Claude for PHP Developers Expert
Overview
Welcome to Claude for PHP Developers — the comprehensive, hands-on course that teaches you how to build production-ready AI applications using Anthropic's Claude and modern PHP. Whether you're adding AI features to existing applications, building AI-first products, or exploring the frontier of AI-powered development, this series will take you from your first API call to deploying sophisticated multi-agent systems.
Claude is Anthropic's family of state-of-the-art AI models, designed to be helpful, harmless, and honest. With capabilities including natural language understanding, code generation, vision, tool use, RAG, and advanced features like Agent Skills and Memory, Claude can transform your PHP applications into intelligent, context-aware systems that solve complex real-world problems.
Claude Model Family:
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 — Balanced performance and cost, ideal for most applications (200K tokens standard, 1M tokens Beta)
- Claude Haiku 4.5 — Fastest and most affordable, perfect for simple tasks (200K tokens)
- Claude Opus 4.1 — Most capable, best for complex reasoning tasks (200K tokens)
All models support tool use, vision, streaming, structured outputs, and the latest beta features.
This series is built for expert PHP developers who want to master AI integration. You'll learn not just how to call APIs, but how to architect AI-powered systems, optimize for cost and performance, implement RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), build multi-agent workflows, and deploy production-grade applications that scale.
By the end of this series, you'll have built complete AI applications including chatbots, code review assistants, documentation generators, customer support systems, and more. More importantly, you'll understand the principles and patterns that enable you to architect any AI-powered solution using Claude and PHP.
Who This Is For
This series is designed for:
- Expert PHP developers (5+ years) ready to integrate AI into their applications
- Laravel/Symfony developers wanting to build AI-powered features
- Technical leads architecting AI solutions for production systems
- SaaS founders building AI-first products with PHP backends
- Enterprise developers integrating Claude into existing PHP applications
- AI-curious developers with strong PHP skills ready to master modern AI
You should have expert-level PHP 8.4+ knowledge, understanding of modern frameworks (Laravel 11, Symfony 7), API development experience, and familiarity with asynchronous processing. No AI/ML background required—we'll teach you everything you need to know about working with Claude.
Prerequisites
Software Requirements:
- PHP 8.4+ (we'll use modern PHP features throughout)
- Composer for dependency management
- Laravel 11 or Symfony 7 (for framework-specific chapters)
- Anthropic API Key (we'll show you how to get one)
- Git for version control
- Redis/MySQL for caching and storage
- Docker (optional, for deployment chapters)
Time Commitment:
- Estimated total: 60–80 hours to complete all chapters
- Per chapter: 45 minutes to 2 hours
- Quick start path: 8 hours (Chapters 00-03, 06, 11, 21)
- Production-ready path: 40 hours (Chapters 00-20, 36-39)
- Complete mastery path: 80+ hours (all chapters + appendices)
Skill Assumptions:
- Expert-level PHP 8.4+ (namespaces, traits, interfaces, dependency injection, type declarations)
- Modern framework experience (Laravel 11 or Symfony 7)
- RESTful API development and consumption
- Understanding of asynchronous processing (queues, workers)
- Database design and optimization
- Git and deployment workflows
- Composer for dependency management
- No prior AI/ML experience required
What You'll Build
By working through this series, you will:
Master Claude API integration in PHP applications:
- Authentication and API key management
- Message formatting and conversation threading
- Streaming responses for real-time UX
- Tool use (function calling) for dynamic capabilities
- Vision API for image and document analysis
- Structured outputs with JSON schema enforcement
- Error handling, rate limiting, and retry logic
- Cost optimization strategies (caching, batching, model selection)
- Advanced features: Agent Skills, Memory Tool, Files API, Extended Thinking
Build production-ready AI applications:
- AI Chatbot with conversation memory and context
- Code Review Assistant for automated PR analysis
- Documentation Generator from codebases
- Customer Support Bot with RAG and knowledge bases
- Content Moderation System for UGC platforms
- Data Extraction Pipeline for structured data from documents
- Multi-Agent System for complex workflow automation
- Admin Panel with AI-powered features
Implement advanced AI patterns:
- RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) with vector databases and semantic search
- Prompt chaining for multi-step workflows
- Multi-agent systems with specialized agents and orchestration
- Agent Skills (Beta) for extending Claude with custom capabilities
- Caching strategies including prompt caching (5m/1hr) and response caching
- Queue-based processing for long-running tasks
- Batch processing for 50% cost savings on async workloads
- Real-time streaming with WebSockets and Server-Sent Events
- Extended Thinking for transparent reasoning processes
- Citations and Search Results for RAG and knowledge base integration
- Memory Tool (Beta) for cross-conversation memory
- Files API (Beta) for persistent file uploads
- Fine-tuning strategies for domain-specific models
Deploy and scale in production:
- Security best practices, API key management, and compliance
- Privacy considerations: GDPR, data residency, PII handling
- Monitoring and observability with logging and metrics
- Rate limiting, quota management, and graceful degradation
- Cost optimization and billing alerts
- Quality assurance: evaluating and measuring AI output
- Testing strategies: unit tests, integration tests, mock responses
- Docker deployment, orchestration, and CI/CD integration
- Scaling strategies: horizontal scaling, load balancing, queuing
- Debugging techniques and troubleshooting production issues
Every code example is production-ready, following PHP 8.4+ best practices, modern design patterns, and includes comprehensive error handling and testing strategies.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this series, you will be able to:
- Integrate Claude API into any PHP application with confidence
- Design and implement AI-powered features that solve real business problems
- Optimize prompts for accuracy, performance, and cost-effectiveness
- Build conversational interfaces with context and memory management (including Memory Tool)
- Implement RAG systems with vector databases, semantic search, and citations
- Create tool use functions that extend Claude's capabilities dynamically
- Use Agent Skills (Beta) to extend Claude with custom capabilities
- Process images and documents using Claude's vision capabilities and Files API
- Design multi-agent systems for complex workflow automation
- Implement advanced features like Extended Thinking, prompt caching, and batch processing
- Deploy production applications with monitoring, scaling, security, and compliance
- Optimize costs through caching, batching, intelligent model selection, and quality trade-offs
- Test AI features effectively: mocking, unit testing, quality verification
- Measure and evaluate AI output quality and performance metrics
- Debug and troubleshoot AI application issues systematically
- Secure sensitive data: handle PII, implement data privacy, ensure compliance
How This Series Works
This series follows a progressive, project-based approach: you'll learn each concept by understanding the theory, implementing it in PHP, building a practical application, and deploying it to production.
Each chapter includes:
- Clear explanations of Claude features and AI concepts
- Step-by-step implementations in modern PHP 8.4+
- Complete working examples with Laravel, Symfony, and standalone PHP
- Best practices for production deployments
- Cost optimization strategies for each feature
- Security considerations and common pitfalls
- Testing strategies for AI features and mocking
- Quality assurance approaches for AI output
- Troubleshooting guides for common issues and debugging techniques
- Hands-on exercises to reinforce learning
- Further reading for deeper exploration
We'll start with fundamentals (API basics, authentication, prompting), progress through core features (streaming, tools, vision), explore integration patterns (Laravel, caching, queues), and finish with advanced topics (RAG, multi-agent systems, production deployment).
Latest Features Covered: This series includes coverage of Claude's newest capabilities including Agent Skills (Beta), Memory Tool (Beta), Files API (Beta), Extended Thinking, prompt caching, batch processing, citations, and the 1M token context window (Beta). We'll show you how to leverage these cutting-edge features in your PHP applications.
TIP
Build alongside each chapter instead of just reading. Understanding AI integration requires hands-on practice—implementing, testing, debugging, and iterating. Each chapter includes complete, runnable code examples.
Quick Start
Want to make your first Claude API call right now? Here's a 2-minute example:
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use Anthropic\Anthropic;
// Initialize Claude client
$client = Anthropic::factory()
->withApiKey(getenv('ANTHROPIC_API_KEY'))
->make();
// Your first AI conversation!
