---
layout: documentation
title: Kohana
---
# What is Kohana?

Kohana is an open source, [object oriented](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming) [MVC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model–view–controller "Model View Controller") [web framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_framework) built using [PHP5](http://php.net/manual/intro-whatis "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor") by a team of volunteers that aims to be swift, secure, and small.

[!!] Kohana is licensed under a [BSD license](https://github.com/koseven/koseven/blob/HEAD/LICENSE.md), so you can legally use it for any kind of open source, commercial, or personal project.

## What makes Kohana great?

Anything can be extended using the unique [filesystem](/documentation/kohana/files) design, little or no [configuration](/documentation/kohana/config) is necessary, [error handling](/documentation/kohana/errors) helps locate the source of errors quickly, and [debugging](/documentation/kohana/debugging) and [profiling](/documentation/kohana/profiling) provide insight into the application.

To help secure your applications, tools for [input validation](/documentation/kohana/security/validation), [signed cookies](/documentation/kohana/security/cookies), [form] and [HTML] generators are all included. The [database](/documentation/kohana/security/database) layer provides protection against [SQL injection](http://wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection). Of course, all official code is carefully written and reviewed for security.

## Contribute to the Documentation

We are working very hard to provide complete documentation. To help improve the guide, please [fork the userguide](http://github.com/kohana/userguide), make your changes, and send a pull request. If you are not familiar with Git, you can also submit a [feature request](https://github.com/koseven/koseven/issues) (requires registration).

## Unofficial Documentation

If you are having trouble finding an answer here, your answer may be found by searching the [forum](http://forum.kohanaframework.org/) or [Stack Overflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/kohana) followed by asking your question on either.  Additionally, you can chat with the community of developers on the freenode [#kohana](/documentation/kohana/irc://irc.freenode.net/kohana) IRC channel or by joining our [Telegram group](https://telegram.me/koseven).
