Appwrite PHP SDK

Installation

composer require appwrite/appwrite

Setting Up the Client

use Appwrite\Client;
use Appwrite\ID;
use Appwrite\Query;
use Appwrite\Services\Users;
use Appwrite\Services\TablesDB;
use Appwrite\Services\Storage;
use Appwrite\Services\Functions;
use Appwrite\InputFile;

$client = (new Client())
    ->setEndpoint('https://<REGION>.cloud.appwrite.io/v1')
    ->setProject(getenv('APPWRITE_PROJECT_ID'))
    ->setKey(getenv('APPWRITE_API_KEY'));

Code Examples

User Management

$users = new Users($client);

// Create user
$user = $users->create(ID::unique(), 'user@example.com', null, 'password123', 'User Name');

// List users
$list = $users->list([Query::limit(25)]);

// Get user
$fetched = $users->get('[USER_ID]');

// Delete user
$users->delete('[USER_ID]');

Database Operations

Note: Use TablesDB (not the deprecated Databases class) for all new code. Only use Databases if the existing codebase already relies on it or the user explicitly requests it.

Tip: Prefer named arguments (PHP 8+, e.g., databaseId: '...') for all SDK method calls. Only use positional arguments if the existing codebase already uses them or the user explicitly requests it.

$tablesDB = new TablesDB($client);

// Create database
$db = $tablesDB->create(ID::unique(), 'My Database');

// Create row
$doc = $tablesDB->createRow('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', ID::unique(), [
    'title' => 'Hello World'
]);

// Query rows
$results = $tablesDB->listRows('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', [
    Query::equal('title', ['Hello World']),
    Query::limit(10)
]);

// Get row
$row = $tablesDB->getRow('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', '[ROW_ID]');

// Update row
$tablesDB->updateRow('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', '[ROW_ID]', [
    'title' => 'Updated'
]);

// Delete row
$tablesDB->deleteRow('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', '[ROW_ID]');

String Column Types

Note: The legacy string type is deprecated. Use explicit column types for all new columns.

Type	Max characters	Indexing	Storage
varchar	16,383	Full index (if size ≤ 768)	Inline in row
text	16,383	Prefix only	Off-page
mediumtext	4,194,303	Prefix only	Off-page
longtext	1,073,741,823	Prefix only	Off-page

• varchar is stored inline and counts towards the 64 KB row size limit. Prefer for short, indexed fields like names, slugs, or identifiers.
• text, mediumtext, and longtext are stored off-page (only a 20-byte pointer lives in the row), so they don't consume the row size budget. size is not required for these types.

// Create table with explicit string column types
$tablesDB->createTable('[DATABASE_ID]', ID::unique(), 'articles', [
    ['key' => 'title',    'type' => 'varchar',    'size' => 255, 'required' => true],
    ['key' => 'summary',  'type' => 'text',                      'required' => false],
    ['key' => 'body',     'type' => 'mediumtext',                'required' => false],
    ['key' => 'raw_data', 'type' => 'longtext',                  'required' => false],
]);

Query Methods

// Filtering
Query::equal('field', ['value'])            // == (always pass array)
Query::notEqual('field', ['value'])         // !=
Query::lessThan('field', 100)              // <
Query::lessThanEqual('field', 100)         // <=
Query::greaterThan('field', 100)           // >
Query::greaterThanEqual('field', 100)      // >=
Query::between('field', 1, 100)            // 1 <= field <= 100
Query::isNull('field')                     // is null
Query::isNotNull('field')                  // is not null
Query::startsWith('field', 'prefix')       // starts with
Query::endsWith('field', 'suffix')         // ends with
Query::contains('field', ['sub'])          // contains (string or array)
Query::search('field', 'keywords')         // full-text search (requires index)

// Sorting
Query::orderAsc('field')
Query::orderDesc('field')

