Laravel Boost

• Introduction
• Installation
  • Keeping Boost Resources Updated
  • Set Up Your Agents
• MCP Server
  • Available MCP Tools
  • Manually Registering the MCP Server
• AI Guidelines
  • Available AI Guidelines
  • Adding Custom AI Guidelines
  • Overriding Boost AI Guidelines
  • Third-Party Package AI Guidelines
• Agent Skills
  • Available Skills
  • Custom Skills
  • Overriding Skills
  • Third-Party Package Skills
• Guidelines vs. Skills
• Documentation API
• Extending Boost
  • Adding Support for Other IDEs / AI Agents

Introduction

Laravel Boost accelerates AI-assisted development by providing the essential guidelines and agent skills that help AI agents write high-quality Laravel applications that adhere to Laravel best practices.

Boost also provides a powerful Laravel ecosystem documentation API that combines a built-in MCP tool with an extensive knowledge base containing over 17,000 pieces of Laravel-specific information, all enhanced by semantic search capabilities using embeddings for precise, context-aware results. Boost instructs AI agents like Claude Code and Cursor to use this API to learn about the latest Laravel features and best practices.

Installation

Laravel Boost can be installed via Composer:

1composer require laravel/boost --dev

Next, install the MCP server and coding guidelines:

1php artisan boost:install

The boost:install command will generate the relevant agent guideline and skill files for the coding agents you selected during the installation process.

Once Laravel Boost has been installed, you're ready to start coding with Cursor, Claude Code, or your AI agent of choice.

Set Up Your Agents

Cursor

1. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Press enter on "/open MCP Settings"
3. Turn the toggle on for laravel-boost

Claude Code

Claude Code support is typically enabled automatically. If you find it isn't, open a shell in the project's directory and run the following command:

1claude mcp add -s local -t stdio laravel-boost php artisan boost:mcp

Codex

Codex support is typically enabled automatically. If you find it isn't, open a shell in the project's directory and run the following command:

1codex mcp add -- php artisan boost:mcp

Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI support is typically enabled automatically. If you find it isn't, open a shell in the project's directory and run the following command:

1gemini mcp add -s project -t stdio laravel-boost php artisan boost:mcp

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

1. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Press enter on "MCP: List Servers"
3. Arrow to laravel-boost and press enter
4. Choose "Start server"

Junie

1. Press shift twice to open the command palette
2. Search "MCP Settings" and press enter
3. Check the box next to laravel-boost
4. Click "Apply" at the bottom right

Keeping Boost Resources Updated

You may want to periodically update your local Boost resources (AI guidelines and skills) to ensure they reflect the latest versions of the Laravel ecosystem packages you have installed. To do so, you can use the boost:update Artisan command.

1php artisan boost:update

You may also automate this process by adding it to your Composer "post-update-cmd" scripts:

1{
2  "scripts": {
3    "post-update-cmd": [
4      "@php artisan boost:update --ansi"
5    ]
6  }
7}

MCP Server

Laravel Boost provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes tools for AI agents to interact with your Laravel application. These tools give agents the ability to inspect your application's structure, query the database, execute code, and more.

Available MCP Tools

Manually Registering the MCP Server

Sometimes you may need to manually register the Laravel Boost MCP server with your editor of choice. You should register the MCP server using the following details:

JSON example:

1{
2    "mcpServers": {
3        "laravel-boost": {
4            "command": "php",
5            "args": ["artisan", "boost:mcp"]
6        }
7    }
8}

AI Guidelines

AI guidelines are composable instruction files that are loaded upfront to provide AI agents with essential context about Laravel ecosystem packages. These guidelines contain core conventions, best practices, and framework-specific patterns that help agents generate consistent, high-quality code.

Available AI Guidelines

Laravel Boost includes AI guidelines for the following packages and frameworks. The core guidelines provide generic, generalized advice to the AI for the given package that is applicable across all versions.

Adding Custom AI Guidelines

To augment Laravel Boost with your own custom AI guidelines, add .blade.php or .md files to your application's .ai/guidelines/* directory. These files will automatically be included with Laravel Boost's guidelines when you run boost:install.

Overriding Boost AI Guidelines

You can override Boost's built-in AI guidelines by creating your own custom guidelines with matching file paths. When you create a custom guideline that matches an existing Boost guideline path, Boost will use your custom version instead of the built-in one.

For example, to override Boost's "Inertia React v2 Form Guidance" guidelines, create a file at .ai/guidelines/inertia-react/2/forms.blade.php. When you run boost:install, Boost will include your custom guideline instead of the default one.

Third-Party Package AI Guidelines

If you maintain a third-party package and would like Boost to include AI guidelines for it, you can do so by adding a resources/boost/guidelines/core.blade.php file to your package. When users of your package run php artisan boost:install, Boost will automatically load your guidelines.

