Never Code Alone (NCA) Backend

A fully functional Sulu skeleton CMS with extended features for running Never Code Alone platform.

DDEV local Docker setup

# Setup
ddev start && ddev exec composer install
ddev create-db && ddev php bin/console sulu:build dev --no-interaction

# Admin access
open https://sulu-never-code-alone.ddev.site/admin

# Create new admin
ddev php bin/console sulu:security:user:create --no-interaction

# Frontend
ddev launch

# Remove Setup
ddev delete --omit-snapshot

DB export and Import

# Export
ddev export-db >backup.sql.gz

# Import 
ddev import-db --file=backup.sql.gz

Prod deploy and requirements

PHP >= 8.2 Mysql >= 8.0 Composer NPM

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --no-scripts
bin/console cache:clear
npm install
npm run build

Local deployment for testing

bin/console server:run

## or php builtin server
php -S localhost:8000 -t public

YouTube playlist with over 50 german tutorial videos.

Here is a great read on Symfony CMS Sulu: Roland Golla - YouTube Playlist

MCP Server (Model Context Protocol)

AI-powered Sulu CMS content management via Claude. MCP allows Claude to read, create, update, and publish content blocks directly in Sulu.

How It Works

1. Bundle: Uses klapaudius/symfony-mcp-server for MCP protocol handling
2. Tool: SuluPagesTool exposes page/block operations to Claude
3. Service: PageService handles PHPCR database operations
4. OAuth: Self-hosted OAuth 2.1 with PKCE for remote access (Claude Chat)

Project Structure

src/
├── MCP/Tools/SuluPagesTool.php      # MCP tool interface
├── Sulu/Service/PageService.php      # PHPCR operations
├── Controller/McpOAuthController.php # OAuth endpoints
├── Service/McpOAuthService.php       # Token management
└── Entity/
    ├── McpAuthCode.php               # Auth code storage
    └── McpAccessToken.php            # Access token storage

Available Actions

Action	Description
list	List pages under path prefix
get	Get page with blocks
add_block	Add content block
update_block	Update block content
move_block	Reorder blocks
remove_block	Delete block
publish / unpublish	Control page visibility
update_resource_locator	Change the URL slug; the old URL becomes a 301 history route
move_page	Move a page under another parent; old URLs become 301 history routes
route_health / list_history_routes / check_url	Inspect routes and how the website answers a URL
list_redirects / create_redirect / update_redirect / delete_redirect	Manage SuluRedirectBundle redirects (301, 302, 307, 308, 410)

Page creation, publishing, URL changes and moves run Sulu's DocumentManager in a fresh console process (app:page:create, app:page:publish, app:page:set-url, app:page:move), so Sulu writes the routes in both workspaces. Pages created by the old MCP code need a one-off repair: bin/console nca:routes:repair --dry-run, then without --dry-run, then massive:search:reindex and cache:clear.

Local Development (Claude Code)

.mcp.json in project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sulu-ddev": {
      "command": "ddev",
      "args": ["exec", "php", "bin/console", "mcp:server"]
    }
  }
}

Remote Access (Claude Chat)

Connect to https://your-domain.com/mcp - OAuth discovery is automatic.

Required env vars:

MCP_PROJECT_PASSWORD=your-secure-password
MCP_PROJECT_NAME="Project Name"

Testing

Tests use mocked Doctrine\DBAL\Connection with sample PHPCR XML:

# Run MCP-related tests
ddev exec vendor/bin/phpunit tests/Unit/Sulu/Service/PageServiceTest.php

See tests/Unit/Sulu/Service/PageServiceTest.php for examples of testing block operations.

Running Tests

Execute PHP unit tests:

ddev exec vendor/bin/phpunit

Cache and Performance

Clear Symfony cache:

ddev exec bin/console cache:clear

Warm up cache:

ddev exec bin/console cache:warmup

Documentation

• Sulu Documentation
• Symfony Documentation
• DDEV Documentation