// Pagination
Query::limit(25)                           // max rows (default 25, max 100)
Query::offset(0)                           // skip N rows
Query::cursorAfter('[ROW_ID]')             // cursor pagination (preferred)
Query::cursorBefore('[ROW_ID]')

// Selection & Logic
Query::select(['field1', 'field2'])        // return only specified fields
Query::or([Query::equal('a', [1]), Query::equal('b', [2])])   // OR
Query::and([Query::greaterThan('age', 18), Query::lessThan('age', 65)])  // AND (default)

File Storage

$storage = new Storage($client);

// Upload file
$file = $storage->createFile('[BUCKET_ID]', ID::unique(), InputFile::withPath('/path/to/file.png'));

// List files
$files = $storage->listFiles('[BUCKET_ID]');

// Delete file
$storage->deleteFile('[BUCKET_ID]', '[FILE_ID]');

InputFile Factory Methods

use Appwrite\InputFile;

InputFile::withPath('/path/to/file.png')                    // from filesystem path
InputFile::withData('Hello world', 'hello.txt')             // from string content

Teams

$teams = new Teams($client);

// Create team
$team = $teams->create(ID::unique(), 'Engineering');

// List teams
$list = $teams->list();

// Create membership (invite user by email)
$membership = $teams->createMembership('[TEAM_ID]', ['editor'], email: 'user@example.com');

// List memberships
$members = $teams->listMemberships('[TEAM_ID]');

// Update membership roles
$teams->updateMembership('[TEAM_ID]', '[MEMBERSHIP_ID]', ['admin']);

// Delete team
$teams->delete('[TEAM_ID]');

Role-based access: Use Role::team('[TEAM_ID]') for all team members or Role::team('[TEAM_ID]', 'editor') for a specific team role when setting permissions.

Serverless Functions

$functions = new Functions($client);

// Execute function
$execution = $functions->createExecution('[FUNCTION_ID]', '{"key": "value"}');

// List executions
$executions = $functions->listExecutions('[FUNCTION_ID]');

Writing a Function Handler (PHP runtime)

// src/main.php — Appwrite Function entry point
return function ($context) {
    // $context->req->body        — raw body (string)
    // $context->req->bodyJson    — parsed JSON (array or null)
    // $context->req->headers     — headers (array)
    // $context->req->method      — HTTP method
    // $context->req->path        — URL path
    // $context->req->query       — query params (array)

    $context->log('Processing: ' . $context->req->method . ' ' . $context->req->path);

    if ($context->req->method === 'GET') {
        return $context->res->json(['message' => 'Hello from Appwrite Function!']);
    }

    $data = $context->req->bodyJson ?? [];
    if (!isset($data['name'])) {
        $context->error('Missing name field');
        return $context->res->json(['error' => 'Name is required'], 400);
    }

    return $context->res->json(['success' => true]);      // JSON
    // return $context->res->text('Hello');                // plain text
    // return $context->res->empty();                      // 204
    // return $context->res->redirect('https://...');      // 302
};

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) Authentication

SSR apps (Laravel, Symfony, etc.) use the server SDK to handle auth. You need two clients:

• Admin client — uses an API key, creates sessions, bypasses rate limits (reusable singleton)
• Session client — uses a session cookie, acts on behalf of a user (create per-request, never share)

use Appwrite\Client;
use Appwrite\Services\Account;

// Admin client (reusable)
$adminClient = (new Client())
    ->setEndpoint('https://<REGION>.cloud.appwrite.io/v1')
    ->setProject('[PROJECT_ID]')
    ->setKey(getenv('APPWRITE_API_KEY'));

// Session client (create per-request)
$sessionClient = (new Client())
    ->setEndpoint('https://<REGION>.cloud.appwrite.io/v1')
    ->setProject('[PROJECT_ID]');

$session = $_COOKIE['a_session_[PROJECT_ID]'] ?? null;
if ($session) {
    $sessionClient->setSession($session);
}

