Dispatcher

The Dispatcher sits at the centre of every request. It matches the route, resolves all controller method parameters, invokes the method, and converts the return value into a PSR-7 response.

Parameter Resolution

Parameters are resolved in priority order:

Condition	Resolution
Parameter has #[Guards(GuardClass::class)]	Guard is instantiated and resolve($request) is called
Type is ServerRequestInterface	The raw PSR-7 request is injected
Type is UploadedFileInterface	The uploaded file matching the parameter name is injected
Name matches a route segment (/users/{id})	Value is cast to int, float, bool, or string
Type is a class annotated with #[Dto]	Body is decoded and hydrated+validated via the Hydrator
Type is any other non-builtin class	Resolved via $container->make()
Name matches a query parameter	Value is cast and injected
Parameter has a default value	Default is used

Response Building

The return value of the controller method determines the response:

Return type	Response
ResponseInterface	Returned as-is
null / void	Empty body with the route’s status code
array	JSON-encoded, Content-Type: application/json
Object annotated with #[ResponseDto]	Serialized to array by the Serializer, then JSON-encoded

Guards

Guards let you authenticate or authorise a request and inject the resolved principal into the controller:

use Antares\Http\Attributes\Guards;

final class JwtGuard
{
    public function __construct(private readonly JwtService $jwt) {}

    public function resolve(ServerRequestInterface $request): AuthUser
    {
        $token = ltrim($request->getHeaderLine('Authorization'), 'Bearer ');
        return $this->jwt->decode($token) ?? throw new HttpException(401, 'Unauthorized');
    }
}

#[Post('/posts', 201)]
public function store(
    #[Guards(JwtGuard::class)] AuthUser $user,
    CreatePostRequest $request,
): PostResponse {
    // $user is the decoded JWT principal
}

The guard runs before any other parameter is resolved. If it throws, the request is rejected immediately.

ResponseBag

Set response headers from anywhere in your application:

use Antares\Http\ResponseBag;

ResponseBag::header('X-Request-Id', uniqid());
ResponseBag::header('X-Rate-Limit-Remaining', '99');

Headers are applied to the final response and cleared after each request.