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Neo4j

What is Neo4j?​

Neo4j is a native graph database: data is stored as nodes and relationships rather than rows or documents, which makes it well-suited for highly connected data (social graphs, recommendation engines, fraud detection). Laradock runs it straight from the official neo4j image with no custom Dockerfile.

Start Neo4j​

./laradock start neo4j

It runs as its own container with no depends_on in compose.yml. Your data is created on first start and kept between restarts.

Stop Neo4j​

Stopping just pauses the container; your data is safe:

./laradock stop neo4j

Data persists under DATA_PATH_HOST/neo4j/data, and logs under DATA_PATH_HOST/neo4j/logs.

To delete the container entirely (the data on disk is still untouched):

./laradock remove neo4j

Configuration​

There is no neo4j/defaults.env file for this service, everything is hardcoded directly in neo4j/compose.yml:

SettingValueWhat it does
Imageneo4j:latestNot version-pinned or overridable via .env; edit compose.yml directly to change it.
NEO4J_AUTHnoneAuthentication is disabled entirely, no username/password is required to connect.
Host port 7401→ container 7474Neo4j Browser (HTTP UI).
Host port 7402→ container 7687Bolt protocol port, used by drivers/apps.

If you need a pinned version, authentication enabled, or different ports, you'll need to edit neo4j/compose.yml yourself, there's currently no .env-driven way to change these.

Open the Neo4j Browser​

With the container running, open http://localhost:7401. Since NEO4J_AUTH=none, you can connect without entering credentials.

Run Cypher from the command line​

Open a terminal inside the container, then start cypher-shell:

./laradock enter neo4j
cypher-shell

With NEO4J_AUTH=none no username/password is needed. Once authentication is enabled (see below), connect with cypher-shell -u neo4j -p yourpassword instead.

Enable authentication​

The default NEO4J_AUTH=none means anyone who can reach the port has full read/write access to your graph, fine for local dev, not something to carry into anything less trusted. To turn it on, edit the environment: block in neo4j/compose.yml:

environment:
    - NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/yourpassword

Neo4j requires passwords to be at least 8 characters. Apply the change:

./laradock restart neo4j

This only takes effect on a fresh data folder; if DATA_PATH_HOST/neo4j/data already exists from a previous NEO4J_AUTH=none run, either start completely fresh or set the password for the existing neo4j user from inside cypher-shell:

ALTER CURRENT USER SET PASSWORD FROM 'neo4j' TO 'yourpassword';

Connect from your app​

Use the Bolt protocol on the mapped port: bolt://localhost:7402 from your host machine, or bolt://neo4j:7687 from inside another Laradock container.

Backup and restore​

Neo4j's data lives entirely in the bind-mounted DATA_PATH_HOST/neo4j/data folder on your host, so the reliable way to back it up is a plain file copy while the container is stopped (avoids copying files mid-write):

./laradock stop neo4j
cp -r "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/neo4j/data" ~/neo4j-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d)

Start it back up once the copy finishes:

./laradock start neo4j

To restore, stop the container, replace the contents of DATA_PATH_HOST/neo4j/data with your backup, and start it again:

rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/neo4j/data"
cp -r ~/neo4j-backup-YYYYMMDD "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/neo4j/data"

Then ./laradock start neo4j (or the Docker Compose equivalent above).

Start completely fresh (wipe all data)​

To throw away your graph entirely and start Neo4j from a clean, empty state (⚠️ this permanently deletes every node, relationship, and index, back up first if you need anything):

./laradock stop neo4j
./laradock remove neo4j
rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/neo4j/data" "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/neo4j/logs"
./laradock start neo4j

DATA_PATH_HOST is whatever you have set in .env (~/.laradock/data by default), so the folders above are where Neo4j's data and logs actually live on your machine.

Talk to this database from another Laradock project​

Each Laradock project is its own isolated Docker network by default, so a second project's containers can't reach this Neo4j by container name out of the box. Easiest fix: the ports are already published (7401/7402), so have the other project connect to your host machine's address instead of neo4j, for example bolt://host.docker.internal:7402 (Docker Desktop). Make sure the two projects use different host ports if they're both running at once, there's no .env variable for these yet, edit the ports: mapping in neo4j/compose.yml directly.

Common issues​

  • No authentication by default. NEO4J_AUTH=none means anyone who can reach the port has full access. See Enable authentication above before exposing it anywhere less trusted.
  • Can't change the version via .env. Unlike most other Laradock services, the Neo4j image tag isn't parameterized, edit the image: line in neo4j/compose.yml directly and run ./laradock rebuild neo4j afterward.
  • Port already in use on your host. Another service is bound to 7401 or 7402. Edit the port mapping in neo4j/compose.yml since there's no env var for it.
  • App can't connect but the container is running. Confirm the app's config uses neo4j (the container name) and port 7687 from inside other Laradock containers, not localhost, which only works from your host machine.
  • cypher-shell asks for credentials after enabling auth. Once you set NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/yourpassword, every connection (Browser, cypher-shell, drivers) needs that username/password, there's no partial-auth mode.

Need a wide-column store instead? See Cassandra. For the full list of services, see Getting Started.