Laravel LSP — extending IDE features via the Language Server Protocol

This article is initial research on v0.0.19, as of June 2026. Because it isn’t registered on Packagist yet, you can’t install it via Composer.

What is Laravel LSP?

Laravel LSP (Language Server Protocol) is Laravel’s official tool that brings framework-aware IDE features to your editor. The Language Server Protocol is a standard protocol for communication between an LSP client (your editor) and an LSP server (Laravel LSP), enabling a unified development experience across multiple editors. Features provided by Laravel LSP:

Completion — Auto-complete routes, views, config keys, translation keys, Livewire components, and more
Hover info — Show descriptions, documentation, and context info when hovering
Diagnostics — Detect issues in your code in real time
Document links — Link between files and resources
Quick fixes — Auto-fix suggestions for common issues
Go to definition — Jump to a symbol’s definition

Why you need it

The editor’s built-in PHP completion doesn’t understand the Laravel framework’s abstraction layers. For example:

No completion for the URI pattern as the first argument of Route::get()
Entering a view name in view('users.index') doesn’t complete against actual view files
Config keys (config('app.name')) and translation keys (trans('messages.welcome')) aren’t included in completion
Completion and validation inside Blade templates aren’t supported by default

Laravel LSP understands these “framework-specific contexts” and provides accurate completion and diagnostics.

Installation

Global installation

Install globally with Composer:

composer global require laravel/lsp

Make sure Composer’s global bin directory is on your PATH. You can then start it with:

laravel-lsp

Installation from source

To use the development version, clone the repository and run it:

gh repo clone laravel/lsp
cd lsp
composer install
php server

Set up a shell alias so you can use the laravel-lsp command:

# For Zsh
echo 'alias laravel-lsp="php /path/to/lsp/server"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# For Bash
echo 'alias laravel-lsp="php /path/to/lsp/server"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Editor configuration guides

Because Laravel LSP uses the standard LSP protocol, it works with any editor that supports LSP. Here are configurations for major editors.

Sublime Text

Install the LSP package, then add a client config via Preferences: LSP Settings:

{
    "clients": {
        "laravel-lsp": {
            "enabled": true,
            "command": ["laravel-lsp"],
            "selector": "embedding.php | text.html.blade"
        }
    }
}

Neovim

On Neovim 0.11+, you can add a custom LSP configuration directly:

vim.lsp.config("laravel_lsp", {
    cmd = { "laravel-lsp" },
    filetypes = { "php", "blade" },
    root_markers = { "artisan", "composer.json", ".git" },
})

vim.lsp.enable("laravel_lsp")

If you use nvim-lspconfig, register it like this:

local lspconfig = require("lspconfig")
local configs = require("lspconfig.configs")

if not configs.laravel_lsp then
    configs.laravel_lsp = {
        default_config = {
            cmd = { "laravel-lsp" },
            filetypes = { "php", "blade" },
            root_dir = lspconfig.util.root_pattern("artisan", "composer.json", ".git"),
        },
    }
end

lspconfig.laravel_lsp.setup({})

Cursor

Cursor supports VS Code extensions, so if the Laravel extension is installed it’s automatically supported. For local development, use a VS Code-compatible LSP client and specify the command:

laravel-lsp

VS Code

VS Code likewise has LSP client capabilities and can be configured through extensions.

OpenCode

Enable LSP support in opencode.json and configure Laravel LSP as a custom server:

{
    "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
    "lsp": {
        "laravel-lsp": {
            "command": ["laravel-lsp"],
            "extensions": [".php", ".blade.php"]
        }
    }
}

Configuring with the GitHub Copilot CLI

When using the GitHub Copilot CLI, you can configure it globally in ~/.copilot/lsp-config.json. No separate editor configuration is required:

{
  "lspServers": {
    "laravel-lsp": {
      "command": "laravel-lsp",
      "fileExtensions": {
        ".php": "php",
        ".blade.php": "blade"
      }
    }
  }
}

Copilot CLI’s LSP server configuration also supports initializationOptions, so you can use all the detailed settings described below.

Configuration options

LSP clients can pass detailed configuration to Laravel LSP through initializationOptions.

PHP environment detection

The phpEnvironment option controls the PHP command used to index project data. The default is auto, which auto-detects:

Value	PHP command behavior
`auto`	Try Herd → Valet → Sail → Lando → DDEV → local PHP in order
`herd`	Uses `herd which-php`
`valet`	Uses `valet which-php`
`sail`	Uses `./vendor/bin/sail php` while Sail is running
`lando`	Uses `lando php`
`ddev`	Uses `ddev php`
`local`	Uses the local PHP binary directly

If detection fails or an invalid value is passed, it falls back to php.

Basic configuration example

{
    "phpEnvironment": "auto",
    "phpCommand": ["php"],
    "definitionProvider": false
}

Per-feature configuration

Each feature can be individually enabled or disabled. Suffixes include Completion, Diagnostics, Hover, Link, and so on:

{
    "routeCompletion": true,
    "routeDiagnostics": true,
    "viewDiagnostics": false,
    "translationHover": true,
    "configLink": true,
    "envCompletion": true,
    "bladeComponentLink": true
}

Provided features overview

Feature area	Completion	Hover	Diagnostics	Link	Quick fixes
Routes	✓	✓	✓	✓	-
Views & Blade	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Translation	✓	✓	-	-	-
Config	✓	✓	✓	✓	-
Env variables	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Assets & Mix	✓	✓	✓	✓	-
Middleware	✓	✓	✓	✓	-
Inertia	✓	-	✓	✓	-
Livewire	✓	✓	-	✓	-
Auth & Policies	✓	✓	✓	✓	-
Container Bindings	✓	✓	✓	✓	-
Validation	✓	-	-	-	-
Controller Actions	✓	-	✓	✓	-
Eloquent	✓	-	-	-	-

Quick start

Install — composer global require laravel/lsp
Configure your editor — see the per-editor guides above
Open a Laravel project — the server indexes project data from the root: routes, views, translations, config, etc.
Use completion — framework-aware completion works automatically inside PHP files and Blade templates

Summary

Laravel LSP significantly improves the developer experience. It understands framework-specific context that the editor’s default features can’t, and delivers more accurate and useful completion and diagnostics. Requirements:

PHP 8.2 or later
Composer
An LSP-capable editor (Sublime Text, Neovim, Cursor, VS Code, etc.)

References:

​What is Laravel LSP?

​Why you need it

​Installation

​Global installation

​Installation from source

​Editor configuration guides

​Sublime Text

​Neovim

​Cursor

​VS Code

​OpenCode

​Configuring with the GitHub Copilot CLI

​Configuration options

​PHP environment detection

​Basic configuration example

​Per-feature configuration

​Provided features overview

​Quick start

​Summary

What is Laravel LSP?

Why you need it

Installation

Global installation

Installation from source

Editor configuration guides

Sublime Text

Neovim

Cursor

VS Code

OpenCode

Configuring with the GitHub Copilot CLI

Configuration options

PHP environment detection

Basic configuration example

Per-feature configuration

Provided features overview

Quick start

Summary