Notes on Laravel Sail, Docker, and local dev.
Practical writing on the things that come up when you actually run Laravel projects locally. No filler, no SEO sludge.
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Laravel Sail vs Valet vs Herd: which one should you use in 2026?
An honest comparison of the three main local Laravel dev environments on macOS. What each one does well, where each one struggles, and how to pick.
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What is Laravel Sail? A practical guide for 2026
Laravel Sail is the official Docker-based local development environment for Laravel. Here's what it does, when to use it, and how it compares to Valet and Herd.
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Running Horizon, queue:work, and schedule:run in Laravel Sail
Long-running workers without juggling terminal tabs. How to add Horizon, queue workers, and the scheduler to your Laravel Sail setup, and how to make them start automatically.
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How to use .test domains with Laravel Sail (without editing /etc/hosts)
Real local URLs like http://shop.test for Laravel Sail. Three approaches: a managed setup, dnsmasq + Traefik, and /etc/hosts. Which one to pick and why.
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How to add services to Laravel Sail (MySQL, Redis, Mailpit, and more)
Adding databases, caches, search engines, and other services to a Laravel Sail project. The official sail:install --with command, plus how to add custom services later.
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How to run multiple Laravel Sail projects at the same time
Out of the box, Sail pins every project to port 80, 3306, and 6379. Here are three ways to run multiple Laravel projects simultaneously, from one-click to full DIY.