Security (5) | JWT (HS256/RS256), password hashing (PBKDF2-SHA256), API key validation, rate limiting, CSRF form tokens |
| Templating (3) | Frond engine (Twig/Jinja2-compatible, pre-compiled 2.8x faster), SCSS auto-compilation, built-in CSS (~24 KB) |
| API & Integration (5) | HTTP client (zero-dep), GraphQL with ORM auto-schema + GraphiQL IDE, WSDL/SOAP with auto WSDL, WebSocket (RFC 6455) + Redis backplane, MCP server (24 dev tools) |
| Background (3) | Job queue (File/RabbitMQ/Kafka/MongoDB) with priority, delay, retry, dead letters -- service runner -- event system (on/emit/once/off) |
| Data & Storage (4) | Session (File/Redis/Valkey/MongoDB/DB), response cache (LRU, TTL), seeder + 50+ fake data generators, messenger (SMTP/IMAP) |
| Developer Tools (7) | Dev dashboard (11 tabs), dev toolbar, error overlay (Catppuccin Mocha), dev mailbox, hot reload + CSS hot-reload, code metrics (complexity, coupling, maintainability), AI context installer (7 tools) |
| Utilities (7) | DI container (transient + singleton), HtmlElement builder, inline testing (@tests decorator), i18n (6 languages), Swagger/OpenAPI auto-generation, CLI scaffolding (generate model/route/migration/middleware), structured logging |
1,427 tests. Zero dependencies. Full parity across Python, PHP, Ruby, and Node.js.
For full documentation visit tina4.com.
use Tina4\Router;
use Tina4\Request;
use Tina4\Response;
Router::get("/api/items", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
return $response(["items" => []], HTTP_OK);
});
Router::post("/api/webhook", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
return $response(["ok" => true], HTTP_OK);
})->noAuth();Path parameters: {id}, {name}, {slug}. Middleware chaining with ->middleware([...]). Chain ->secure() to protect GET routes, ->noAuth() to make routes public.
class User extends \Tina4\ORM
{
public $tableName = "users";
public $primaryKey = "id";
public $softDelete = true;
public $id;
public $name;
public $email;
public $hasMany = [["Order" => "userId"]];
public $hasOne = [["Profile" => "userId"]];
public $belongsTo = [["Customer" => "customerId"]];
}
$user = new User($request);
$user->save();
$user->load("email = 'alice@example.com'");
$user->delete();
$users = (new User())->select("*", 100)->asArray();Unified interface via Database::create():
use Tina4\Database\Database;
$db = Database::create('sqlite:///app.db');
$db = Database::create('postgres://localhost:5432/mydb', username: 'user', password: 'pass');
$db = Database::create('mysql://localhost:3306/mydb', username: 'root', password: 'secret');
$db = Database::create('mssql://localhost:1433/mydb', username: 'sa', password: 'pass');
$db = Database::create('firebird://localhost:3050/path/to/db.fdb', username: 'SYSDBA', password: 'masterkey');
$result = $db->fetch("SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > ?", [18]);$token = \Tina4\Auth::getToken(["user_id" => 42], "your-secret");
$payload = \Tina4\Auth::validToken($token, "your-secret");
$claims = \Tina4\Auth::getPayload($token);POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE routes require Authorization: Bearer <token> by default.
// File, Redis, Valkey, MongoDB, or database-backed sessions
$_SESSION["user_id"] = 42;
$userId = $_SESSION["user_id"];Configure via .env:
TINA4_SESSION_HANDLER=redis
TINA4_SESSION_PATH=redis://localhost:6379use Tina4\Queue;
$queue = new Queue();
$queue->push("email.send", ["to" => "alice@example.com", "subject" => "Welcome"]);
$queue->push("report.generate", ["id" => 42], priority: 10, delay: 60);
// Process jobs
$queue->process("email.send", function ($job) {
sendEmail($job["to"], $job["subject"]);
});Backends: File (default), RabbitMQ, Kafka, MongoDB. Supports priority, delay, retry, and dead letters.
// Auto-schema from ORM models -- no configuration needed
// GET /graphql -> GraphiQL IDE
// POST /graphql -> Execute queries
// Query: { users { id, name, email } }
// Mutation support via ORM save/deleteuse Tina4\WebSocket;
$ws = new WebSocket('0.0.0.0', 8080);
$ws->on('message', function ($connection, $message) {
$connection->send("Echo: " . $message);
});
$ws->on('open', function ($connection) {
$connection->send("Welcome!");
});
$ws->start();Supports RFC 6455, per-path routing, connection manager, broadcast, and Redis backplane for horizontal scaling.
Auto-generated at /swagger:
/**
* @description Get all users
* @tags Users
*/
Router::get("/api/users", function (Request $request, Response $response) {
return $response((new User())->select("*", 100)->asArray(), HTTP_OK);
});use Tina4\Events;
Events::on("user.created", function ($user) {
sendWelcomeEmail($user);
}, priority: 10);
Events::once("app.boot", function () {
warmCaches();
});
Events::emit("user.created", $userData);
Events::off("user.created");// Auto WSDL generation from annotated service classes
// Endpoint: /wsdl$api = new \Tina4\Api("https://api.example.com", "Bearer xyz");
$result = $api->sendRequest("/users/42");
$result = $api->sendRequest("/users", "POST", ["name" => "Alice"]);use Tina4\FakeData;
$fake = new FakeData();
$fake->name(); // "Alice Johnson"
$fake->email(); // "alice.johnson@example.com"
$fake->phone(); // "+1-555-0123"
$fake->address(); // "123 Main St, Springfield"
$fake->paragraph(); // Lorem ipsum...50+ generators for names, emails, addresses, dates, numbers, text, and more.
