An API development kit for PHP

Everything for the road.
Nothing you don't need.

Kipchak gives your PHP API the structure of a framework without the weight of one — Slim 4 underneath, FrankenPHP worker mode in front, and 31 drivers and middleware ready when you are.

Start buildingRead the documentation
Five minutes to first request
$ composer create-project kipchak/starter my-api
$ docker compose up --watch

✓ FrankenPHP worker running
✓ http://localhost/status → 200 OK

3,000req/s

served in production on the AlAdhan API, per instance

60% less

resource use than comparable Laravel or Symfony stacks on FPM

31packages

independent drivers & middleware — adopt them one at a time

0magic

PSR-compliant throughout — it's Slim, structured

A framework's structure, a library's footprint

Kipchak is a handful of files on top of Slim. It formalises the three things every API needs — booting, drivers, middleware — and stays out of everything else.

§1

One honest bootstrap

Api::boot() loads drivers, middleware, then routes. You can read the whole core in a sitting.

§2

Nothing to unlearn

PSR-3, 7, 11 and 18 throughout. If you know modern PHP, you already know Kipchak.

§3

Worker-mode native

Long-lived FrankenPHP processes with Caddy in front — and hot reload while you develop.

§4

Configuration first

Plain PHP config files, one per concern: kipchak.doctrine.php, kipchak.valkey.php — env-aware and greppable.

§5

Container-ready

Docker and Kubernetes configuration ship in the starter. Dev and production run the same image.

§6

Extensible by design

Drivers implement a three-method interface. Your team's internal services become drivers in an afternoon.

The caravan: drivers & middleware

Each one an independent Composer package following the same conventions. Free packages are open source; Enterprise packages fund the project and come with support.

Drivers · 22 packages · 10 planned

Feature FlagsFeature flags from Unleash, Flagsmith or GrowthBookFreeOAuth 2 TokenOAuth 2.0 client-credentials token handlingEnterpriseValkeyValkey / Redis cache — standalone, sentinel, cluster & replicaEnterpriseOpenSearchOpenSearch, multi-connection with every auth modeEnterpriseKafkaKafka producer & consumer with SASL/SSLEnterpriseOPAPolicy decisions via Open Policy AgentEnterprise
Vault / OpenBaoSecrets, dynamic credentials & rotationPlannedEnterprise
LDAP / Active DirectoryDirectory authentication & lookupsPlannedEnterprise
ClickHouseColumnar analytics at scalePlannedFree
NATS JetStreamLightweight cloud-native messagingPlannedFree
Cassandra / ScyllaDBWide-column storage at scalePlannedEnterprise
Snowflake / BigQueryData-warehouse queriesPlannedEnterprise
Vector DatabaseRAG-ready vector search (Qdrant, pgvector & more)PlannedFree
SOAP ClientTyped clients for legacy SOAP servicesPlannedEnterprise
IBM MQEnterprise message queueingPlannedEnterprise
TemporalStart, signal & query durable workflowsPlannedFree

Middleware · 9 packages · 8 planned

OpenTelemetryOTLP traces & metrics, auto-instrumented driversPlannedFree
Audit LogImmutable request audit trailsPlannedEnterprise
RBAC / ABAC PolicyRoute-level authorisation on JWT claimsPlannedEnterprise
PII RedactionMask sensitive fields in responses & logsPlannedEnterprise
IdempotencyIdempotency-Key replay protectionPlannedEnterprise
Circuit BreakerFleet-wide breakers for downstream callsPlannedEnterprise
Response CacheRFC-compliant HTTP cachingPlannedFree
Multi-TenancyTenant resolution & scoped servicesPlannedEnterprise

Kipchak Enterprise

For the teams who can't go down

The infrastructure-grade tier: clustering, search and streaming drivers, edge intelligence, and advanced auth — supported by the people who wrote them.

OAuth 2 Token

OAuth 2.0 client-credentials token handling

Valkey

Valkey / Redis cache — standalone, sentinel, cluster & replica

OpenSearch

OpenSearch, multi-connection with every auth mode

Kafka

Kafka producer & consumer with SASL/SSL

OPA

Policy decisions via Open Policy Agent

Auth — JWT

Advanced JWT authentication

Subashi Pro

Enterprise WAF with geo & ASN edge intelligence

Usage Metering

Per-consumer usage events for billing, to Kafka or logs

Quotas

Per-plan limits on requests and credits, per customer

Priority support

Upgrade guidance from the maintainers

Talk to the team

Proven on the road

“The AlAdhan API answers three thousand requests a second for the global Muslim community — on Kipchak, on far less hardware than before.”

aladhan.com · Islamic Network · AlAdhan API, running on Kipchak v3

Relative resource use · same workload

Kipchak + FrankenPHP1.0×
Slim + FPM~1.6×
Laravel / Symfony + FPM~2.5×

Measured on production API workloads at Mamluk; your numbers will vary.

From the Mamluk Journal

Announcements, press releases and articles

The latest about Kipchak, published on the Mamluk Journal.

Article · 26 October 2026

The remarkable simplicity of Mamluk's enterprise offering

Mamluk's enterprise offering is five layers: Debian, the Bahriya Kubernetes Engine, the Bahriya Tersane charts, the Kipchak framework, and Bahriya Cloud, which runs on the other four. Each layer has one responsibility, makes as few decisions as it can, and stands on its own. This article describes each layer in detail and how an enterprise can take one of them or all of them.

Read on mamluk.net →

Announcement · 18 October 2026

SFTP and feature flags for Kipchak

Two new free Kipchak drivers: SFTP for exchanging batch files with partners, and feature flags from Unleash, Flagsmith or GrowthBook.

Read on mamluk.net →

Everything about Kipchak in the Journal →