$response = $client->messages()->create([
'model' => 'claude-sonnet-4-20250514', // Claude Sonnet 4.5 - verify latest version
'max_tokens' => 1024,
'messages' => [
['role' => 'user', 'content' => 'Write a PHP function to calculate fibonacci numbers']
]
]);
// Access the generated text
echo $response->content[0]->text;
// Claude will generate a complete, working PHP function!What This Does:
- Initializes the Anthropic PHP SDK with your API key
- Sends a message to Claude Sonnet 4.5 (latest model)
- Receives and displays the AI-generated PHP code
- Ready to run—just set your
ANTHROPIC_API_KEYenvironment variable!
Setup Required:
- Install the Anthropic PHP SDK:
composer require anthropics/anthropic-sdk-php - Set your API key:
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY='your-key-here' - Run the script:
php quickstart.php
What's Next? That's just the beginning. Head to Chapter 00: Quick Start Guide for a complete working example, or start comprehensive learning with Chapter 01: Introduction to Claude API.
Learning Paths & Chapters
Choose your learning path based on your goals and timeline, or explore all chapters below.
Recommended Learning Paths
- Quick Start (~8 hours): Chapters 00, 01, 02, 03, 06, 11, 21
- Production Integration (~40 hours): Chapters 00-20, 36-39
- AI Application Builder (~60 hours): All chapters 00-30 + Appendices
- Complete Mastery (~80 hours): All chapters 00-39 + all appendices
Part 0: Getting Started (Chapter 00)
Jump right in with working examples and common use cases.
00 — Quick Start Guide
Start here if you have 5 minutes. Get Claude running in PHP with practical examples: text generation, code analysis, data extraction. See real API calls, responses, and common patterns for immediate results.
Part 1: Foundation (Chapters 01–05)
Build essential knowledge for working with Claude API.
01 — Introduction to Claude API
Understand Claude's capabilities, model variants (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku), pricing tiers, and when to use each. Learn the Messages API structure, how conversations work, and the fundamentals that power all Claude integrations.
02 — Authentication and API Keys
Set up Anthropic account, generate API keys, and implement secure authentication in PHP. Learn environment variable management, key rotation strategies, and security best practices for production applications.
03 — Your First Claude Request in PHP
Make your first API call using both Guzzle HTTP client and the official Anthropic PHP SDK. Understand request structure, response parsing, and basic error handling. Build a simple text generation script from scratch.
04 — Understanding Messages and Conversations
Master message formatting with user/assistant roles, build multi-turn conversations with context management, and implement conversation memory. Learn when to truncate context and how to maintain coherent long-running dialogues.
05 — Prompt Engineering Basics
Learn effective prompting techniques: clarity, specificity, examples, and formatting. Understand few-shot learning, chain-of-thought prompting, and role-playing. Master the art of getting consistent, high-quality responses from Claude.
Part 2: Core Concepts (Chapters 06–10)
Master essential Claude features for production applications.
06 — Streaming Responses in PHP
Implement real-time streaming for better user experience. Process Server-Sent Events (SSE) in PHP, handle partial responses, and build a streaming chatbot interface. Learn when streaming improves UX and when to use complete responses.
07 — System Prompts and Role Definition
Use system prompts to define Claude's personality, expertise, and behavior. Create specialized AI assistants (code reviewer, customer support, technical writer) by engineering system-level instructions. Learn prompt injection prevention.
08 — Temperature and Sampling Parameters
Control response randomness and creativity with temperature, top_p, and top_k. Understand when to use deterministic outputs (low temperature) vs creative responses (high temperature). Optimize for different use cases: code generation, creative writing, data extraction.
09 — Token Management and Counting
Understand tokenization, calculate costs, and optimize context windows. Learn to count tokens accurately in PHP, implement context pruning strategies, and manage context limits (200K tokens standard, 1M tokens Beta). Build a token budget system for cost control.
