ably / pubsub-server

2.0.0 2026-10-28 17:56 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.1
• ext-curl: *
• ext-json: *
• ext-openssl: *
• rybakit/msgpack: ^0.9.1 || ^1.0

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^9.5

Apache-2.0

• Ably

• server
• messaging
• messages
• pubsub
• ably

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-10-28 17:57 UTC

README

Ably Pub/Sub PHP SDK

Build using Ably’s Pub/Sub PHP SDK, supported on all popular platforms and frameworks.

Ably Pub/Sub provides flexible APIs that deliver features such as pub-sub messaging, message history, presence, and push notifications. Utilizing Ably’s realtime messaging platform, applications benefit from its highly performant, reliable, and scalable infrastructure.

Find out more:

• Ably Pub/Sub docs.
• Ably Pub/Sub examples.

Getting started

Everything you need to get started with Ably:

• Getting started with Pub/Sub using PHP.
• SDK Setup for PHP.

Package

This SDK ships as a single package, ably/pubsub-server.

The package name declares where your code runs. A server is a trusted runtime: it typically authenticates with an API key, one that a browser or a mobile app must never hold, and its connections are exempt from monthly-active-user counting. That declaration has to reach Ably rather than only the README, so the package sends it on every request in the Ably-Agent header:

Ably-Agent: ably-pubsub-php/2.0.0 php/8.3.4 ably-pubsub-server

The trailing ably-pubsub-server entry is the part the platform matches on. It is stamped by Ably\PubSub\Server::createHttpClient(), so a client constructed any other way declares no side, and will be rejected on accounts that have monthly-active-user pricing enabled.

This is the only Ably Pub/Sub package for PHP. There is no device package and no separate core package to depend on, because PHP is a server-side language: this SDK is REST-only and there is no PHP realtime client. See the Ably REST API note below for realtime options.

Supported platforms

Ably aims to support a wide range of platforms. If you experience any compatibility issues, open an issue in the repository or contact Ably support.

Platform	Support
PHP	8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5

Laravel packages

For Laravel applications, consider these framework-integrated alternatives that provide Laravel integration with automatic configuration and native broadcasting support, eliminating the boilerplate setup required when using the raw PHP SDK directly:

• Ably Pub/Sub PHP Laravel SDK - Laravel integration package with clean facade and dependency injection interface.
• Ably Broadcaster for Laravel - Official Laravel broadcaster for real-time event broadcasting.

Each needs a new major version to run on ably/pubsub-server; their current releases depend on ably/ably-php 1.x. Those majors ship in the same release window as this package.

Installation

To get started with your project, install the package:

composer require ably/pubsub-server

Usage

The following code connects to Ably's REST messaging service, gets reference to a channel to receive messages, and publishes a test message to that same channel:

use Ably\PubSub\Server;

// Initialize the Ably HTTP (REST) client for a server
$ably = Server::createHttpClient(['key' => 'your-ably-api-key', 'clientId' => 'me']);

// Get a reference to the 'test-channel' channel
$channel = $ably->channel('test-channel');

// Publish a test message to the channel
$channel->publish('test-event', 'hello world');

createHttpClient() accepts everything the 1.x client constructor accepted: an options array, an API key string, a token string, or a ClientOptions instance.

If your own SDK or framework wraps this package, name it so its traffic is attributed to it:

$ably = Server::createHttpClient([
    'key' => 'your-ably-api-key',
    'agents' => ['my-framework' => '1.2.3'],
]);

Migrating from ably/ably-php 1.x

ably/pubsub-server 2.0.0 supersedes ably/ably-php. The client it returns is the same REST client, so for most applications the migration is confined to the composer require line, the use statements, and the constructor call. UPDATING.md has the full mapping table and a before/after example.

If you are staying on 1.x for now, it is maintained on the maintenance/1.x branch of this repository, and receives security and critical-bug fixes only for one year from the 2.0.0 release.

Releases

The CHANGELOG.md contains details of the latest releases for this SDK. You can also view all Ably releases on changelog.ably.com.

Contributing

Read the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines to contribute to Ably.

Development happens in this repository, ably-pubsub-php. The Packagist package is published from a read-only distribution mirror, so issues and pull requests belong here.

Support, feedback, and troubleshooting

For help or technical support, visit the Ably Support page.

Ably REST API

This SDK currently supports only the Ably REST API. For realtime capabilities, you can use the MQTT adapter alongside Mosquitto PHP to implement Ably's Realtime features.