API documentation generator for Zephir and PHP sources.

reads a source tree into a typed model, then renders that model. Readers know one language and nothing about output; formatters know one output format and nothing about the language it came from.

ZephirReader  (Zephir\Parser)   ─┐                        ┌─→ MarkdownFormatter
                                 ├─→  Model  ─→ toArray() ─┤
PhpReader     (Phase 2)         ─┘   (object graph)        └─→ (further formatters)

Configuration

Everything project-specific lives in a quill.php at the project root, which returns an array. Nothing about any particular repository is baked into quill.

<?php

return [
    // Selects the reader. 'zephir' today; 'php' arrives in Phase 2.
    'language'   => 'zephir',

    // Source tree to read, and where the documents are written. Both are
    // relative to this file's directory unless they start with a slash.
    'source'     => 'phalcon',
    'output'     => 'nikos/api',

    // Used to build the "Source on GitHub" link on every class:
    // https://github.com/<repository>/blob/<branch>/<prefix>/<path>
    'repository' => 'phalcon/cphalcon',
    'branch'     => '5.0.x',
    'prefix'     => 'phalcon',

    // File extension the reader collects.
    'extension'  => 'zep',
];

Every key is required and must be a non-empty string; anything missing raises InvalidConfiguration naming the key.

Usage

quill generate                                  # everything, using ./quill.php
quill generate encryption                       # only pages matching the filter
quill generate --config=build/quill.php
quill generate --output=/somewhere/else

The filter is matched case-insensitively against the page key and narrows what gets written, index included. The registry is always built from every source file regardless, so cross-page links stay correct.

--output overrides just the destination, for ad-hoc runs. Normal use does not need it.

The model as an integration point

ClassDefinition::toArray() serializes the whole definition, and carries a version key. It is a published format the moment anything reads it — treat a shape change as a version bump.

ClassDefinition is six things: a Location (fqcn, namespace, relPath), a Structure (keyword plus modifiers, which are null rather than false where they do not apply), a description, Imports, Relations and Members. The serialization mirrors that graph exactly.

The model is deliberately complete and the formatter is deliberately opinionated:

	Model	MarkdownFormatter
Private members	captured, with visibility	filtered out
Enums	structure.keyword: enum	rendered as a class
Traits	structure.keyword: trait	Trait badge, plus a Used by list

uses and traits are different relations that share a keyword: uses are the file's namespace imports, traits are what the class body pulls in. Registry inverts the latter into usedBy().

Anything a reader can observe cheaply goes into the model even when today's only formatter ignores it, so adding a formatter never means revisiting a reader.

Status

Phase 1, complete. The port was verified byte-for-byte against cphalcon's bin/generate-api-docs.php before anything was changed, then two deliberate improvements were applied on top:

• traits carry a Trait badge instead of falling through to Class
• traits list the classes that pull them in

Against the frozen legacy baseline that is a diff of exactly 38 badge changes and 38 Used by blocks - one per trait - and nothing else.

Both add markup the documentation theme needs styles for: the badge--trait modifier and the .api-used-by block.

Development

docker compose up -d --build
docker exec -w /srv quill-8.1 composer install
docker exec -w /srv quill-8.1 composer test
docker exec -w /srv quill-8.1 composer analyze
docker exec -w /srv quill-8.1 composer cs

quill-8.1 is the floor and where the byte-for-byte comparison runs; quill-8.5 covers deprecations. The suite must pass on both.

phalcon/zephir is a dev dependency and a suggest rather than a hard requirement, so a project using only the PHP reader does not pull in the Zephir compiler. Selecting language: zephir without it installed fails with an explanation.