Kirby CMS Installation and Setup

Installation and Setup of Kirby CMS

Kirby doesn't require database — PHP 8.1+ and web server are enough. Installed via Composer or archive. License needed only for production, works without in development.

System Requirements

• PHP 8.1 or higher
• Extensions: mbstring, curl, gd or imagick, json, fileinfo
• Apache with mod_rewrite or Nginx
• Write access to content/, media/, site/accounts/ directories

Installation via Composer

composer create-project getkirby/plainkit my-site
cd my-site

For start with admin panel:

composer create-project getkirby/starterkit my-site

Structure after installation:

my-site/
├── content/          # content (no need outside web root)
├── kirby/            # CMS core (don't touch)
├── media/            # generated images (gitignore)
├── site/             # customization
└── index.php         # entry point

Nginx Setup

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name mysite.com;
    root /var/www/my-site;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    # deny access to system directories
    location ~ ^/(kirby|site/accounts|site/sessions) {
        return 403;
    }

    # cache static
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|webp|svg|css|js|woff2)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Apache Setup (.htaccess)

Kirby comes with ready .htaccess, but check few things:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# deny direct access to system folders
RewriteRule ^kirby/.*$ - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^site/accounts/.*$ - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^site/sessions/.*$ - [F,L]

# routing
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php [L]

Basic Config

<?php
// site/config/config.php
return [
    'debug'   => false, // true only in development
    'url'     => 'https://mysite.com',
    'locale'  => 'en_US.UTF-8',
    'timezone' => 'Europe/London',

    'languages' => true, // enable multilingual

    'panel' => [
        'install'     => false, // only on first setup
        'slug'        => 'admin', // panel URL
        'css'         => 'assets/admin.css',
    ],

    'cache' => [
        'pages' => [
            'active' => true,
        ],
    ],

    'thumbs' => [
        'driver' => 'im', // ImageMagick instead of GD
        'quality' => 85,
        'format'  => 'webp',
    ],
];

Create First User

After installation, panel available at /panel. On first visit Kirby offers to create administrator via browser. For automation (CI, Docker):

php vendor/bin/kirby create-user \
  --name="Admin" \
  --email="[email protected]" \
  --password="SecurePassword123" \
  --role="admin"

Or programmatically via site/config/install.php:

<?php
use Kirby\Cms\User;

User::create([
    'name'     => 'Admin',
    'email'    => '[email protected]',
    'password' => 'SecurePassword123',
    'role'     => 'admin',
]);

Multilingual Setup

// site/config/config.php
return [
    'languages' => true,
];

Then create languages via panel or files:

// site/languages/en.php
return [
    'code'      => 'en',
    'name'      => 'English',
    'default'   => true,
    'locale'    => 'en_US.UTF-8',
    'url'       => '/',
    'direction' => 'ltr',
    'translations' => [
        'read.more' => 'Read more',
        'published' => 'Published',
    ],
];

Content for English stored in about.en.txt, for Russian — in about.ru.txt.

Git and Deploy

In .gitignore minimal set:

/kirby
/media
/site/accounts
/site/sessions
/.env

kirby/ added as Composer dependency, not committed directly. Deploy via composer install --no-dev on server.

Development Timelines

Setup and basic configuration with Nginx, SSL, and panel — 2–4 hours. With multilingual, user roles, and custom config — 1 day.