Laravel Get Started

Create a project

You need PHP 8.3+ and Composer (PHP's package manager). Then:

composer create-project laravel/laravel blog
cd blog
php artisan serve          # http://127.0.0.1:8000

Or install the Laravel installer once (composer global require laravel/installer) and run laravel new blog, which offers starter kits (React, Vue, Livewire) with authentication ready.

The folder structure

Artisan

php artisan lists every command. You'll use these constantly:

php artisan make:model Post -mfc     # model + migration + factory + controller
php artisan migrate                  # run migrations
php artisan route:list               # show all routes
php artisan tinker                   # an interactive shell inside your app
php artisan test                     # run the test suite

Configuration and environment

Settings come from config/*.php, which read .env values with env(). In your code, always use config('...'), never env() directly, so configuration caching works in production.

<?php
echo 'Laravel version: ', app()->version(), "\n";
echo 'Environment: ', app()->environment(), "\n";
echo 'Timezone: ', config('app.timezone'), "\n";
echo 'Default cache store: ', config('cache.default'), "\n";
echo 'Is this the production environment? ', app()->isProduction() ? 'yes' : 'no', "\n";

Laravel version: 13.38.0
Environment: local
Timezone: UTC
Default cache store: array
Is this the production environment? no