Using Laravel Boost With DDEV

Set up Laravel Boost as an MCP server inside DDEV, with a WSL configuration for Windows users.

Ahnii!

Laravel Boost is an official MCP server that gives AI coding agents deep context about your Laravel application — routes, schema, logs, config, and more. If you develop with DDEV, Boost runs inside the container, and your editor just needs to know how to reach it.

This post covers the standard DDEV setup and the extra step needed for WSL.

Prerequisites

• A Laravel project running in DDEV
• An editor that supports MCP (Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, etc.)

Install Boost

From your project root:

ddev composer require laravel/boost --dev
ddev artisan boost:install

The install command generates guideline and skill files for your chosen AI agent. You can add these generated files to .gitignore since boost:install recreates them.

Configure the MCP Server

Standard Setup (Linux / macOS)

Create a .mcp.json in your project root:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "laravel-boost": {
            "command": "ddev",
            "args": [
                "artisan",
                "boost:mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

That's it. DDEV provides ddev artisan as a shorthand for ddev exec php artisan, so the config stays minimal. It runs boost:mcp inside the container and exposes it over stdio to your editor.

WSL Setup (Windows)

If your editor runs on Windows but your DDEV project lives in WSL, the editor can't call ddev directly. Wrap the command with wsl.exe and point cwd to the WSL project path:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "laravel-boost": {
            "command": "wsl.exe",
            "args": [
                "ddev",
                "artisan",
                "boost:mcp"
            ],
            "cwd": "/home/your-user/dev/your-project"
        }
    }
}

wsl.exe bridges from Windows into your default WSL distro, where ddev is available on the PATH. The cwd tells it which directory to run from so DDEV picks up the right project.

If you use a non-default distro, add -d your-distro before ddev in the args array.

Verify It Works

Open your editor and ask the AI agent something project-specific, like "What routes does this app have?" or "Show me the database schema." If Boost is connected, the agent will use its tools to answer from your actual application state instead of guessing.

You can also check the available tools directly. In Claude Code:

claude mcp list

You should see laravel-boost with its 15+ tools listed.

Keeping Boost Updated

When you update Laravel or your dependencies:

ddev composer update laravel/boost
ddev artisan boost:update

Or add boost:update to your Composer post-update-cmd scripts to automate it.

Baamaapii