Email/Password Login

$account = new Account($adminClient);
$session = $account->createEmailPasswordSession($email, $password);

// Cookie name must be a_session_<PROJECT_ID>
setcookie('a_session_[PROJECT_ID]', $session['secret'], [
    'httpOnly' => true,
    'secure' => true,
    'sameSite' => 'strict',
    'expires' => strtotime($session['expire']),
    'path' => '/',
]);

Authenticated Requests

$session = $_COOKIE['a_session_[PROJECT_ID]'] ?? null;
if (!$session) {
    http_response_code(401);
    exit;
}

$sessionClient->setSession($session);
$account = new Account($sessionClient);
$user = $account->get();

OAuth2 SSR Flow

// Step 1: Redirect to OAuth provider
$account = new Account($adminClient);
$redirectUrl = $account->createOAuth2Token(
    OAuthProvider::GITHUB(),
    'https://example.com/oauth/success',
    'https://example.com/oauth/failure',
);
header('Location: ' . $redirectUrl);

// Step 2: Handle callback — exchange token for session
$account = new Account($adminClient);
$session = $account->createSession($_GET['userId'], $_GET['secret']);

setcookie('a_session_[PROJECT_ID]', $session['secret'], [
    'httpOnly' => true, 'secure' => true, 'sameSite' => 'strict',
    'expires' => strtotime($session['expire']), 'path' => '/',
]);

Cookie security: Always use httpOnly, secure, and sameSite: 'strict' to prevent XSS. The cookie name must be a_session_<PROJECT_ID>.

Forwarding user agent: Call $sessionClient->setForwardedUserAgent($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) to record the end-user's browser info for debugging and security.

Error Handling

use Appwrite\AppwriteException;

try {
    $row = $tablesDB->getRow('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', '[ROW_ID]');
} catch (AppwriteException $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();   // human-readable error message
    echo $e->getCode();      // HTTP status code (int)
    echo $e->getType();      // Appwrite error type string (e.g. 'document_not_found')
    echo $e->getResponse();  // full response body (array)
}

Common error codes:

Code	Meaning
401	Unauthorized — missing or invalid session/API key
403	Forbidden — insufficient permissions for this action
404	Not found — resource does not exist
409	Conflict — duplicate ID or unique constraint violation
429	Rate limited — too many requests, retry after backoff

Permissions & Roles (Critical)

Appwrite uses permission strings to control access to resources. Each permission pairs an action (read, update, delete, create, or write which grants create + update + delete) with a role target. By default, no user has access unless permissions are explicitly set at the row/file level or inherited from the table/bucket settings. Permissions are arrays of strings built with the Permission and Role helpers.

use Appwrite\Permission;
use Appwrite\Role;

Database Row with Permissions

$doc = $tablesDB->createRow('[DATABASE_ID]', '[TABLE_ID]', ID::unique(), [
    'title' => 'Hello World'
], [
    Permission::read(Role::user('[USER_ID]')),     // specific user can read
    Permission::update(Role::user('[USER_ID]')),   // specific user can update
    Permission::read(Role::team('[TEAM_ID]')),     // all team members can read
    Permission::read(Role::any()),                 // anyone (including guests) can read
]);

File Upload with Permissions

$file = $storage->createFile('[BUCKET_ID]', ID::unique(), InputFile::withPath('/path/to/file.png'), [
    Permission::read(Role::any()),
    Permission::update(Role::user('[USER_ID]')),
    Permission::delete(Role::user('[USER_ID]')),
]);

When to set permissions: Set row/file-level permissions when you need per-resource access control. If all rows in a table share the same rules, configure permissions at the table/bucket level and leave row permissions empty.

Common mistakes:

• Forgetting permissions — the resource becomes inaccessible to all users (including the creator)
• Role::any() with write/update/delete — allows any user, including unauthenticated guests, to modify or remove the resource
• Permission::read(Role::any()) on sensitive data — makes the resource publicly readable