Creating a project

In this guide we’ll provide commands for both Docker and the built-in dev server with everything installed locally.

[!NOTE] If you want to use another web server, see “Configuring web servers”.

We recommend starting with a project template that’s a minimal working Yii project implementing some basic features. It can serve as a good starting point for your projects.

You can create a new project from a template using the Composer package manager:

composer create-project yiisoft/app your_project

Docker users can run the following command:

docker run --rm -it -v "$(pwd):/app" composer/composer create-project yiisoft/app your_project

This installs the latest stable version of the Yii project template in a directory named your_project. You can choose a different directory name if you want.

[!TIP] If you want to install the latest development version of Yii, you may add --stability=dev to the command. Don’t use the development version of Yii for production because it may break your running code.

Go into the newly created directory and run:

APP_ENV=dev ./yii serve --port=80

For Docker users, run:

make up

Open your browser to the URL http://localhost/.

[!NOTE] The HTTP server listens on port 80. If that port is already in use, specify the port via --port or, in case of Docker, DEV_PORT in the docker/.env file.

[!NOTE] ← What do you need to know? | Running applications →