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Sites

Herd uses the concept of parked paths and linked directories for serving sites. You can access every site in a parked path via http://<directory-name>.test.

By default, Herd will automatically park the %USERPROFILE%\Herd directory for you. Any Laravel application in this directory is automatically available via its .test domain. If you already have your projects stored in a different location, you can also add additional parked paths in the general settings.

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Creating your first site

Herd provides a GUI for managing sites on your machine. You can open the site manager from your dashboard or the system tray icon. The site wizard guides your through the process of creating a new Laravel application or linking an existing project with Herd.

Manage sites via the command line

If you prefer to manage your sites via the command line, navigate to your parked Herd directory, use the Laravel installer to create a site and then open the site.

Command Prompt (CMD)

cd %USERPROFILE%\Herd
laravel new my-project
cd my-project
herd open

Powershell

Set-Location -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Herd"
laravel new my-project
cd my-project
herd open

Instead of using herd open, you can also navigate to http://my-project.test. If you are using a different command line interface, make sure to make all commands available.

Linking an existing site

If you have existing projects and want to keep them in separate directories or if you want to point additional domains to a site in your %USERPROFILE%\Herd directory, you can use the link command.

Navigate into your directory on the command line, then use the Herd CLI to link the site.

herd link a-new-domain
herd open

This command links the current directory as http://a-new-domain.test via Herd.

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Site Management

When you select a site in the sites list, you get an overview of its configuration and can see which PHP version this site uses. If Herd manages your Node.js version, you see this information too.

The general overview of a site allows you to quickly open a terminal, the path to the directory or the site in your browser. It also opens Tinker for Laravel applications and Adminer Evo for databases.

[!NOTE] Herd detects Tinkerwell and TablePlus on your machine and the buttons automatically open these tools instead of Laravel Tinker on the command line or Adminer for databases.

SQLite databases have no credentials and the other databases use root as the username without a password. In most cases, you should be able to simply click the login button and work with the database.

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Application Information

The "Information" tab gives you a brief overview of the application. Laravel apps display the content of the php artisan about command, but you can customize the overview by using a custom driver for your site.