10 — Error Handling and Rate Limiting
Handle API errors gracefully with retry logic, exponential backoff, and circuit breakers. Implement rate limiting to respect API quotas, build a resilient error handling system, and create meaningful error messages for users and logs.
Part 3: Advanced Features (Chapters 11–15)
Unlock Claude's powerful capabilities for real-world applications.
11 — Tool Use (Function Calling) Fundamentals
Extend Claude's capabilities with tool use (function calling). Define tools, handle tool calls, and return results. Build dynamic systems where Claude can check databases, call APIs, perform calculations, and execute PHP functions based on conversation context.
12 — Building Custom Tools in PHP
Create a library of custom tools: database queries, weather API, email sender, file operations, and more. Learn tool orchestration, error handling in tool execution, and security considerations. Build a plugin system for extensible AI capabilities.
13 — Vision - Working with Images
Analyze images with Claude's vision capabilities. Upload images, ask questions about visual content, extract text from screenshots, analyze charts and diagrams. Build image moderation, receipt parsing, and visual search features.
14 — Document Processing and PDF Analysis
Process PDFs, extract structured data from documents, analyze contracts and invoices, and convert documents to searchable text. Combine vision and text processing for comprehensive document understanding. Build a document intelligence system.
15 — Structured Outputs with JSON
Get reliable JSON responses from Claude for structured data extraction. Define schemas, validate outputs, and handle parsing errors. Build data extraction pipelines that transform unstructured text into typed PHP objects with confidence.
Part 4: PHP Integration Patterns (Chapters 16–20)
Integrate Claude into modern PHP applications and frameworks.
16 — The Official PHP SDK
Master the official Anthropic PHP SDK. Explore its architecture, advanced features, middleware support, and testing utilities. Learn best practices for SDK integration in production applications and when to use raw HTTP vs the SDK.
17 — Building a Claude Service Class
Design a reusable ClaudeService class with dependency injection, configuration management, and testing support. Implement the service layer pattern for clean architecture. Make Claude integration testable, maintainable, and framework-agnostic.
18 — Caching Strategies for API Calls
Reduce costs and latency with intelligent caching. Implement prompt caching, response caching with Redis, cache invalidation strategies, and semantic caching. Learn when to cache, what to cache, and how long to cache for optimal cost-performance balance.
19 — Queue-Based Processing with Laravel
Handle long-running Claude requests asynchronously using Laravel queues. Implement job batching, progress tracking, and webhook notifications. Build scalable background processing for document analysis, bulk operations, and report generation.
20 — Real-time Chat with WebSockets
Build a real-time streaming chat interface using Laravel Reverb/Soketi and WebSockets. Stream Claude responses to multiple connected clients, implement typing indicators, and handle connection management. Create a production-ready chat experience.
Part 5: PHP Framework Integration (Chapters 21–25)
Master framework-specific patterns: Laravel-first with Symfony compatibility notes.
21 — Laravel Integration Patterns
Integrate Claude into Laravel applications using service providers, facades, and contracts. Implement configuration management, environment-based settings, and testing strategies. Build a complete Laravel package for Claude integration.
22 — Building a Chatbot with Laravel
Build a complete chatbot from scratch: conversation persistence, user authentication, message history, context management, and typing indicators. Implement rate limiting per user, conversation branching, and export functionality. Deploy with Livewire for reactive UI.
23 — Claude-Powered Form Validation
Enhance Laravel form validation with AI. Validate content quality, detect spam, check for offensive language, verify business logic, and provide intelligent error messages. Build custom validation rules that use Claude for context-aware validation.
24 — Content Generation API
Build a RESTful API for content generation: blog posts, product descriptions, social media, and marketing copy. Implement templates, style guides, brand voice consistency, and batch generation. Add API authentication, rate limiting, and usage tracking.
25 — Admin Panel with AI Features
Add AI superpowers to Laravel admin panels: automated content summarization, intelligent search, bulk content generation, data cleanup suggestions, and anomaly detection. Use Filament PHP with Claude to create next-generation admin experiences.
