Laravel Reverb

What is Laravel Reverb?

Laravel Reverb is Laravel's first-party WebSocket server, a modern, officially-maintained replacement for older options like laravel-echo-server or Soketi. This container runs php artisan reverb:start directly against your mounted application code rather than shipping a separate standalone server.

Start Laravel Reverb

1. Install Reverb in your Laravel app (once): php artisan install:broadcasting, and set BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb in your app's .env.
2. Point Reverb at 0.0.0.0 in your app's .env so it's reachable from the host: REVERB_HOST=0.0.0.0, REVERB_PORT=8080.
3. Start the container:

Laradock CLI

./laradock start laravel-reverb

Docker Compose

docker compose up -d laravel-reverb

The container depends_on redis in compose.yml (needed if you scale Reverb horizontally over Redis, see Scale Reverb horizontally below), so Compose starts it automatically.

Stop Laravel Reverb

Stopping just pauses the container:

Laradock CLI

./laradock stop laravel-reverb

Docker Compose

docker compose stop laravel-reverb

To remove the container entirely:

Laradock CLI

./laradock remove laravel-reverb

Docker Compose

docker compose rm -sf laravel-reverb

Reverb keeps no data of its own on disk (it's not a stateful service), so there's nothing to back up here, removing the container is safe at any time.

Configuration

laravel-reverb/defaults.env holds the port, overridable by adding the same line to your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
LARAVEL_REVERB_PORT	8080	Host-side port the WebSocket server is published on (host:8080), and the port the container's reverb:start command binds to.

The image (laravel-reverb/Dockerfile) is built from php:${PHP_VERSION}-cli-alpine with pcntl, posix, sockets, and the redis PECL extension installed, everything Reverb needs for its event loop and Redis-backed horizontal scaling. Your application code is mounted in from APP_CODE_PATH_HOST, same as the other PHP containers.

Change the PHP version

The container's PHP version tracks your project-wide PHP_VERSION in .env (passed in as the LARADOCK_PHP_VERSION build arg). After changing it, rebuild the image:

Laradock CLI

./laradock rebuild laravel-reverb

Docker Compose

docker compose build laravel-reverb

Connect from your app

The WebSocket server is available on host port 8080 (or your custom LARAVEL_REVERB_PORT). Configure Laravel Echo on the frontend to connect there with forceTLS: false for local development.

Scale Reverb horizontally

Reverb depends_on redis so it can coordinate connection state across multiple Reverb instances instead of holding it in a single process's memory. To turn this on, set REVERB_SCALING_ENABLED=true in your Laravel app's .env alongside your existing REDIS_HOST/REDIS_PORT settings (pointed at Laradock's redis service). This is a Laravel-level setting, not a Laradock one, restart the container after changing it so the new config is picked up:

Laradock CLI

./laradock restart laravel-reverb

Docker Compose

docker compose restart laravel-reverb

View logs

Reverb logs every connection, disconnection, and broadcast event to stdout, useful when a client can't connect or a broadcast isn't arriving:

Laradock CLI

./laradock logs laravel-reverb

Docker Compose

docker compose logs --tail=100 laravel-reverb

Common issues

• Reverb starts but the browser can't connect. Make sure REVERB_HOST=0.0.0.0 in your Laravel app's .env, if it's left at the default localhost, Reverb only binds inside the container and is unreachable from the host.
• Port already in use on your host. Another local WebSocket server (or another Laradock project) is already bound to 8080. Change LARAVEL_REVERB_PORT in .env and restart: ./laradock restart laravel-reverb.
• Broadcasting still uses Pusher or another driver. Confirm BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb is set in your Laravel app's .env, not just in the container config.
• App code changes don't show up. The container runs reverb:start against your mounted APP_CODE_PATH_HOST; code changes apply on the next request as usual, but Reverb itself needs a restart to pick up config changes (REVERB_* env vars): ./laradock restart laravel-reverb.
• Connections drop or state resets across multiple Reverb instances. Check that redis is running (./laradock logs redis) and that REVERB_SCALING_ENABLED=true is actually set in your app's .env, not just assumed from depends_on.

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Need the older Node-based alternative? See Laravel Echo Server. Need a Pusher-protocol server instead? See Soketi. New to Laradock? Start at Getting Started.