AI guidelines should provide a short overview of what your package does, outline any required file structure or conventions, and explain how to create or use its main features (with example commands or code snippets). Keep them concise, actionable, and focused on best practices so AI can generate correct code for your users. Here is an example:

 1## Package Name
 2 
 3This package provides [brief description of functionality].
 4 
 5### Features
 6 
 7- Feature 1: [clear & short description].
 8- Feature 2: [clear & short description]. Example usage:
 9 
10@verbatim
11<code-snippet name="How to use Feature 2" lang="php">
12$result = PackageName::featureTwo($param1, $param2);
13</code-snippet>
14@endverbatim

Agent Skills

Agent Skills are lightweight, targeted knowledge modules that agents can activate on-demand when working on specific domains. Unlike guidelines, which are loaded upfront, skills allow detailed patterns and best practices to be loaded only when relevant, reducing context bloat and improving the relevance of AI-generated code.

When you run boost:install and select skills as a feature, skills are automatically installed based on the packages detected in your composer.json. For example, if your project includes livewire/livewire, the livewire-development skill will be installed automatically.

Available Skills

Custom Skills

To create your own custom skills, add a SKILL.md file to your application's .ai/skills/{skill-name}/ directory. When you run boost:update, your custom skills will be installed alongside Boost's built-in skills.

For example, to create a custom skill for your application's domain logic:

1.ai/skills/creating-invoices/SKILL.md

Overriding Skills

You can override Boost's built-in skills by creating your own custom skills with matching names. When you create a custom skill that matches an existing Boost skill name, Boost will use your custom version instead of the built-in one.

For example, to override Boost's livewire-development skill, create a file at .ai/skills/livewire-development/SKILL.md. When you run boost:update, Boost will include your custom skill instead of the default one.

Third-Party Package Skills

If you maintain a third-party package and would like Boost to include skills for it, you can do so by adding a resources/boost/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md file to your package. When users of your package run php artisan boost:install, Boost will automatically install your skills based on user preference.

Boost Skills support the Agent Skills format and should be structured as a folder containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and Markdown instructions. The SKILL.md file must include required frontmatter (name and description) and can optionally include scripts, templates, and reference materials.

Skills should outline any required file structure or conventions, and explain how to create or use its main features (with example commands or code snippets). Keep them concise, actionable, and focused on best practices so AI can generate correct code for your users:

 1---
 2name: package-name-development
 3description: Build and work with PackageName features, including components and workflows.
 4---
 5 
 6# Package Name Development
 7 
 8## When to use this skill
 9Use this skill when working with PackageName features...
10 
11## Features
12 
13- Feature 1: [clear & short description].
14- Feature 2: [clear & short description]. Example usage:
15 
16$result = PackageName::featureTwo($param1, $param2);

Guidelines vs. Skills

Laravel Boost provides two distinct ways to give AI agents context about your application: guidelines and skills.

Guidelines are loaded upfront when the AI agent starts, providing essential context about Laravel conventions and best practices that apply broadly across your codebase.

Skills are activated on-demand when working on specific tasks, containing detailed patterns for particular domains (like Livewire components or Pest tests). Loading skills only when relevant reduces context bloat and improves code quality.

Documentation API

Laravel Boost includes a Documentation API that provides AI agents with access to an extensive knowledge base containing over 17,000 pieces of Laravel-specific information. The API uses semantic search with embeddings to deliver precise, context-aware results.

The Search Docs MCP tool allows agents to query the Laravel hosted documentation API service to retrieve documentation based on your installed packages. Boost's AI guidelines and skills will automatically instruct your coding agent to use this API.

Extending Boost

Boost works with many popular IDEs and AI agents out of the box. If your coding tool isn't supported yet, you can create your own agent and integrate it with Boost.

Adding Support for Other IDEs / AI Agents

To add support for a new IDE or AI agent, create a class that extends Laravel\Boost\Install\Agents\Agent and implement one or more of the following contracts depending on what you need:

• Laravel\Boost\Contracts\SupportsGuidelines - Adds support for AI guidelines.
• Laravel\Boost\Contracts\SupportsMcp - Adds support for MCP.
• Laravel\Boost\Contracts\SupportsSkills - Adds support for Agent Skills.

Writing the Agent

 1<?php
 2 
 3declare(strict_types=1);
 4 
 5namespace App;
 6 
 7use Laravel\Boost\Contracts\SupportsGuidelines;
 8use Laravel\Boost\Contracts\SupportsMcp;
 9use Laravel\Boost\Contracts\SupportsSkills;
10use Laravel\Boost\Install\Agents\Agent;
11 
12class CustomAgent extends Agent implements SupportsGuidelines, SupportsMcp, SupportsSkills
13{
14    // Your implementation...
15}

For an example implementation, see ClaudeCode.php.

Registering the Agent

Register your custom agent in the boot method of your application's App\Providers\AppServiceProvider:

1use Laravel\Boost\Boost;
2 
3public function boot(): void
4{
5    Boost::registerAgent('customagent', CustomAgent::class);
6}

Once registered, your agent will be available for selection when running php artisan boost:install.