Local Laravel

First-class Laravel development environment for Local

View on GitHub

User Guide

Overview

Local Laravel brings first-class Laravel development to Local (by Flywheel). Create, develop, and manage Laravel applications with the same ease as WordPress sites, using Local’s bundled PHP, MySQL, and Nginx infrastructure.

Installation

The easiest way to install the addon.

  1. Go to the Releases page
  2. Download the .tgz file from the latest release (e.g., local-addon-laravel-0.0.1.tgz)
  3. Open Local
  4. Go to Add-ons (in the left sidebar)
  5. Click Install from disk (top right)
  6. Select the .tgz file you downloaded
  7. Toggle the addon ON to enable
  8. Click Relaunch when prompted

Method 2: Build from Source

For developers or contributors:

git clone https://github.com/jpollock/local-addon-laravel.git
cd local-addon-laravel
npm install
npm run build
npm run install-addon
# Restart Local, then enable the addon

Uninstallation

If installed from disk (Method 1)

  1. Open Local
  2. Go to Add-ons (in the left sidebar)
  3. Find Local Laravel
  4. Toggle it OFF
  5. Click the trash icon or Remove button
  6. Restart Local

If installed via npm script (Method 2)

cd local-addon-laravel
npm run uninstall-addon

Then restart Local.

Creating a Laravel Site

  1. Click + Create a new site in Local
  2. Select Laravel Project from the site type options
  3. Enter your site name and domain
  4. Choose your PHP version (8.2+ required) and Laravel configuration
  5. Click Create Site

Local Laravel will automatically:

Using the Laravel Panel

Once your Laravel site is running, access the Laravel-specific features:

  1. Open your Laravel site in Local
  2. Go to the Laravel tab in the site info panel
  3. Use the quick command buttons or enter custom Artisan commands
  4. View output directly in Local

Quick Commands

Command Description
migrate Run database migrations
migrate:fresh --seed Fresh migration with seeders
cache:clear Clear application cache
route:list List all registered routes
make:model Create a new Eloquent model
make:controller Create a new controller

Custom Artisan Commands

Enter any valid Artisan command in the text field and click Run. Output appears in the panel below.

Configuration

Laravel Versions

Local Laravel supports:

Starter Kits

When creating a new site, you can optionally include:

Kit Description
None Vanilla Laravel installation
Laravel Breeze Simple authentication scaffolding with Blade/Tailwind

More starter kits (Jetstream, Filament) coming in future releases.

Site Directory Structure

Your Laravel app lives in the standard Local site structure:

~/Local Sites/your-site/
├── app/
│   ├── public/          # Laravel's public directory (web root)
│   ├── app/             # Application code
│   ├── config/          # Configuration files
│   ├── database/        # Migrations, seeders, factories
│   ├── resources/       # Views, assets
│   ├── routes/          # Route definitions
│   ├── storage/         # Logs, cache, sessions
│   ├── tests/           # Test files
│   ├── .env             # Environment configuration
│   ├── artisan          # Artisan CLI
│   └── composer.json    # Dependencies
├── conf/                # Local's service configs
└── logs/                # Service logs

FAQ

Q: What PHP version do I need?

A: Laravel 11 requires PHP 8.2 or higher. Laravel 10 requires PHP 8.1+. Select the appropriate PHP version in Local’s site configuration.

Q: Can I use existing Laravel projects?

A: Currently, Local Laravel is designed for creating new Laravel projects. Support for importing existing projects is planned for a future release.

Q: Where are my Laravel logs?

A: Laravel’s application logs are in ~/Local Sites/your-site/app/storage/logs/laravel.log.

Q: How do I run npm commands for my frontend?

A: Use Local’s “Open Site Shell” feature to get a terminal in your site directory, then run npm install, npm run dev, etc.

Support