Provider-Based Configuration

Minimal Provider Example

final class BlogConfigProvider
{
    public function __invoke(): array
    {
        return [
            'blog' => [
                'posts_per_page' => 10,
            ],
        ];
    }
}

Loading Providers Explicitly

use function FastForward\Config\configProvider;

$config = configProvider([
    new BlogConfigProvider(),
]);

Mixing Providers With Other Sources

config() can combine providers, arrays, and directories in a single call:

use function FastForward\Config\config;

$config = config(
    ['app.env' => 'production'],
    __DIR__ . '/config',
    BlogConfigProvider::class,
);

Provider Order

Provider order matters. Later providers override earlier values for the same keys while leaving unrelated nested values intact.

$config = configProvider([
    new CoreConfigProvider(),
    new FeatureFlagsProvider(),
    new LocalOverridesProvider(),
]);

Using A Cache File

To generate a PHP cache file, pass cachedConfigFile and include the explicit Laminas enabling flag in provider output. The parent directory must exist and be writable by the PHP process. With Composer's autoloader loaded, this example is self-contained:

use Laminas\ConfigAggregator\ConfigAggregator;
use function FastForward\Config\configProvider;

$cacheDirectory = __DIR__ . '/var/cache';
if (!is_dir($cacheDirectory)) {
    mkdir($cacheDirectory, 0775, true);
}

$config = configProvider(
    [
        static fn(): array => [
            ConfigAggregator::ENABLE_CACHE => true,
            'blog' => ['posts_per_page' => 10],
        ],
    ],
    cachedConfigFile: $cacheDirectory . '/providers.php',
);

$data = $config->toArray();

The flag is config_cache_enabled and is evaluated after provider merging, so a later provider can disable generation with false . An existing cache file is read before providers run; changing a provider's flag does not bypass that file. Pass cachedConfigFile: null to bypass file caching, or remove the file before rebuilding it. See Caching for directory examples and PSR-16 caching.

Good To Know

• Providers are resolved lazily, not when you instantiate the config object.
• Returning arrays with dot-notated keys is fine; ArrayConfig will normalize them.
• config() automatically recognizes invokable provider class names, which makes simple examples shorter.