Argora Foundry

Argora Foundry is a lightweight and extensible PHP boilerplate built to accelerate the development of modern control panels, SaaS platforms, and internal tools. Designed with developer productivity in mind, it combines a clean architecture, reusable components, and a ready-to-use user panel to help you launch faster—without compromising flexibility or quality.

🚀 Features

• Modular Architecture – Organize your code effortlessly with a clear, scalable structure inspired by proven patterns.
• Built-in Control Panel – A modern and customizable UI template for managing users, settings, and services out of the box.
• SaaS-Ready – Includes essential SaaS features like user authentication, roles & permissions, usage tracking, and more.
• Modern Stack – Powered by PHP 8+, Slim 4 Framework, Twig templates, and Tabler UI for a clean frontend.
• Argora Spark API – A dedicated, extensible API layer for advanced logic, automation, and integration beyond basic CRUD, ideal for smart provisioning and external system hooks.
• Extensible – Designed to be extended with custom modules.

🛠️ Ideal For

• SaaS startups launching fast without reinventing the wheel
• Developers building internal dashboards or admin panels
• Agencies delivering multiple client control panels from a common core

🧱 Philosophy

Argora Foundry is not a full-stack framework, but a focused foundation. It gives you the essentials—routing, user management, templates, modular structure—without locking you in. You stay in control of your stack, while we handle the heavy lifting.

📦 Installation Guide (Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 24.04/Debian 12)

1. Install the required packages:

apt install -y curl software-properties-common ufw
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
apt install -y bzip2 composer git net-tools php8.3 php8.3-bcmath php8.3-bz2 php8.3-cli php8.3-common php8.3-curl php8.3-ds php8.3-fpm php8.3-gd php8.3-gmp php8.3-igbinary php8.3-imap php8.3-intl php8.3-mbstring php8.3-opcache php8.3-readline php8.3-redis php8.3-soap php8.3-swoole php8.3-uuid php8.3-xml php8.3-zip unzip wget whois

Configure PHP Settings:

1. Open the PHP-FPM configuration file:

nano /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini

Add or uncomment the following session security settings:

session.cookie_secure = 1
session.cookie_httponly = 1
session.cookie_samesite = "Strict"

2. Open the OPCache configuration file:

nano /etc/php/8.3/mods-available/opcache.ini

Verify or add the following OPCache and JIT settings:

opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.jit=1255
opcache.jit_buffer_size=100M

3. Restart PHP-FPM to apply the changes:

systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

2. Install and Configure Caddy and Adminer:

1. Execute the following commands:

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' -o caddy-stable.gpg.key
gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg caddy-stable.gpg.key
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
apt update
apt install -y caddy

2. Edit /etc/caddy/Caddyfile and place the following content:

FOUNDRY.DOMAIN {
    bind YOUR_IPV4_ADDRESS YOUR_IPV6_ADDRESS
    root * /var/www/foundry/public
    php_fastcgi unix//run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock
    encode zstd gzip
    file_server
    tls your-email@example.com
    header -Server
    log {
        output file /var/log/foundry/caddy.log
    }
    # Adminer Configuration
    route /adminer.php* {
        root * /usr/share/adminer
        php_fastcgi unix//run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock
    }
    header * {
        Referrer-Policy "same-origin"
        Strict-Transport-Security max-age=31536000;
        X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
        X-Frame-Options DENY
        X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
        Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'none'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'none'; img-src https:; font-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://rsms.me; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/xlsx/0.18.5/; form-action 'self'; worker-src 'none'; frame-src 'none';
        Feature-Policy "accelerometer 'none'; autoplay 'none'; camera 'none'; encrypted-media 'none'; fullscreen 'self'; geolocation 'none'; gyroscope 'none'; magnetometer 'none'; microphone 'none'; midi 'none'; payment 'none'; picture-in-picture 'self'; usb 'none';"
        Permissions-Policy: accelerometer=(), autoplay=(), camera=(), encrypted-media=(), fullscreen=(self), geolocation=(), gyroscope=(), magnetometer=(), microphone=(), midi=(), payment=(), picture-in-picture=(self), usb=();
    }
}

Activate and reload Caddy:

mkdir -p /var/log/foundry
chown caddy:caddy /var/log/foundry
systemctl enable caddy
systemctl restart caddy

3. Install Adminer

mkdir /usr/share/adminer
wget "http://www.adminer.org/latest.php" -O /usr/share/adminer/latest.php
ln -s /usr/share/adminer/latest.php /usr/share/adminer/adminer.php

3. Install MariaDB:

curl -o /etc/apt/keyrings/mariadb-keyring.pgp 'https://mariadb.org/mariadb_release_signing_key.pgp'

3.1. Ubuntu 22.04

Place the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.sources:

# MariaDB 11 Rolling repository list - created 2025-04-08 06:39 UTC
# https://mariadb.org/download/
X-Repolib-Name: MariaDB
Types: deb
# URIs: https://deb.mariadb.org/11/ubuntu
URIs: https://distrohub.kyiv.ua/mariadb/repo/11.rolling/ubuntu
Suites: jammy
Components: main main/debug
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/mariadb-keyring.pgp

3.2. Ubuntu 24.04

Place the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.sources:

# MariaDB 11 Rolling repository list - created 2025-04-08 06:40 UTC
# https://mariadb.org/download/
X-Repolib-Name: MariaDB
Types: deb
# URIs: https://deb.mariadb.org/11/ubuntu
URIs: https://distrohub.kyiv.ua/mariadb/repo/11.rolling/ubuntu
Suites: noble
Components: main main/debug
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/mariadb-keyring.pgp

3.3. Debian 12

Place the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.sources:

# MariaDB 11 Rolling repository list - created 2025-04-08 06:40 UTC
# https://mariadb.org/download/
X-Repolib-Name: MariaDB
Types: deb
# URIs: https://deb.mariadb.org/11/ubuntu
URIs: https://distrohub.kyiv.ua/mariadb/repo/11.rolling/debian
Suites: bookworm
Components: main
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/mariadb-keyring.pgp

4. Configure MariaDB:

1. Execute the following commands:

apt update
apt install -y mariadb-client mariadb-server php8.3-mysql
mysql_secure_installation

2. Access MariaDB:

mariadb -u root -p

3. Execute the following queries:

CREATE DATABASE foundry;
CREATE USER 'foundry'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'RANDOM_STRONG_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON foundry.* TO 'foundry'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Replace foundry with your desired username and RANDOM_STRONG_PASSWORD with a secure password of your choice.

Tune your MariaDB

5. Create a new project using Foundry:

cd /var/www
composer create-project argora/foundry your-project-name

6. Setup Foundry:

cd /var/www/foundry
cp env-sample .env
chmod -R 775 logs cache
chown -R www-data:www-data logs cache

Configure your .env with database and app settings, and set your admin credentials in bin/create-admin-user.php.

7. Install Database and Create Administrator:

php bin/install-db.php
php bin/create-admin-user.php

🙏 Acknowledgments

Argora Foundry is based on hezecom/slim-starter, an excellent Slim Framework 4 starter project by Hezekiah Omotsuebe.
We’ve extended and restructured it for SaaS platforms, admin panels, and modern boilerplate needs.