Mythus

WordPress platform framework. Installed as a must-use plugin, Mythus provides the provider pattern, dependency injection container (PHP-DI 7), and the support managers that consuming themes compose to register features, hooks, blocks, patterns, assets, ACF field groups, and REST endpoints.

Mythus is theme-agnostic — no Timber, Twig, or template coupling. Themes wrap Mythus with their own bridge (e.g., the IX parent theme extends Mythus\Provider to add Timber support).

Named after one of the playable characters in Honkai: Star Rail.

Stack

• PHP 8.4+ with strict types
• PHP-DI 7 (autowiring-first)
• PHPUnit 9 + WorDBless for testing

Install

Mythus installs into wp-content/mu-plugins/mythus/ via Composer:

{
  "require": {
    "vincentragosta/mythus": "dev-main"
  },
  "extra": {
    "installer-paths": {
      "wp-content/mu-plugins/{$name}/": ["type:wordpress-muplugin"]
    }
  }
}

A loader at wp-content/mu-plugins/mythus-loader.php is responsible for bootstrapping Mythus. If its vendor directory isn't present, the loader calls wp_die() with install instructions.

What's Inside

src/
├── Provider.php              # Abstract base provider (theme-agnostic)
├── Contracts/
│   ├── Registrable.php       # Base marker interface
│   ├── Feature.php           # Toggleable capabilities (opt-out via => false)
│   ├── Hook.php              # Always-active hooks (additive only)
│   └── Routable.php          # REST-addressable classes
├── Support/
│   ├── AbstractRegistry.php
│   ├── Acf/AcfManager.php
│   ├── Asset/AssetManager.php
│   ├── Block/BlockManager.php
│   ├── Feature/FeatureManager.php
│   ├── Pattern/PatternManager.php
│   └── Rest/{RestManager,Endpoint}.php
└── Hooks/
    └── BlockStyles.php       # Abstract declarative block style registration

The Provider Pattern

A provider is a self-contained domain — it owns its PHP classes, assets, blocks, config, and tests. Providers compose managers rather than inheriting them. The Provider::setup() method is idempotent and deferred; managers are only instantiated when needed.

Registrable (interface)
  ├── Feature (marker) — toggleable, $features array, opt-out via => false
  ├── Hook (marker) — always-active, $hooks array, additive only
  └── Provider (abstract base)

Consuming themes extend Mythus\Provider and add their own bridge layer. For example, the IX parent theme adds a Provider subclass that wires in Timber/Twig template resolution.

Testing

composer install
composer test

Tests use WorDBless to load WordPress without a database, ensuring fast and isolated execution. Tests mirror the source tree: tests/Unit/Support/Asset/AssetManagerTest.php ↔ src/Support/Asset/AssetManager.php.

Philosophy

• Theme-agnostic — no Timber, no Twig, no template rendering in Mythus. Themes bridge to their rendering layer.
• Autowiring-first — PHP-DI resolves most classes automatically. Explicit container definitions are only added when autowiring can't figure it out.
• Composition over inheritance — providers compose managers; managers are not in the inheritance chain.
• Lazy initialization — setup() is idempotent and deferred. Multiple calls are safe.
• Silent failure at asset boundaries — missing dist/ CSS/JS files are skipped silently, so a provider with PHP logic but no compiled assets doesn't break the site.

Context

Mythus is part of the vincentragosta.io WordPress site. It was extracted into this standalone package so it can evolve as a reusable framework across projects. The IX parent theme is the reference consumer.