devstack

For Windows 10 and 11

Every project folder, served.

devstack runs nginx, PHP and MySQL for your projects. Drop a folder into www and it is live at name.test a few seconds later, on the PHP version it needs, over trusted HTTPS.

Download devstack 0.1.0 View the source

Free and open source · Installs for your account, no administrator prompt · Windows 10/11, 64-bit · What's new in 0.1.0

The devstack dashboard: servers running, and four sites with their .test addresses, PHP versions and AI guide switches.

What it does

A folder is a site

Every folder in www gets an address, with no hosts file or config to edit. Laravel-style public/ folders are found on their own. New folders go live within seconds; a clone still in progress is picked up once it is complete.

The right PHP for each site

Run PHP 8.1 to 8.5 side by side and pick one per site from a dropdown. One project stays on 8.2 while the next one moves to 8.4.

.test works everywhere

Turn it on once and shop.test works in PHP, Postman and terminals, not only in browsers. Only *.test lookups go to devstack; real domains are never touched.

HTTPS without warnings

Every site also answers at https:// with a certificate Windows trusts. devstack's certificate authority can only sign local names, never real websites, and it is removed again when you turn HTTPS off.

Servers from their publishers

nginx, PHP and MySQL download from nginx.org, windows.php.net and mysql.com, each checked against a pinned SHA-256. A failed or tampered download leaves nothing behind.

Lives in the tray

Start and stop everything, open a site, read its logs or change its PHP from the dashboard. Signed updates install only when you click Update.

New

Your AI coding agent knows the setup

Coding agents guess how a project runs: the wrong php, a PHP with no extensions, artisan serve next to a site that is already served. Flip a site's AI guide switch and devstack writes down how this machine actually runs it.

  • Works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Copilot through AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md.
  • Machine details stay out of git; your own text in those files is left alone.
  • Rewritten whenever the PHP version, port or address changes. Passwords are never written down.
# .devstack/ai-guide.md (excerpt)
## Site
- URL: https://shop.test
- The site is already being served by nginx 1.30.6.
  Don't start another server (php -S, artisan serve).

## PHP 8.3.36
$env:Path  = "C:\devstack\bin\php\8.3.36;" + $env:Path
$env:PHPRC = "C:\devstack\etc\php\8.3"
php -v; composer install

## Database (MySQL 8.4.13)
- Host 127.0.0.1, port 3306, user root
- Password: run `devstack db creds`

Up and running in three steps

  1. Install. Run the installer. It sets devstack up for your account and adds it to your PATH.
  2. Pick a folder and versions. devstack downloads nginx, PHP and MySQL (about 300 MB) and starts them.
  3. Drop projects into www. Each one is a site. Open it from the dashboard or the tray.

Or from the terminal

Everything the app does is a devstack command, so scripts and coding agents can use it too.

> devstack sites
SITE   URL                 PHP   DOCROOT
blog   https://blog.test   8.4   www\blog
shop   https://shop.test   8.3   www\shop\public

> devstack pkg install php 8.4
> devstack https on
> devstack logs shop -f