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:

   docker compose up -d laravel-reverb

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

Stop Laravel Reverb

docker compose stop laravel-reverb

This stops the container. To remove it entirely: docker compose rm -f laravel-reverb.

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.

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.

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: docker compose up -d 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): docker compose restart laravel-reverb.

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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.