Launching PHP Apps With No Config Files Using Convention-Based Bootloaders

If your app needs a config.php, a .env, and an “if localhost then...” just to boot… you’re doing too much. Let’s be blunt: configuration bloat is the diet soda of backend dev—it feels productive but just gives you indigestion later.

Welcome to the world of convention-based bootloaders in PHP—where logic trumps legwork, and setup melts into the background like it was never there.

Why Are We Still Writing Config Files in 2025?

PHP isn’t the dusty procedural language from 2009 anymore. With tools like Composer, autoloading, and PSR standards, PHP apps have grown up — but config management? Still stuck in the adolescence of .ini files and copy-pasted .env.example templates.

Convention over configuration isn’t a new gospel — it’s been preached in Rails and echoed in Laravel’s ecosystem. But we’re going one layer deeper now.

We’re talking no config files at all. Nada. Zilch. Just directory conventions, file placement, and implicit logic guiding your bootstrapping process.

Convention-Based Bootloaders

Instead of explicitly telling your app where to find things, what to inject, and how to behave per environment…