fusio is a free, open source api development & testing project written in PHP and released under Apache-2.0. It has 2,116 GitHub stars, 240 forks and 169 open issues, and was last pushed 12 days ago. On this registry it ranks #98 of 154 tracked projects in API Development & Testing, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

Fusio

Open Source API Management Platform
Turn your business logic into scalable API products for humans and AI agents.

📖 Documentation📺 Video Walkthrough (15m)💬 Discord Community


Fusio is a self-hosted, open-source backend platform and API gateway written in PHP that bridges the gap between your internal infrastructure and the outside world. Whether you are exposing legacy databases, orchestrating microservices, or building custom business logic, Fusio handles the heavy lifting. It transforms your services into a professional API product, complete with an automated developer portal, SDK generation, and monetization tools. With native MCP support, Fusio also acts as a bridge to the AI ecosystem, allowing you to turn your backend logic into tools for autonomous agents.

🚀 Features

  • Database API Gateway - Instantly expose legacy SQL/NoSQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.) as REST APIs.
  • Microservice Gateway - Securely route, orchestrate, and load-balance traffic between your distributed services.
  • Custom API Logic - Build powerful backend logic using reusable actions in PHP or Javascript.
  • Agent Development - Use your custom API logic as "Tools" to build and power autonomous AI agents.
  • AI-Assisted Development - Generate custom backend logic and schemas using natural language prompts.
  • MCP Integration - Native support for the Model Context Protocol to expose APIs to AI ecosystems.
  • API Developer Portal - A self-service portal for third-party developers with docs, testing tools, and keys.
  • SDK Automation - Zero-effort generation of client SDKs for all major programming languages.
  • API Monetization - Turn your API into a product with subscription plans, quotas, and automated billing.
  • Analytics & Monitoring - Real-time tracking of API usage, performance metrics, and error logging.

📦 Installation

🐳 Docker

The fastest way to try Fusio locally is with Docker and docker-compose.

services:
  fusio:
    image: fusio/fusio
    restart: always
    environment:
      FUSIO_PROJECT_KEY: "42eec18ffdbffc9fda6110dcc705d6ce"
      FUSIO_CONNECTION: "pdo-mysql://fusio:61ad6c605975@mysql-fusio/fusio"
      FUSIO_BACKEND_USER: "test"
      FUSIO_BACKEND_EMAIL: "[email protected]"
      FUSIO_BACKEND_PW: "test1234"
    ports:
      - "8080:80"

  mysql-fusio:
    image: mysql:8.0
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD: "1"
      MYSQL_USER: "fusio"
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: "61ad6c605975"
      MYSQL_DATABASE: "fusio"
    volumes:
      - ./db:/var/lib/mysql

docker compose up -d

After startup

🛠️ Manual Installation

  • Download artifact

    You can either download the official release or clone the repository.

    git clone https://github.com/apioo/fusio.git
    
  • Configure .env

    Configure fitting database credentials at the APP_CONNECTION variable, all other parameters are optional.

    APP_CONNECTION=pdo-mysql://root:password@localhost/fusio
    APP_URL=http://localhost:8080
    

    It is also recommended to provide the APP_URL which contains the domain pointing to the public folder i.e. https://api.my_domain.com or https://my_domain.com/fusio, this is required if you host Fusio inside a sub-folder otherwise Fusio tries to detect the domain via the Host header.

    Supported DBs:

    • MySQL: pdo-mysql://user:pass@host/db
    • PostgreSQL: pdo-pgsql://user:pass@host/db
    • SQLite: pdo-sqlite:///fusio.sqlite
  • Run migrations

    php bin/fusio migrate
    
  • Create administrator user

    php bin/fusio adduser
    

    Choose Administrator as account type.

  • Install backend app

    php bin/fusio marketplace:install fusio
    
  • Start server (dev only)

    php -S 127.0.0.1:8080 -t public
    

    This should be only used for testing, for production you need a classical Nginx/Apache setup or use Docker, take a look at our installation documentation for more details.

🌐 Web-Installer

Instead of manual installation you can also use the web installer script located at /install.php to complete the installation. After installation, it is recommended to delete this "install" script.

🧭 Getting Started

Use our Getting Started guide to build your first action and configure an operation to expose the action as API endpoint.

Action

At the core of Fusio, you describe your business logic in an Action. An Action is a PHP class that receives an incoming request and returns a response.

<?php

namespace App\Action;

use Fusio\Engine;

class MyAction implements Engine\ActionInterface
{
    public function handle(Engine\RequestInterface $request, Engine\ParametersInterface $configuration, Engine\ContextInterface $context): mixed
    {
        return [
            'hello' => 'world'
        ];
    }
}

Once defined, this action can be bound to an Operation so that it executes for a specific HTTP method and path.

Configuration

Fusio allows you to build actions that are configurable directly from the backend. In the example below, we add a message configuration parameter so a user can customize the response without changing the code.

<?php

namespace App\Action;

use Fusio\Engine;

class MyAction extends Engine\ActionAbstract
{
    public function handle(Engine\RequestInterface $request, Engine\ParametersInterface $configuration, Engine\ContextInterface $context): mixed
    {
        return [
            'hello' => $configuration->get('message'),
        ];
    }

    public function configure(Engine\Form\BuilderInterface $builder, Engine\Form\ElementFactoryInterface $elementFactory): void
    {
        $builder->add($elementFactory->newInput('message', 'Message', 'text', 'The message which should be returned'));
    }
}

In the backend, this parameter is now exposed via a generated form:

Action_Configuration

This concept makes actions highly reusable for both developers and non-technical users. We also provide a preset of actions for common tasks. If you build an action you'd like to share, check out our Adapter page. See our custom action documentation for more details.

Worker

Fusio provides Worker actions, which allow you to develop logic directly in the backend without building custom PHP classes.

Worker_PHP_Designer

This also enables you to build actions in other languages like JavaScript or Python, which is ideal if your team is more familiar with those ecosystems. Learn more in the worker documentation.

AI

With the 7.0 release, we introduced a new Agent concept that allows you to generate worker actions using AI.

Agent_Message

This makes developing backend logic accessible to everyone. Simply describe the logic you need:

return a list of popular composers of the 19th century

The Agent then generates the appropriate action logic automatically. Fusio supports multiple providers, including Ollama, ChatGPT, and Gemini, so you are never locked into a specific AI. Explore the AI agent documentation for more.

🧩 Apps

Fusio includes a flexible app system that lets you install various web-based apps to support different API-related use cases. These apps are typically simple JavaScript frontends that interact with Fusio's internal API.

You can browse all available apps in the Fusio Marketplace, and install them using either the CLI:

php bin/fusio marketplace:install fusio

or directly through the backend interface.

🖥️ Backend

Backend

The backend app is the main app to configure and manage your API loca

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is fusio free to use?

fusio is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does fusio do?

Self-Hosted API Management for Builders

What is fusio written in?

fusio is primarily written in PHP. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/apioo/fusio, and it has 2,116 GitHub stars.