---: Laravel Lighthouse | GraphQL label: Laravel Lighthouse order: 0 authors:

• name: Charl Cronje email: charl@webally.co.za link: https://blog.webally.co.za avatar: https://assets.webally.co.za/avatars/darker.jpg tags: [dev,tools,js,frontend,backend,devtools,php,laravel]

The following section teaches you how to install Lighthouse in your project.

composer require nuwave/lighthouse

Lighthouse includes a default schema to get you going right away. Publish it using the following artisan command:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=lighthouse-schema

Register the service provider in your bootstrap/app.php file:
$app->register(\Nuwave\Lighthouse\LighthouseServiceProvider::class);

The many features Lighthouse provides are split across multiple service providers. Since Lumen does not support auto-discovery, you will have to register them individually depending on which features you want to use. Check Lighthouse's composer.json (opens new window), the section extra.laravel.providers contains the default service providers.

Lighthouse makes heavy use of the SDL and utilizes schema directives. To improve your editing experience, you can generate a definition file with an artisan command:

php artisan lighthouse:ide-helper
We recommend the following plugins:

PhpStorm https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8097-js-graphql

To make use of the amazing tooling around GraphQL, we recommend installing GraphQL Playground (opens new window).

composer require mll-lab/laravel-graphql-playground

After installation, visit /graphql-playground to try it.

You can use any GraphQL client with Lighthouse, make sure to point it to the URL defined in the config. By default, the endpoint lives at /graphql.