README

Phel is a functional Lisp that compiles to PHP. This is a minimal, opinionated starting point for a real CLI application with Phel.

It ships:

A data-driven dispatcher on phel\cli (a symfony/console wrapper) with sample greet + add subcommands.
A pure core/ ÷ IO commands/ layering that stays testable as it grows (docs/architecture.md).
A pure function exported to PHP via an auto-generated wrapper.
Fast inner loop: pre-commit gate, command scaffolder, and watch mode.

Requirements

PHP >= 8.4 (phpbrew on Linux, shivammathur/homebrew-php on macOS) and Composer — or use the bundled build/Dockerfile + docker-compose.yml.

Tracks Phel's dev-main branch to showcase the latest idioms. Pin phel-lang/phel-lang to a tagged release for a production app.

Getting started

composer install      # also installs the .githooks pre-commit gate
make help             # list every dev task

Commands

Every task is both a make <target> (with short aliases) and a composer <script>:

Task	Command
Run from sources	`composer dev [args]`
Build standalone PHP	`composer build` → `out/main.php`
Run tests	`composer test`
Format	`composer format`
Watch (reload on save)	`composer watch`
REPL	`composer repl`
Local gate (format+lint+test)	`composer check`
Scaffold a command	`make new-command NAME=foo`

composer dev greet alice              # positional args forward as-is
composer dev -- greet alice --loud    # put -- before flags (composer convention)
php out/main.php add 1 2 3             # run the built binary

Project layout

src/
├── main.phel        ; wires the Application + dispatches
├── core/            ; PURE logic — no IO (greeting, adder; adder exported to PHP)
├── commands/        ; IO boundary: parse args, print, exit (greet, add)
└── PhelGenerated/   ; auto-generated PHP wrappers
tests/
├── core/            ; pure unit tests (no CLI harness)
└── commands/        ; CLI handler smoke tests
docs/                ; architecture.md (layering), conventions.md (idioms)
bin/new-command      ; scaffold a command across both layers
example/             ; call an exported Phel fn from PHP
phel-config.php      ; build / export / format config
.githooks/pre-commit ; auto-installed gate (composer check)

Adding a command

make new-command NAME=foo     # generates core + command + both tests

Then fill in the logic and register it in src/main.phel — add the :require and put foo-command in the :commands vector (the scaffolder prints the exact lines). Keep commands thin; put real logic in core/. See docs/architecture.md.

Exporting Phel to PHP

Mark a core/ function {:export true} (see src/core/adder.phel), then:

composer export    # regenerates src/PhelGenerated/**
php example/using-exported-phel-function.php

AI agent config (optional)

Conventions are authored once as agnostic specs under .agnostic-ai/rules/ and transpiled per tool with agnostic-ai (agnostic-ai sync). The emitted .claude/, AGENTS.md are git-ignored — edit the specs, not the output. vendor/bin/phel agent-install --auto adds Phel's built-in idiom skills.

Docker

docker compose up -d --build
docker exec -ti -u dev phel_cli_skeleton bash
composer install

docs/architecture.md — the core/commands layering rule
docs/conventions.md — Phel idioms, naming, gotchas
Phel docs: https://phel-lang.org/documentation/getting-started/
phel\cli guide: vendor/phel-lang/phel-lang/docs/cli-guide.md

phel-lang / cli-skeleton

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