# What is Kohana?

Kohana is an open source, [object oriented](http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-Oriented_Programming) [MVC](http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Model–View–Controller "Model View Controller") [web framework](http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_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](http://kohanaframework.org/license), 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](about.filesystem) design, little or no [configuration](about.configuration) is necessary, [error handling](debugging.errors) helps locate the source of errors quickly, and [debugging](debugging) and [profiling](debugging.profiling) provide insight into the application.

To help secure your applications, tools for [XSS removal](security.xss), [input validation](security.validation), [signed cookies](security.cookies), [form](security.forms) and [HTML](security.html) generators are all included. The [database](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](http://dev.kohanaframework.org/projects/kohana3/issues) (requires registration).

## Unofficial Documentation

If you are having trouble finding an answer here, have a look through the [unofficial wiki](http://kerkness.ca/wiki/doku.php). Your answer may also be found by searching the [forum](http://forum.kohanaphp.com/) or [stackoverflow](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](irc://irc.freenode.net/kohana) IRC channel.  