Getting Started with Laravel Boost: Features, Setup & Insights

AI is becoming a bigger part of the developer’s workflow every day, and Laravel just took a step to make that relationship even more seamless. At Laracon US, Ashley Hindle introduced Laravel Boost - a brand-new package built to give AI real Laravel superpowers.

We’ve all seen the problem: AI assistants can generate code fast, but too often it’s hallucinated methods, outdated docs, or vague suggestions that don’t quite fit a Laravel project. Laravel Boost tackles that head-on. With 15+ tools, version-specific documentation, and curated coding guidelines, it helps your AI stay grounded in the Laravel ecosystem, so instead of breaking your flow, it actually keeps you in it.

While Boost focuses on making AI-assisted development more effective inside your editor, Laravel's AI ecosystem includes other complementary tools. For example, Laravel MCP, for building your own MCP server, is designed for exposing your Laravel application as a tool server that AI clients and agents can interact with.

In this article, we’ll walk through what Laravel Boost is, how to install it (spoiler: it’s as simple as a Composer command), explore its toolbox, and share our take on what this could mean for Laravel developers moving forward.

What is Laravel Boost?

At its core, Boost is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server built just for Laravel.

While the AI SDK helps you ship AI features to users, Boost is developer-side tooling that feeds your coding assistant live context about your app.

It’s aimed at developers who want to:

• Stop manually setting up Copilot or Claude instruction files.
• Give AI access to Laravel-specific tools.
• Cut down on “AI hallucinations” by feeding it the right context.
  
  

The result is smarter code suggestions, faster problem-solving, and fewer headaches.

Installation guide

First of all, install Boost via Composer:

```

composer require laravel/boost --dev

```

Run the install command:

```

php artisan boost:install

```

Then you are just choosing the IDE, and everything gets configured magically. It's dead simple:

It added two files to my project:

• `.github\copilot-instructions.md`
•  `.vscode\mcp.json`

That’s it. You’re ready to code with AI guidance baked into your Laravel project. 

Exploring the 15 MCP Tools

Boost ships with a toolbox of 15 handy utilities your AI agent can use. Here’s the breakdown:

• Database Utilities
  • Inspect schema
  • Run queries
  • Check database connections
    
    
• Application Insights
  • Read PHP/Laravel versions
  • List installed packages
  • Show available Artisan commands
    
    
• Debugging Tools
  • Read log entries
  • Fetch the last error
  • Capture browser logs
    
    
• Utility Functions
  • Convert relative URLs to absolute
  • List routes
  • Get config/env values
    
    
• Feedback & Docs
  • Search Laravel docs (version-aware!)
  • Send direct feedback to the Laravel team
    
    

💡 Example: Imagine asking your AI assistant: “Generate a migration based on my current users schema.” Boost lets it inspect the schema first, then build the migration correctly - no guessing.

Laravel AI Guidelines

One of the most useful parts of Laravel Boost is its built-in AI guidelines.

These are pre-curated rule files that tell AI exactly how to behave inside Laravel projects. They cover:

• Laravel core (10.x, 11.x, 12.x)
• Livewire (2.x, 3.x)
• Filament (4.x)
• Inertia (1.x, 2.x for Vue and React)
• Flux, Tailwind, Pest, PHPUnit, Pint, and more

When you run boost:install, it automatically detects which stack you’re using and merges the right guidelines into one neat file.

For example, with a fresh Laravel project, Boost combined guidelines for:

• Boost core
• Laravel core
• Laravel v12
• PHP
• Pint

Instead of manually tweaking Copilot instructions, Boost handles it automatically and keeps everything in sync.

Insights from Use

In practice, the MCP server sometimes requires explicit instructions to trigger certain tools (like “query docs” or “list routes”). However, there are cases where it can act on its own, for instance, when asked about rate limiting, it automatically searched the documentation and provided a solid answer. Here is a tool use example from VS Code:

Over time, the AI guidelines have proven to be the standout feature. For developers working with Laravel and AI agents, having well-structured, pre-defined rules is a real game changer. Previously, these guidelines had to be maintained manually, often with mixed results. With Laravel Boost, the process is far more reliable.

Most importantly, the results speak for themselves: the generated code feels cleaner, more aligned with best practices, and noticeably less error-prone.

Conclusion

Laravel Boost isn’t just another package - it feels like the start of a new way for developers to work with AI in Laravel. With its 15 built-in tools, version-aware documentation, and smart guidelines that install in a single command, Boost gives your AI assistant the context it’s always been missing.

Sure, it’s still early and there’s plenty of room for it to grow. But even now, it already saves time, produces cleaner code, and makes development feel more seamless. It’s a meaningful first step toward truly blending AI with Laravel - the framework that’s all about productivity.

Why not give it a try? Install Boost, connect your AI agent, and see how it changes your workflow.