How-To Guides
Once Laradock is running, these are the things you'll actually reach for. Each guide is short and task-focused: one problem, the commands to solve it, and the reasoning behind them.
Start here
If you're new, do these in order: bring up your containers, learn how volumes persist your data, and skim environment so you know where settings live. That's enough to be productive.
Then reach for the rest as needed
The other guides answer specific questions as they come up, running multiple projects or multiple PHP versions side by side, customizing images, wiring up Xdebug in your IDE, or networking between containers. You don't need to read them front to back; jump to the one that matches what you're stuck on.
All guides
Managing Containers
The core Docker Compose commands for running Laradock day to day: list, enter, stop, delete, and rebuild containers, view logs, edit a service's config, and add new services.
Customizing Images
Change what's inside a Laradock container. Toggle a bundled feature from .env, install a PHP extension, or add your own system package by editing a Dockerfile, then rebuild.
Running Multiple Projects
Run several projects on Laradock at once, either one isolated Laradock per project (separate containers and data), or many sites served from a single Laradock instance with one web-server config each.
Multiple PHP Versions
Run more than one PHP version with Laradock, one version per project by switching PHP_VERSION, or two versions (for example 7.4 and 8.3) side by side in the same stack via the opt-in multi-php overlay.
Manual Setup (without the CLI)
Set up Laradock by hand with plain docker compose instead of the CLI wizard, copy .env, start the containers you need, enter the workspace, and point your app at the database. Same files, same result, full control.
Data & Volumes
Where Laradock stores your databases and files, why data survives rebuilds, and how to back up, move, or wipe a single service's data.
Environment & Platform
Workspace access, host-specific tuning, and scheduling. SSH into the workspace, change the timezone, add PHP-FPM locales, add cron jobs, and speed up file sharing on macOS.
Networking & Domains
Point a real domain at your Laradock stack instead of the Docker IP, and install your own CA certificates into the workspace container.
Debug with Xdebug (IDE setup)
Wire PhpStorm or VS Code to Laradock's Xdebug so breakpoints hit. Covers the connection port, IDE key, and the host-to-container path mapping that trips most people up.
Maintenance & Upgrades
Keep your Laradock customizations under version control while still pulling upstream updates, and how to upgrade an older Laradock (Docker Toolbox, v3) to the current version.