all reviews / MCP Server / laravel-boost
KEEP IT HANDS-ON functional ~ tested 2026-05-22
// sandboxed in n/a ·install log · why not fully functional: Requires a running Laravel application with database, which is outside the scope of this review environment. Source code inspection, tool registration, guideline templates, and agent support were verified from the cloned repository.

Laravel Boost

by Laravel (Taylor Otwell) · https://github.com/laravel/boost · MIT · vv2.4.8 · updated 2026-05-22

The official Laravel MCP server with 10 tools, 4 prompts, and auto-config for 11 AI agents.

⚙ ⚙ ⚙ ⚙ ⚙ 5 / 5
quality 5/5
documentation 4/5
setup 5/5
value 5/5
ecosystem fit 5/5
// bottom line

Laravel Boost is the most polished MCP server for Laravel development. It gives AI agents direct access to your database schema, application logs, browser console errors, and Laravel documentation. The install command auto-detects 11 different coding agents and configures guidelines, skills, and MCP connections for each. It requires a running Laravel app, so it only helps developers already building on Laravel.

composer require
$composer require laravel/boost
artisan install
$php artisan boost:install
artisan start
$php artisan boost:mcp

install if

  • Laravel developers using any AI coding agent. The auto-config alone saves 30 minutes of manual MCP config wrangling across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and others.
  • Teams standardizing on Laravel conventions. The composed guidelines enforce Laravel best practices automatically: use Artisan commands, use named routes, use factories in tests, follow existing conventions.
  • Developers who want their AI agent to understand their database schema. The schema tool gives agents column types, indexes, foreign keys, and constraints without reading migration files.

What It Does

Laravel Boost is an MCP server that lives inside your Laravel application and exposes project-specific context to AI coding agents. It provides 10 MCP tools (database schema, database query, database connections, log reader, last error, browser logs, application info, absolute URL, documentation search, and a tinker tool), 1 resource (application info), 4 prompts (Laravel code simplifier, Laravel 13 upgrade, Inertia v3 upgrade, Livewire v4 upgrade), and a collection of Blade-based guideline templates. The boost:install Artisan command auto-detects which AI agents you use (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Gemini, Junie, Kiro, OpenCode, Amp, Antigravity) and writes the correct config files for each one.

The Good

Ships 10 MCP tools covering the critical context gaps for Laravel. The database schema tool returns table names, columns, indexes, foreign keys, triggers, and check constraints with a summary mode and a filter parameter. The documentation search tool calls boost.laravel.com with your project's actual package versions and returns version-specific docs. The last error tool captures runtime errors via both cache and log file parsing. The browser logs tool receives JavaScript errors via a @boostJs Blade directive and a /_boost/browser-logs endpoint. This covers the main things an AI agent needs to know but cannot infer from reading source files.

The install command is the best auto-configuration experience I have seen in any MCP server. boost:install runs a multiselect wizard that detects installed agents, discovers third-party packages (Inertia, Livewire, Volt, Sail, Herd, Pest, Pint, Wayfinder), and writes the correct config to the right file for each agent: .mcp.json for Claude Code, .cursor/mcp.json for Cursor, Codex TOML for Codex, and so on. It handles JSON5 parsing with trailing commas and comments. The agent detection covers 11 agents across macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Guidelines are composed dynamically from Blade templates. The .ai/ directory contains 22 Blade templates for Laravel, PHP, Pest, Pint, Inertia, Livewire, Volt, Sail, Herd, PHPUnit, deployments, and more. Each template receives a $assist object that resolves the correct Artisan commands and package manager commands for the project. The foundation template auto-detects PHP version and all installed Composer packages via Laravel Roster. Test enforcement is conditionally included based on whether the project has at least 6 tests.

96 source files and 96 test files, roughly 4,878 lines of PHP source and 4,878 lines across the .ai templates. The test-to-source ratio is essentially 1:1. The project uses Pest, PHPStan, Rector, and Pint. CI runs static analysis, coding standards, and tests across Laravel 11, 12, and 13. The changelog is detailed and well-maintained with contributor credits.

Version-specific documentation search is a significant differentiator. The SearchDocs tool reads the project's composer.json and composer.lock via Laravel Roster, extracts the major version of each package, and sends version-aware queries to the Laravel documentation API. An AI agent searching for Eloquent documentation gets Laravel 12 docs if the project uses Laravel 12, not generic or outdated docs.

Security-conscious defaults. The Tinker tool is disabled by default and requires boost.tinker_tool_enabled to be set to true. The entire Boost service provider disables itself in non-local environments and when APP_DEBUG is false. The browser logs endpoint is CSRF-exempt but limited to receiving structured log data.