Part 6: Real-World Applications (Chapters 26–30)
Build complete, production-ready AI applications.
26 — Building a Code Review Assistant
Automate code reviews with Claude. Analyze pull requests, detect bugs, suggest improvements, check code style, identify security issues, and generate review comments. Integrate with GitHub/GitLab webhooks for automated PR analysis.
27 — Documentation Generator
Generate technical documentation from codebases. Parse PHP files, extract structure, generate API docs, create user guides, and produce tutorials. Build a documentation pipeline that keeps docs in sync with code automatically.
28 — Customer Support Bot
Build an intelligent customer support system with knowledge base integration, ticket classification, sentiment analysis, escalation rules, and human handoff. Implement conversation routing, FAQ matching, and satisfaction tracking for world-class support automation.
29 — Content Moderation System
Moderate user-generated content at scale. Detect toxic language, spam, personal information, copyright violations, and policy violations. Build a moderation queue, appeal system, and automated flagging with human review workflow.
30 — Data Extraction and Analysis
Extract structured data from unstructured sources: emails, PDFs, web pages, images, and documents. Build ETL pipelines that transform messy real-world data into clean, structured database records. Implement validation and quality assurance.
Part 7: Advanced Techniques (Chapters 31–35)
Master cutting-edge AI patterns and architectures.
31 — Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
Implement RAG to ground Claude in your data. Build semantic search, retrieve relevant context, and generate accurate responses based on your knowledge base. Learn chunking strategies, relevance ranking, and context injection for hallucination-free AI.
32 — Vector Databases in PHP
Store and query embeddings with vector databases. Integrate Pinecone, Weaviate, or Milvus in PHP. Build semantic search, similarity matching, and recommendation systems. Understand embedding models, distance metrics, and indexing strategies.
33 — Multi-Agent Systems
Build systems where multiple specialized Claude agents collaborate. Implement agent orchestration, message passing, task delegation, and conflict resolution. Create complex workflows with research agents, writing agents, review agents working together.
34 — Prompt Chaining and Workflows
Chain multiple Claude calls for complex workflows. Implement sequential processing, conditional branching, loops, and error recovery. Build pipelines for research, analysis, synthesis, and refinement with intermediate validation steps.
35 — Fine-tuning Strategies
Understand when and how to fine-tune Claude for domain-specific tasks. Learn dataset preparation, evaluation metrics, and deployment. Compare fine-tuning vs prompt engineering vs RAG for different use cases. Plan your fine-tuning strategy.
Part 8: Production & Deployment (Chapters 36–39)
Deploy, scale, and maintain Claude applications in production.
36 — Security Best Practices
Secure your Claude integrations: API key management, prompt injection prevention, output validation, PII handling, access control, audit logging, and compliance. Build security-first AI applications that protect user data and prevent abuse.
37 — Monitoring and Observability
Instrument Claude applications with logging, metrics, and tracing. Track API usage, latency, costs, error rates, and quality metrics. Build dashboards, set up alerts, and implement incident response. Use Sentry, Datadog, or custom solutions.
38 — Scaling Claude Applications
Scale from hundreds to millions of requests. Implement horizontal scaling, load balancing, request queuing, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation. Optimize for cost at scale while maintaining quality. Handle traffic spikes and plan capacity.
39 — Cost Optimization and Billing
Master cost optimization: model selection, prompt compression, caching strategies, batch processing, and usage monitoring. Build budget alerts, implement quotas per user, and optimize for the best cost-quality trade-off. Make AI affordable at scale.
Appendices
Quick reference materials to support your learning journey.
- Appendix A: API Reference Quick Guide — Complete API reference with request/response examples
- Appendix B: Common Prompting Patterns — Proven prompt templates for common use cases
- Appendix C: Error Codes and Troubleshooting — Complete error code reference and debugging guide
- Appendix D: Resources and Further Reading — Curated resources, tools, and communities
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need AI/ML experience to take this course? No! This course assumes expert PHP knowledge but no AI background. We'll teach you everything you need to know about working with Claude specifically.
