Laravel Host

Serve your current Laravel application on your local network/LAN by default, making it easily accessible from other devices (like smartphones, tablets, or other development machines) on the same Wi-Fi.

Installation

You can install the package via Composer:

composer require ajaydhakal/laravel-host

The package will automatically register its service provider using Laravel's package auto-discovery.

Usage

To start serving your application on your local network:

php artisan host

This will run the built-in development server and output details similar to:

Laravel Host is running

Local:
  http://127.0.0.1:8000

Network:
  http://192.168.1.12:8000

Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Make sure your firewall allows incoming connections on port 8000.
The terminal must remain open while serving.

Custom Port

You can specify a custom port with the --port option:

php artisan host --port=8080

Custom Host

You can customize the host bind address with the --host option (defaults to 0.0.0.0):

php artisan host --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080

Production Warning

By default, the command prevents running in a production environment (APP_ENV=production) to safeguard against accidental exposure. If you explicitly want to run it in production, pass the --force option:

php artisan host --force

Configuration

If you want to customize default settings, you can publish the configuration file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=laravel-host-config

This will create a config/host.php file:

return [
    'host' => env('LARAVEL_HOST_ADDRESS', '0.0.0.0'),
    'port' => env('LARAVEL_HOST_PORT', 8000),
    'allow_production' => env('LARAVEL_HOST_ALLOW_PRODUCTION', false),
];

You can define these settings directly in your .env file:

LARAVEL_HOST_ADDRESS=0.0.0.0
LARAVEL_HOST_PORT=8000
LARAVEL_HOST_ALLOW_PRODUCTION=false

Troubleshooting & Important Notes

• Local Development Only: This package uses PHP's built-in web server. It is meant only for local development and testing. Do not use it in place of production web servers like Nginx, Apache, or PHP-FPM.
• Same Wi-Fi/LAN: To access the application on other devices using the Network URL, all devices must be connected to the exact same Wi-Fi network or Local Area Network (LAN).
• Firewall Restrictions: If other devices are unable to connect to the Network URL, verify your machine's firewall settings. Ensure that incoming connections on the selected port (e.g., 8000) are allowed.
• IP Bind (0.0.0.0 vs 127.0.0.1): To listen on all network interfaces, the host must be set to 0.0.0.0. If set to 127.0.0.1, the server will only accept requests from the local machine.
• Busy Ports: If the selected port is already in use by another service, the command will automatically detect it and suggest trying another port (e.g., 8081).

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.