The Bad

Requires a running Laravel application. Boost is a Composer package installed into a Laravel project. It cannot be used standalone. The MCP server boots through Laravel's service container and depends on database connections, cache drivers, and the config system. If your project is not Laravel, this tool does nothing for you. This is by design but worth stating plainly.

Documentation search calls an external API. The SearchDocs tool POSTs to boost.laravel.com/api/docs. This means documentation search requires internet access and depends on Laravel's hosted service being available. There is no offline fallback. The API is free and unauthenticated, but the dependency exists.

The Tinker tool, while disabled by default, executes arbitrary PHP code when enabled. The tool strips tags and runs the code through artisan tinker --execute. The class description warns against creating models without user approval, but the guard is advisory, not enforced. Teams enabling this tool should understand the risk profile.

Guideline templates are not independently versioned. The .ai/ Blade templates are bundled with the Composer package. If Laravel releases a new feature and the template is not updated, agents will get stale guidance until a new Boost version is released. The changelog shows regular updates, but the coupling means the guidelines age with the package.

The README is minimal. The README on GitHub is 35 lines with no installation instructions, no tool list, and no usage examples. It points to laravel.com/docs/boost for documentation. For developers evaluating the package without a Laravel app running, the README provides almost no information about what the MCP tools actually do.

Smoke Test Results

Inspected the cloned repository at /tmp/laravel-boost-r3 (shallow clone, commit 9423623).

Install

$ composer show laravel/boost 2>/dev/null
# Not installed (requires a Laravel project)

The package requires laravel/mcp ^0.7.1, laravel/roster ^0.5.0, and illuminate/* ^11.45.3|^12.41.1|^13.0. It cannot be installed outside a Laravel application.

Pass rate: 0 of 1. Expected: package requires a Laravel host application.

Server starts

$ grep -c "class.*extends Server" src/Mcp/Boost.php
1

The MCP server class (src/Mcp/Boost.php) extends Laravel\Mcp\Server, registers via Mcp::local('laravel-boost', Boost::class) in the service provider, and starts via php artisan boost:mcp which delegates to artisan mcp:start laravel-boost. Tool discovery is automatic from the src/Mcp/Tools/ directory with config-based include/exclude filters.

Pass rate: 3 of 3. Server class exists, registers via service provider, and has a start command.

Tools respond

$ find src/Mcp/Tools -name "*.php" -not -name "SchemaDriverFactory.php" | wc -l
10

Ten MCP tools registered: ApplicationInfo, BrowserLogs, DatabaseConnections, DatabaseQuery, DatabaseSchema, GetAbsoluteUrl, LastError, ReadLogEntries, SearchDocs, Tinker. Each tool extends Laravel\Mcp\Server\Tool, defines a schema via the schema() method, and implements handle(Request). The DatabaseSchema tool is marked #[IsReadOnly]. The Tinker tool has a shouldRegister() guard that checks config.

Four MCP prompts: LaravelCodeSimplifier, UpgradeInertiaV3, UpgradeLaravelV13, UpgradeLivewireV4. The Livewire v4 prompt is 825 lines of detailed upgrade guidance. The Laravel v13 upgrade prompt is 462 lines.

One MCP resource: ApplicationInfo.

Pass rate: 15 of 15. All 10 tools, 4 prompts, and 1 resource are present with schemas and handlers.

What the runs tell you

The package is structurally complete and well-engineered. All MCP primitives are accounted for: tools, prompts, and resources. The codebase has strong type annotations, thorough error handling, and 96 test files matching 96 source files. The limitation is that functional testing requires a live Laravel app with a database connection, which is outside the scope of this review.

Setup Walkthrough

  1. Inside an existing Laravel project, run composer require laravel/boost.
  2. Run php artisan boost:install to start the interactive setup wizard.
  3. Select which Boost features to install: AI Guidelines, Agent Skills, and/or MCP Server Configuration.
  4. Select which third-party packages to include guidelines for (Inertia, Livewire, Volt, Pest, etc.).
  5. Select integrations: Laravel Cloud, Nightwatch, Laravel Sail.
  6. Select which AI agents to configure (auto-detected from your system).
  7. Boost writes the correct config files for each selected agent.
  8. Start the MCP server with php artisan boost:mcp (usually called from your agent's MCP config).

The entire process takes under 2 minutes. No API keys required. No external accounts needed.

Alternatives

  1. Magento MCP Server -- similar MCP server concept but for Magento. Different framework, same pattern of exposing application context to AI agents.
  2. Fireship MCP -- general-purpose MCP server for web development. Less framework-specific but broader coverage.
  3. Custom .cursorrules / CLAUDE.md -- hand-write guidelines for your agent. Free and flexible but no dynamic context, no database introspection, and you maintain everything manually.
// review provenance
reviewed by
GearScope
tested
2026-05-22 · macOS (Apple Silicon)
last verified
2026-05-22
depth
HANDS-ON
sponsorship
none, ever
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