laravel-sail

name	laravel-sail
description	Laravel Sail Docker development environment patterns.

Laravel Sail

Overview

Laravel Sail is a lightweight CLI for interacting with Laravel's Docker development environment.

Installation

New Project

curl -s "https://laravel.build/my-app" | bash
cd my-app
./vendor/bin/sail up -d

Existing Project

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

Basic Commands

Start/Stop

# Start in background
./vendor/bin/sail up -d

# Stop
./vendor/bin/sail down

# Stop and remove volumes
./vendor/bin/sail down -v

Running Commands

# Artisan
./vendor/bin/sail artisan migrate

# Composer
./vendor/bin/sail composer require package

# NPM
./vendor/bin/sail npm install
./vendor/bin/sail npm run dev

# PHP
./vendor/bin/sail php script.php

# Tinker
./vendor/bin/sail tinker

Testing

./vendor/bin/sail test
./vendor/bin/sail pest

Shell Alias

Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

alias sail='[ -f sail ] && sh sail || sh vendor/bin/sail'

Then use:

sail up -d
sail artisan migrate
sail npm run dev

Services

Available Services

• MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB
• Redis, Memcached
• Meilisearch
• MinIO (S3-compatible storage)
• Mailpit (email testing)
• Selenium (browser testing)

Add Services

php artisan sail:add
# Select services interactively

Environment Variables

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=sail
DB_PASSWORD=password

REDIS_HOST=redis

Docker Compose

Custom Configuration

php artisan sail:publish

Edit docker-compose.yml for custom configuration.

Build Custom Image

./vendor/bin/sail build --no-cache

Common Issues

Port Conflicts

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  laravel.test:
    ports:
      - '${APP_PORT:-8080}:80'  # Change 80 to 8080

Permission Issues

sail root-shell
chown -R sail:sail /var/www/html/storage

Best Practices

✅ Use Sail for local development ✅ Add shell alias for convenience ✅ Match production services locally

❌ Don't use Sail in production ❌ Don't commit Docker volumes