Using the Iconify API

Don’t want to download anything? The Iconify API provider gives you access to 200,000+ icons across 200+ sets: just register a prefix and start rendering. Icons are fetched over HTTP on first use and cached locally from that point on.

Getting started

$manager = SwarmIconsConfig::create()
    ->addIconifySet('heroicons')
    ->addIconifySet('tabler')
    ->cachePath(__DIR__ . '/cache/icons')
    ->build();

echo $manager->get('heroicons:home');
echo $manager->get('tabler:star');

No downloads, no JSON files, no manifest. The tradeoff is that your app needs internet access the first time it encounters each icon.

What happens on a request

The first time you render an icon, the provider checks the cache. On a miss, it makes a single HTTP request to the Iconify API, builds the Icon object, stores it in cache, and returns it. Every request after that resolves from disk:

swarm_icon('heroicons:home')
  → cache hit?  → return immediately
  → cache miss? → GET api.iconify.design/heroicons.json?icons=home
                 → cache the result
                 → return SVG

The default TTL is 0: cache forever. That means each icon is fetched exactly once, ever.

Multi-host fallback

If the primary API host is down, the provider automatically tries two mirrors in sequence:

1. https://api.iconify.design (primary)
2. https://api.simplesvg.com
3. https://api.unisvg.com

You don’t need to configure this: it happens transparently.

Pre-warming the cache

If you’d rather avoid runtime HTTP entirely, you can pre-fetch icons during deployment. The cache:warm command batches everything into a single request:

php vendor/bin/swarm-icons cache:warm --prefix=heroicons --icons=home,user,star,settings

You can also batch-fetch programmatically:

$provider->fetchMany(['home', 'user', 'star', 'settings']);

After warming, those icons resolve from cache with zero latency.

Tradeoffs

This provider is ideal for prototyping and development: you get instant access to any Iconify set with no setup. But there are limits to be aware of:

• The first request for each icon has HTTP latency
• Your app needs internet access (at least on first use, unless you pre-warm)
• all() returns an empty array: the API has no list endpoint

For production, JSON Collections are usually the better fit. You can also combine both with a Hybrid Provider (local files first, API as a safety net).

Popular sets

A few commonly used sets to get you started:

Prefix	Set	Icons
bi	Bootstrap Icons	2,000+
bx	Boxicons	1,600+
carbon	Carbon Icons	2,000+
fa7-brands	Font Awesome 7 Brands	586+
fa7-regular	Font Awesome 7 Regular	272+
fa7-solid	Font Awesome 7 Solid	1,999+
flowbite	Flowbite Icons	500+
fluent	Fluent UI Icons	14,000+
heroicons	Heroicons	300+
icon-park-outline	IconPark Outline	2,600+
iconoir	Iconoir	1,600+
ion	Ionicons	1,300+
line-md	Material Line Icons	300+
lucide	Lucide	1,500+
mdi	Material Design Icons	7,000+
mingcute	MingCute Icons	2,800+
octicon	GitHub Octicons	600+
ph	Phosphor Icons	7,000+
ri	Remix Icons	2,800+
simple-icons	Simple Icons	3,000+
solar	Solar Icons	7,500+
tabler	Tabler Icons	5,000+
uil	Unicons Line	1,200+

Browse all 200+ sets from the CLI:

php vendor/bin/swarm-icons json:browse