Development Setup

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.3, 8.4, or 8.5 with extensions: intl, gd, curl, zip, mbstring, xml, json, pdo, ldap, exif, bcmath

• Composer

• Node.js and npm (or Yarn — the project uses Yarn 4; see package.json for the exact pinned version)

• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.11+

• Git

Installation Steps

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/chamilo/chamilo-lms.git chamilo
cd chamilo

2. Install PHP Dependencies

composer install

3. Configure Environment

The repository ships .env.dist as a reference. Create an empty .env file that the web installer will populate — keeping it empty ensures upgrades never overwrite your local configuration:

touch .env

Then make .env and config/ writable by the web server so the installer can write your local configuration:

sudo chown -R www-data: .env config/ var/

4. Install Frontend Dependencies and Build

# Install JavaScript dependencies
yarn install

# Build frontend assets for development
yarn encore dev

# Or watch for changes during development
yarn encore dev --watch

5. Start the Development Server

symfony server:start

Or use Apache/Nginx pointing to the public/ directory.

6. Set Up the Database

Run the web-based installation wizard by navigating to your Chamilo URL in a browser.

7. Generate JWT Keys

php bin/console lexik:jwt:generate-keypair

8. Secure your system

The .env file and config/ directory only need to be writeable for the time of the installation. Secure them afterwards:

sudo chown -R root: .env config/

The var/ directory needs to remain writeable by the web server.

Build Commands

Command	Purpose
yarn encore dev	Build frontend for development
yarn encore dev --watch	Build and watch for changes
yarn encore production	Build optimized for production
php bin/console cache:clear	Clear Symfony cache

Development Tips

• Set APP_ENV=dev and APP_DEBUG=1 in .env for detailed error messages

• The Symfony debug toolbar appears at the bottom of pages in development mode

• API documentation is available at /api when APP_ENABLE_API_ENTRYPOINT=1

• Use yarn encore dev --watch to automatically rebuild frontend changes