Optimally creating a fresh Laravel project

Every time I'm installing a fresh Laravel project, I find myself following the same steps over and over again. As I've written them out (so it's easier for me to execute them without forgetting anything), I see nothing but advantages with sharing it. Eager to learn from your feedback!

Keep in mind, this is an opinionated (it's all about what I think is standardly needed in setting up a fresh project) recipe. Though originally written down for a Laravel 9 project, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work for a Laravel 10 project.

A. Basic installation

1. Install the app scaffolding

composer create-project laravel/laravel PROJECTNAME
cd PROJECTNAME

2. Replace README.md with a correct version (tip: readme.so, makeareadme.com), update the top section of composer.json, so that it reflects this project.

3. Initialise a fresh git repository

git init 
git add . 
git commit -m "START :seedling: Initial commit"

And connect it to Github to ensure backup.

4. Create database + update .env + test connection by migrating

php artisan migrate

5. Install Breeze (for authentication and ready-made Tailwind scaffolding & Vite)

composer require laravel/breeze --dev 
php artisan breeze:install 

This will also trigger an npm install. Next commit changes:

git add . & git commit -m "FEATURE :sparkles: Add & install Breeze"

6. Installing tooling* for local development

composer require spatie/laravel-ray 
composer require barryvdh/laravel-debugbar --dev

Add HELO settings to .env (and .env.example).

Add some extra security

composer require --dev roave/security-advisories:dev-latest

And commit those changes:

git add . & git commit -m "FEATURE :sparkles: Add development tooling"

Disclaimer: both myray.app and usehelo.com are paid tools, but they are so good that I can't miss them.

7. Make sure that the front-end assets are up-to-date. Get latest version of Tailwind CSS (and include the modules)

npm install -D tailwindcss@latest @tailwindcss/typography@latest @tailwindcss/forms@latest @tailwindcss/aspect-ratio@latest @tailwindcss/line-clamp@latest postcss@latest autoprefixer@latest

Get the latest version of Vite & AlpineJs

npm install -D vite@latest laravel-vite-plugin@latest
npm install alpinejs@latest

Update resource/app.js (basically I remove the bootstrap.js, as I typically don't need any axios functionality) to look like:

import Alpine from 'alpinejs' 
window.Alpine = Alpine 
Alpine.start()

And commit changes:

git add . & git commit -m "UPDATE :package: Bump to latest versions of the packages"

B. Add proprietary tooling

Of course not disclosed here :-). But this is where I import my back-end admin tooling that is being used in almost every project

C. Correct language settings

1. Set the correct main language in \config\app.php. (keys: locale, fallback_locale & faker_locale).

2. Install and use laravel-lang/lang to assure that all the boilerplate (auth, validation etc) is in the correct language for the app - nl in the snippet below

composer require laravel-lang/lang --dev
composer require laravel-lang/publisher laravel-lang/lang laravel-lang/attributes --dev
php artisan lang:add nl

3. And commit changes:

git add . & git commit -m "FEATURE:sparkles: Correct language settings"

Where to take it from here?

Of course I could go even faster by creating my own application scaffolding and start from that boilerplate. So that, after a clean install, I'm immediately at the end of this article by typing composer create-project myorganisation/laravel_scaffolding PROJECTNAME. I choose not to do this, as I like to stay as close as possible to the original core application at any time. And often there are small nuances in the scripts to execute. So a recipe to follow currently still is my preferred way of working.

Did you spot mistakes, or things I forgot? Feel free to let me know!