Soketi

What is Soketi?

Soketi is a fast, open-source WebSockets server that implements the Pusher protocol. It's a drop-in replacement for the hosted Pusher service, letting Laravel apps use laravel-echo and broadcasting locally without a Pusher account or internet access. Laradock builds it from the official quay.io/soketi/soketi image.

Start Soketi

Laradock CLI

./laradock start soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose up -d soketi

Soketi is stateless, there's no data volume to worry about, connections are simply dropped and re-established by clients on restart.

Stop Soketi

Laradock CLI

./laradock stop soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose stop soketi

To remove the container entirely:

Laradock CLI

./laradock remove soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose rm -sf soketi

Configuration

All settings live in soketi/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
SOKETI_NODE_VERSION	16-debian	Node.js base image variant used when building.
SOKETI_BASE_IMAGE_TAG_PREFIX	latest	Soketi image tag prefix, combined with SOKETI_NODE_VERSION to select the exact quay.io/soketi/soketi tag.
SOKETI_PORT	6001	Host-side port the WebSockets server is published on (host:6001).
SOKETI_METRICS_SERVER_PORT	9601	Host-side port for Soketi's Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoint.

Soketi's own app-level config comes from soketi/config.json, mounted read-only into the container at /app/bin/config.json. Out of the box it only sets "debug": false; edit that file to add app credentials, SSL, or other Soketi options (see the Soketi config reference).

Change the Soketi version

Set the version and/or image tag prefix in your .env:

SOKETI_NODE_VERSION=18-debian
SOKETI_BASE_IMAGE_TAG_PREFIX=latest

Then rebuild:

Laradock CLI

./laradock rebuild soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose build soketi

Restart the container afterward so it runs on the new image:

Laradock CLI

./laradock restart soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose restart soketi

Connect from Laravel

1. Set your Laravel .env to broadcast over Pusher's protocol, pointed at Soketi instead of Pusher's servers:

   BROADCAST_CONNECTION=pusher
   PUSHER_APP_ID=app-id
   PUSHER_APP_KEY=app-key
   PUSHER_APP_SECRET=app-secret
   PUSHER_HOST=soketi
   PUSHER_PORT=6001
   PUSHER_SCHEME=http

2. Configure laravel-echo on the frontend to point at the same host/port with forceTLS: false.
3. Start the container:

Laradock CLI

./laradock start soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose up -d soketi

Since config.json doesn't define specific apps by default, Soketi runs in a mode that accepts any app ID/key/secret; see Restrict to specific apps below to lock it down.

Restrict to specific apps (lock down credentials)

The default config.json has no appManager block, so Soketi accepts any PUSHER_APP_ID/PUSHER_APP_KEY/PUSHER_APP_SECRET combination, fine for local development, not something you'd want on a shared or exposed environment. To restrict it to specific known apps, add an appManager block to soketi/config.json:

{
  "debug": false,
  "appManager": {
    "driver": "array",
    "array": {
      "apps": [
        {
          "id": "app-id",
          "key": "app-key",
          "secret": "app-secret",
          "maxConnections": -1,
          "enableClientMessages": true,
          "enabled": true
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Match id/key/secret to the PUSHER_APP_ID/PUSHER_APP_KEY/PUSHER_APP_SECRET your Laravel app already uses, then restart:

Laradock CLI

./laradock restart soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose restart soketi

Only connections presenting one of the configured id/key/secret combinations are accepted once this block is present.

Check the metrics endpoint

Soketi exposes Prometheus-compatible metrics on SOKETI_METRICS_SERVER_PORT (9601 by default), useful for confirming the server is actually receiving traffic without digging through logs:

curl http://localhost:9601/metrics

This returns current connection counts, messages sent/received, and other counters in Prometheus text format, ready to scrape from Grafana/Prometheus if you're already running the monitoring stack.

Tail the logs

Useful when a client reports it can't connect at all, or you want to confirm Soketi is receiving handshake attempts:

Laradock CLI

./laradock logs soketi

Docker Compose

docker compose logs --tail=100 soketi

Common issues

• Frontend can't connect from the browser. The browser connects to localhost:6001 (or your custom SOKETI_PORT), not the container name soketi, that only resolves inside the Docker network.
• Port already in use on your host. Another local WebSockets server (or another Laradock project) is already bound to 6001. Change SOKETI_PORT in .env and restart with ./laradock restart soketi.
• Config changes to config.json don't take effect. It's mounted read-only via a bind mount in soketi/compose.yml, so edits should apply on ./laradock restart soketi; if not, rebuild with ./laradock rebuild soketi.
• Need metrics for monitoring. See Check the metrics endpoint above.
• Anyone can connect with made-up credentials. Expected by default, see Restrict to specific apps above to lock it down.

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Prefer Laravel's own first-party WebSocket server? See Laravel Reverb. Using the older Node-based option? See Laravel Echo Server. New to Laradock? Start at Getting Started.