PHPverse 2026

Welcome to PHPverse 2026 – where everything feels a bit bigger, louder, and more alive. In this opening session, you'll get a sense of the journey ahead, from where PHP stands today to where it's moving next.

Running a large open-source project for 20 years is as much a human challenge as a technical one. Success comes down to three things: the right guardrails to keep everyone aligned, the right tools to automate as much as possible, and the patience to play the long game, guided by a consistent vision. But staying relevant means never standing still. And AI is now rewriting the rules.

​​That asterisk is doing a lot of work – and it's where Ashley finds the most interesting details. After months of tuning and benchmarking his setup, his AI agents now write PHP he's always happy to ship: code that matches his style, follows conventions, writes great tests, QAs itself, designs well, and keeps docs up to date.

In this talk, he'll show you his real day-to-day setup live, explain what he's learned on this journey, and give you a checklist you can use to get your own projects writing PHP you don't have to fight.

Many developers often recycle the same criticisms of WordPress from a decade ago, but the platform has been evolving faster than its reputation. From block-based development and a move to modern PHP standards, to improved performance and tooling, this talk challenges the outdated narratives and makes the case that WordPress deserves a fresh evaluation from the developer community.

Recent attacks on PHP packages via compromised GitHub accounts have forced a hard look at supply chain security with Composer and Packagist. Nils will cover what Packagist has shipped in response: transparency log, malware detection, Composer 2.10 dependency policies, version immutability, and the work still ahead: mandatory MFA, organizational controls, immutable artifacts, and build provenance. Along the way, he’ll explore the infrastructure powering it all and the funding side of running critical open-source infrastructure – where the money comes from today, and what it takes to keep this kind of work going.

Just when you think you've seen it all, the PHPverse opens up something new. Expect exclusive drops, interactive moments, and a few surprises designed to pull you even deeper into the experience.

Step beyond PHP and look at the bigger shift in software development. You'll explore how AI is transforming the role of developers – and what it means for you.

Drupal has long carried a reputation: powerful, secure, and endlessly flexible, but also complex, difficult, and slow to adopt. But over the past several years, Drupal has been quietly reinventing itself.

In this session, we'll explore what's driving Drupal's resurgence – from component-driven development and the new Canvas page-building experience to Drupal CMS and its rapidly growing marketplace ecosystem. We'll look at how modern PHP and AI-powered workflows are helping teams build faster without sacrificing quality or flexibility.

This is not the Drupal you remember. You will leave with a clear picture of where Drupal stands today, why it's positioned to thrive in an agentic world, and why it’s worth a serious second look.

Get inside the process that shapes the future of the language. You'll understand how ideas become features – and how the community influences what comes next.

Many know The PHP Foundation exists; few know what it actually does. In this talk, Elizabeth explains why the Foundation was founded, what it works on, and how it supports the PHP ecosystem.

• What the Foundation is and isn’t
• What it does and why
• Planned initiatives for the rest of 2026
• How you can get involved

As we wrap up, you'll leave with a clearer sense of where PHP is going and your place within it. The PHPverse doesn't end here – it keeps expanding, and you're part of it.