use Tina4\Messenger;
$messenger = new Messenger();
$messenger->sendEmail(
"recipient@example.com",
"Subject Line",
"<h1>Hello</h1><p>Message body</p>"
);Configure via .env:
SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=user@example.com
SMTP_PASSWORD=secretTwig-compatible with pre-compilation for 2.8x faster rendering:
{% extends "base.twig" %}
{% block content %}
<h1>{{ title | upper }}</h1>
{% for item in items %}
<p>{{ item.name }} -- {{ item.price | number_format(2) }}</p>
{% endfor %}
{% include "partials/sidebar.twig" %}
{% endblock %}$container = new \Tina4\Container();
$container->singleton('db', fn() => Database::create(getenv('DB_URL')));
$container->register('mailer', fn() => new MailService());
$db = $container->get('db'); // same instance every time
$mailer = $container->get('mailer'); // new instance each time/**
* @tests
* assert (1,1) === 2, "1 + 1 = 2"
* assert is_integer(1,1) === true, "This should be an integer"
*/
function add($a, $b) {
return $a + $b;
}JSON translation files with placeholder interpolation. Supports 6 languages out of the box.
use Tina4\I18n;
$i18n = new I18n('en');
echo $i18n->translate("welcome.message", ["name" => "Alice"]);extract(\Tina4\HtmlElement::helpers());
echo $_div(["class" => "card"],
$_h2("Title"),
$_p("Content")
);Set TINA4_DEBUG=true in .env to enable:
- Dev dashboard (
/__dev/) -- 11-tab admin UI with route inspection, query runner, queue management, WebSocket monitor, dev mailbox, and more - Dev toolbar -- fixed bar showing HTTP method, matched route, request ID, and PHP version
- Error overlay -- syntax-highlighted stack traces with Catppuccin Mocha theme
- Hot reload -- auto-reload on file changes + CSS hot-reload
- Template debug --
{{ dump(variable) }}available, no caching
bin/tina4php serve [port] # Start dev server (default: 7146)
bin/tina4php migrate # Run pending migrations
bin/tina4php migrate:create "description" # Create a migration file
bin/tina4php generate model <name> # Generate ORM model scaffold
bin/tina4php generate route <name> # Generate route scaffold
bin/tina4php generate migration <desc> # Generate migration file
bin/tina4php generate middleware <name> # Generate middleware scaffold
bin/tina4php seed # Run database seeders
bin/tina4php ai [--all] # Install AI context filesOr via Composer:
composer start # Start dev server
composer start --production # Start with OPcache + production config
composer test # Run test suite
composer tina4 migrate # Run migrations
composer tina4 generate model User # Scaffold a modelBenchmarked with wrk — 5,000 requests, 50 concurrent, median of 3 runs:
| Framework | JSON req/s | Deps | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tina4 PHP | 29,293 | 0 | 54 |
| Slim | 5,714 | 10+ | ~6 |
| Laravel | 445 | 50+ | ~25 |
Tina4 PHP is 5× faster than Slim and 65× faster than Laravel — with zero dependencies and 54 features built in.
Across all 4 Tina4 implementations:
| Python | PHP | Ruby | Node.js | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSON req/s | 6,508 | 29,293 | 10,243 | 84,771 |
| Dependencies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Features | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
Tina4 ships the same 54 features across four languages with full test parity:
| Language | Package | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| Python | pip install tina4 |
1,427 |
| PHP | composer require tina4stack/tina4php |
1,427 |
| Ruby | gem install tina4 |
1,427 |
| Node.js | npm install tina4 |
1,427 |
Same routing, same ORM, same templates, same CLI, same dev tools. Learn one, deploy in any.
Key .env variables:
# Core
TINA4_DEBUG=true # Enable debug mode
DATABASE_PATH=app.db # SQLite database path (or use DATABASE_URL)
DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/mydb # Connection URL for any database
SECRET=your-jwt-secret # JWT signing secret
TINA4_LOCALE=en # Localization language
# Database
TINA4_DB_CACHE=true # Enable query caching (4x speedup)
TINA4_AUTOCOMMIT=false # Auto-commit control (default: off)
# Sessions
TINA4_SESSION_HANDLER=file # file, redis, valkey, mongodb, database
TINA4_SESSION_PATH=redis://localhost # Session backend URL
TINA4_SESSION_SAMESITE=Lax # SameSite cookie attribute
# Cache
TINA4_CACHE_TTL=60 # Response cache TTL in seconds
TINA4_CACHE_MAX_ENTRIES=1000 # Max cached responses
# WebSocket
TINA4_WS_BACKPLANE=redis # WebSocket scaling backplane
TINA4_WS_BACKPLANE_URL=redis://localhost # Backplane connection URL
# Swagger
SWAGGER_TITLE=My API # Swagger page title
SWAGGER_DESCRIPTION=API docs # Swagger description
# SMTP
SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com # Mail server
SMTP_PORT=587 # Mail port
SMTP_USERNAME=user@example.com # Mail username
SMTP_PASSWORD=secret # Mail passwordTina4 PHP is built from the ground up with no third-party runtime dependencies in core. The framework requires only PHP 8.2+ with openssl and json extensions. Database drivers are optional and installed separately. This keeps the full deployment under 8 MB and minimizes your project's carbon footprint.
Full guides, API reference, and examples at tina4.com.
MIT (c) 2007-2026 Tina4 Stack https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
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