phorge-phorge/src/docs/introduction.diviner

@title Introduction
@group intro

This document provides a high-level overview of the Phabricator project.

= What is Phabricator? =

**Phabricator** (pronounced like the word //fabricator//) is a suite of web
applications which make it easier to build software, particularly when working
with teams. Phabricator is largely based on Facebook's internal tools.

The major components of Phabricator are:

  - **Differential**, a code review tool; and
  - **Diffusion**, a repository browser; and
  - **Maniphest**, a bug tracker; and
  - **Phriction**, a wiki.

Phabricator also includes a number of smaller tools.

= Why use Phabricator? =

Phabricator gives you a box of solid tools for a comparatively small setup cost.
The tools all work together and are richly integrated. The whole thing is free
and open source. You own all your data. Phabricator is extremely fast and proven
to scale both to large datasets (Facebook has 500,000+ commits across many
repositories) and large organizations (Facebook has 500+ fulltime engineers).
Phabricator's tools are easy to learn, understand, and use.

However, Phabricator may also not be a good solution for you:

  - If you develop primarily on Windows, you are likely to find integration
    with the toolsets you use lacking.
  - If you don't use SVN, Git or Mercurial, you'll have to add support for your
    VCS before you can get anywhere.
  - If you loathe PHP, well, it's written in PHP. Sorry. It is a victim of
    circumstances. We assert it is well-written PHP, at least.

= Next Steps =

Continue by:

  - installing Phabricator with the @{article:Installation Guide}.