Authoring and developing the Temporal PHP SDK for open-source
PHP SDK
development
golang
integration
open-source
collaboration
Services
Industries
Technologies
About temporal
Temporal.io is an open-source microservices orchestration platform designed to help developers build highly reliable, scalable, and fault-tolerant applications. By allowing developers to write workflows in their preferred programming language, Temporal simplifies long-running process management and stateful service execution at any scale.
To expand Temporal’s adoption in the PHP ecosystem, Spiral Scout was chosen to develop the official Temporal PHP SDK—bridging the gap between PHP developers and Temporal’s powerful workflow engine. Our goal was to build a fully functional SDK that seamlessly integrates with Temporal’s core features, adheres to PHP best practices, and provides a smooth developer experience.
Objectives
- Develop the official Temporal PHP SDK to extend Temporal’s language support.
- Ensure compatibility with Temporal’s core architecture, including workflow and activity execution.
- Provide PHP developers with a native SDK that follows best practices for PHP development.
- Create comprehensive documentation to enable easy adoption and integration.
- Facilitate ongoing collaboration and improvements within Temporal’s open-source ecosystem.
Challenges
Solutions
No Technical Team
Temporal’s engineering team set a high technical bar for any external contribution. They needed to ensure that the PHP SDK would meet the same level of reliability and efficiency as existing SDKs written in Go, Java, and TypeScript.
Aligning with Temporal’s High Engineering Standards
Before development began, Spiral Scout conducted deep technical sessions with Temporal’s engineers to align expectations and confirm a solid understanding of Temporal’s internal architecture, APIs, and workflows. Our team quickly demonstrated expertise in distributed systems, workflow orchestration, and PHP performance optimizations, reassuring Temporal that we could deliver a production-ready SDK.
Building a PHP SDK Without Prior Language Support
Temporal was originally designed for Go and Java, meaning there was no existing PHP SDK to reference. This introduced challenges in ensuring proper compatibility, workflow execution, and performance parity with existing SDKs.
Comprehensive PHP SDK Development
We reverse-engineered Temporal’s existing SDKs and reimagined their functionality within PHP’s constraints. Using Golang’s Temporal Core, we built an SDK that seamlessly communicates with the Temporal server while maintaining a PHP-native developer experience.
our Project strategy
Overview of the critical steps that shaped the project’s success and addressed its key challenges.
Deep Technical Alignment with Temporal’s Team
A primary Temporal concern revolved around the potential scenario where even a proficient team might require so much hand-holding, thereby negating the value of an outside party writing this vs their internal team. Prior to the project’s initiation, Spiral Scout took deliberate steps to align with Temporal’s expectations and showcase their sound understanding of software development and PHP.
Iterative Development & Open-Source Collaboration
A series of technical sessions facilitated between Spiral Scout and Temporal engineers set the stage. These sessions demonstrated a profound understanding of the project’s technical intricacies and assured Temporal of Spiral Scout’s robust team of strong engineers who could dive deep into system details.
Documentation & Developer Enablement
Our communication demonstrated that the engineers at Spiral Scout are not only driven, passionate, and self-motivated, but also always able to find solutions to the problems they encounter or that Temporal hadn’t even thought about yet. The PHP engineers independently navigated challenges and knew the correct time when to solicit assistance, thereby ensuring optimal utilization of time and resources.
Results & Impact
The Temporal PHP SDK was successfully developed, tested, and integrated into Temporal’s growing ecosystem of language support. This expanded Temporal’s reach to thousands of PHP developers looking to leverage powerful microservice orchestration without switching to another tech stack. Spiral Scout’s approach ensured that the PHP SDK met Temporal’s high engineering standards, enabling seamless workflow execution and long-running process management in PHP. The project also strengthened Temporal’s open-source collaboration, reinforcing its position as a leading microservices orchestration platform.
During the partnership, Temporal raised over $100 million in funding, further solidifying its market leadership. Today, the PHP SDK remains a critical part of Temporal’s strategy to support developers across multiple programming languages.
Deliverables
- Fully Functional PHP SDK – Enabled PHP developers to build reliable workflows using Temporal.
- Comprehensive Documentation & Tutorials – Provided clear integration steps, code examples, and best practices.
- Seamless Temporal Integration – Ensured compatibility with Temporal’s existing architecture and workflow execution model.
- Ongoing Support & Open-Source Contributions – Continued collaborations with Temporal’s team to improve the SDK and add new features.
Very rare to find such a motivated and dedicated technical team. They took an incredibly broad task and delivered a high-quality result with zero experience in our domain.
Ryland Goldstein
Head of Product of Temporal.io
OVERALL SCORE
At Spiral Scout, we believe that when it comes to SDK development and documentation, it’s time for a change.
5.0
SCHEDULING
On Time / Deadline
5.0
QUALITY
Service & Deliverables
4.5
COST
Value / Within Estimates
5.0
NPS
Willing to Refer
