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ramsey/uuid

★ 12,612PHPAudience · developerComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A PHP library for generating and working with UUIDs, globally unique identifiers used as database primary keys and API resource labels, installed via one Composer command.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((ramsey/uuid))
    What it does
      Generate UUIDs
      Parse and validate
      PHP 8+ support
    Use cases
      Database primary keys
      API resource IDs
      Distributed systems
    Installation
      Composer one command
      composer.json entry
    Versions
      Current v4
      v3 upgrade guide
    License
      MIT permissive
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Generate UUIDs as primary keys for database records in a PHP application instead of auto-increment integers.

USE CASE 2

Create unique identifiers for API resources so clients can reference them without a central registry.

USE CASE 3

Validate and parse UUID strings received from external systems or user input in PHP.

USE CASE 4

Upgrade a PHP project from ramsey/uuid version 3 to version 4 using the provided migration guide.

Tech stack

PHPComposer

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
MIT license, use freely in any project including commercial applications, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

ramsey/uuid is a PHP library for generating and working with UUIDs. A UUID (universally unique identifier) is a 128-bit number used to label records, files, or other items in a way that is extremely unlikely to collide with any other identifier, even across different systems and databases. They appear as strings of hexadecimal characters separated by hyphens, in a format like "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000". Developers commonly use them as primary keys in databases, as identifiers for API resources, or anywhere a globally unique label is needed without a central registry assigning the numbers. The library is installed through Composer, which is the standard package manager for PHP projects. One command adds it as a dependency and registers it in your project's composer.json file. The library requires PHP 8 or above based on the package metadata. Full documentation, usage examples, and a FAQ are hosted at uuid.ramsey.dev rather than in this repository, so the README itself is intentionally brief. The current major version is 4. An upgrade guide exists for anyone moving from version 3 to version 4, linked from the README. The project was inspired by UUID libraries in Java and Python. It follows a published code of conduct for contributors and maintainers. The library is released under the MIT license, meaning it can be used freely in both open-source and commercial PHP applications. Commercial support and maintenance coverage are also available through a Tidelift subscription for teams that need guaranteed long-term support for their open-source dependencies.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I install ramsey/uuid with Composer and generate a UUID v4 in PHP for use as a database primary key?
Prompt 2
What is the difference between UUID versions 1, 3, 4, and 5, and when should I use each one in a PHP project?
Prompt 3
How do I validate a UUID string received from an API request using the ramsey/uuid library?
Prompt 4
I'm upgrading from ramsey/uuid v3 to v4, what are the breaking changes I need to handle in my PHP code?
Prompt 5
How do I store and retrieve UUIDs efficiently in a MySQL database when using ramsey/uuid in a PHP application?
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