Which PHP framework should I use? We include comprehensive Laravel-specific chapters (21-25), and all examples are easily adaptable to Symfony, Slim, or standalone PHP. Most core concepts apply across all frameworks. Choose based on your project needs—all approaches are covered.
How much does Claude API cost? Pricing varies by model: Haiku 4.5 (~$0.25/million tokens), Sonnet 4.5 (~$3/million tokens), Opus 4.1 (~$15/million tokens). We'll teach cost optimization throughout the series, including prompt caching, batch processing (50% savings), and intelligent model selection.
Can I use Claude for commercial projects? Yes! Anthropic's commercial terms allow production use. Review the terms of service and follow security best practices in Chapter 36. All code examples in this series are production-ready.
What's the difference between models?
- Haiku 4.5: Fastest, most affordable (~$0.25/million tokens), great for simple tasks, 200K context
- Sonnet 4.5: Balanced performance and cost (~$3/million tokens), most versatile, 200K context (1M Beta)
- Opus 4.1: Most capable (~$15/million tokens), best for complex reasoning, 200K context
How do I get an API key? Sign up at console.anthropic.com, add billing information, and generate an API key. We cover this step-by-step in Chapter 02, including security best practices for key management.
Is Claude better than ChatGPT for PHP apps? Both are excellent. Claude excels at: longer context (200K tokens standard, 1M Beta), following instructions precisely, code generation, safety, tool use, and advanced features like Agent Skills and Memory. Choose based on your specific needs—Claude is particularly strong for complex reasoning and multi-step workflows.
What about rate limits? Rate limits depend on your tier and model. We cover rate limiting, queuing, retry logic with exponential backoff, and scaling strategies in Chapters 10 and 38. For high-volume applications, batch processing (Chapter 39) offers 50% cost savings.
Can I fine-tune Claude? Claude fine-tuning is available for enterprise customers. For most use cases, prompt engineering, RAG (Chapter 31), and Agent Skills (Beta) are more practical and cost-effective. See Chapter 35 for fine-tuning strategies and when it makes sense.
How do I test AI features? We cover comprehensive testing strategies throughout the series: mocking API responses for CI/CD, unit testing Claude integrations, integration testing with real API calls, testing tool use functions, quality assurance for AI outputs, and evaluating output consistency. See Chapter 17 for service layer patterns that enable easy testing.
Getting Help
Stuck on something? Here's where to get help:
- Anthropic Documentation: docs.claude.com — Official API reference
- Anthropic Discord: discord.gg/anthropic — Community support
- GitHub Discussions: Ask questions and share progress — Get help from the community
- Report issues: Open an issue — Report bugs or suggest improvements
- Check appendices for quick reference on API, errors, and patterns
Related Resources
Want to dive deeper? These resources complement the series:
Official Resources
- Anthropic Documentation: Official API documentation
- Anthropic Cookbook: Code examples and patterns
- Claude Console: Test prompts and manage API keys
- Anthropic Blog: Latest updates and research
PHP Resources
- Anthropic PHP SDK: Official PHP SDK
- Laravel: Modern PHP framework
- Symfony: Enterprise PHP framework
Related Code with PHP Series
- PHP Basics — Master PHP fundamentals and modern PHP 8.4+ features
- PHP Algorithms — Algorithm and data structure foundations
- AI/ML for PHP Developers — Broader AI/ML concepts and machine learning with PHP
- Build a CRM with Laravel 12 — Apply Claude and AI to real production applications
Ready to Start?
Head to Chapter 00: Quick Start Guide for immediate results, or begin comprehensive learning with Chapter 01: Introduction to Claude API!
Continue Your Learning
Master other aspects of modern PHP development:
→ PHP Basics — Master PHP fundamentals from scratch → PHP Algorithms — Algorithm and data structure mastery → Build a CRM with Laravel 12 — Build production Laravel applications