Path Helpers

Path helpers answer a small question: where does this file belong? They use Composer's project and package metadata so paths do not depend on the working directory or a fixed vendor/ depth.

Choose the helper

Load Composer first

<?php declare(strict_types=1);

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$project_root = base_path();
$dependency_root = vendor_path();

Use the actual autoloader location for your project. In the Webkernel scaffold it is internal/dependencies/autoload.php. Lifecycle includes its helper definitions through autoload.files; you do not require the functions file manually.

Existing framework helpers

Each function is guarded by function_exists(). If another package already defined that function, Lifecycle keeps it. This matters in frameworks that already expose base_path(): the existing implementation retains its own semantics. The descriptions and measurements here apply to Lifecycle's implementation when it owns the function name.

Appending a path

Pass a relative suffix without a leading slash. Helpers append the suffix; they do not check that the resulting file exists, normalize .., create directories or enforce that a suffix stays inside the base directory. Validate user-supplied paths before using them in file operations.

Next step

You can read:

• base_path()
• vendor_path()
• webkernel_package()

For cache behavior and measurement context, you can also read Performance.