{"id":1585,"date":"2026-08-26T00:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectimmerse.com\/blog\/?p=1585"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:44:13","slug":"setting-up-a-new-laravel-app-a-real-walkthrough-including-the-part-that-broke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectimmerse.com\/blog\/setting-up-a-new-laravel-app-a-real-walkthrough-including-the-part-that-broke\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting Up a New Laravel App: A Real Walkthrough (Including the Part That Broke)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Setting<\/a>
A practical walkthrough of setting up a new Laravel application from scratch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every Laravel tutorial makes setup look like a single copy-paste command and then, poof, you’re building an app. In practice, it’s usually one command plus one confusing red X you have to Google. Here’s exactly what happened when I set up a fresh Laravel project on my Mac, from having zero PHP tooling installed to actually running the dev server \u2014 including the one step that failed and what it turned out to mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was following along with the official Learn Laravel from Scratch [FULL BOOTCAMP COURSE]<\/a> on YouTube, which walks through building a full-stack app from a completely empty machine. It’s a solid starting point if you want to follow the exact same steps \u2014 just know that the setup section is where things can get a little bumpy depending on what’s already on your computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Starting From Scratch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before installing anything, it’s worth checking what’s already on your machine. A quick round of version checks told me exactly where I stood:<\/p>\n\n\n

\nphp -v\ncomposer -V\nlaravel --version\nnpm -v\nbun -v\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
The results: no PHP, no Composer, no Laravel installer CLI. npm was already there. Nothing was broken \u2014 the machine just hadn’t been set up for Laravel development yet, which is a completely normal place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Installing PHP, Composer, and the Laravel CLI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rather than hunting through Homebrew formulas and half-outdated tutorials, Laravel now maintains a one-line installer at php.new<\/code> that sets up PHP, Composer, and the Laravel installer together, with sane defaults. For macOS, that’s:<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\/bin\/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https:\/\/php.new\/install\/mac\/8.5)"\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
(Linux and Windows have their own equivalent commands on the same page.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing worth knowing ahead of time: after running this, your current terminal session won’t recognize the new commands right away. You need to close and reopen your terminal, or open a new tab, so your shell reloads its PATH. It’s the classic “have you tried turning it off and on again” \u2014 except this time it’s your terminal, and yes, you genuinely do have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After restarting, a quick check confirmed everything was in place:<\/p>\n\n\n
\ncomposer -V\n# Composer version 2.8.12\n\nlaravel --version\n# Laravel Installer 5.31.1\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Creating the Application<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
With the tooling installed, creating the app itself came down to a single command:<\/p>\n\n\n
\nlaravel new chirper --database=sqlite --react --npm --boost --no-interaction\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
That one command handles a surprising amount:<\/p>\n\n\n\n