Custom Laravel Community Starter Kits: Extending the Installer

Overview of Community Starter Kits

Laravel 12 has introduced a paradigm shift in how developers initialize projects. With the release of Laravel Installer, users can now bypass official defaults in favor of community-crafted scaffolds. This feature addresses a common pain point: the desire for specific tech stacks—like pure Blade without Livewire or React—that the official Laravel starter kits may not prioritize. By leveraging the --using parameter, the installer now acts as a flexible bridge to the wider ecosystem.

Prerequisites and Requirements

Before utilizing this feature, ensure you have the Laravel Installer version 5.14 or higher. Familiarity with Composer, PHP 8.2+, and the terminal is essential. If you intend to build your own kit, your repository must be a full Laravel application—not a package—and must be hosted on Packagist.

Key Libraries & Tools

• Laravel Installer 5.14: The command-line tool that facilitates the --using flag.
• Tony Lee's Registry: A curated repository by Tony Lee listing available community kits.
• Packagist: The primary PHP package repository where these starter kits must reside.
• Laravel 12: The underlying framework version supported by these new scaffolds.

Code Walkthrough: Implementing Custom Kits

To install a specific community kit, use the following syntax in your terminal:

laravel new my-project --using="vendor/package"

Behind the scenes, the installer modifies the standard composer create-project command. It replaces the default Laravel repository URL with the one you provided. This bypasses the standard setup prompts for Laravel Breeze or Laravel Jetstream.

For kit creators, your composer.json must include a post-create-project-cmd to handle setup tasks like environment configuration:

"scripts": {
    "post-create-project-cmd": [
        "@php artisan app:install-features",
        "@php artisan migrate"
    ]
}

Practical Examples: Blade and LaraSonic

A standout example is the Blade Starter Kit by Christian Taylor. It recreates the modern Laravel dashboard design using only Blade templates, effectively stripping away Livewire or React dependencies. Another example is LaraSonic, which includes pre-built team management and subscription features right out of the box.

Tips & Gotchas

Community kits come with no official guarantee from the Laravel core team. You must verify the security and maintenance status of any third-party repository you use. Common issues include version conflicts between React or Vue dependencies and default environment variables—such as mandatory email verification—that might differ from standard Laravel behavior.