- What is the Mary UI Laravel starter kit and how is it different from a normal Composer package?
- It is a full Laravel application scaffold built on Mary UI, Livewire, DaisyUI and Tailwind, not a library you require into an existing app. You generate a project from it and get authentication, dashboard screens and common scaffolding already wired together. Treat it as a starting point you own and modify rather than a dependency you upgrade.
- How do I install lauroguedes/mary-ui-starter-kit?
- Use composer create-project instead of composer require, because the package is an application template rather than an installable library. Then configure your .env, set database credentials, run migrations and seeders, and build front-end assets through Vite with npm install and npm run build. Because the code lands in your own repository, dependency maintenance becomes your responsibility from day one.
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does this starter kit support?
- The kit targets Laravel 13 on PHP 8.x with Livewire and the Mary UI component set built on Tailwind and DaisyUI. If your existing estate runs Laravel 11 or 12, the kit does not drop in as-is and you would need to upgrade the host app or port selected pieces. Only the extracted lauroguedes/laravel-demo-mode package is a realistic candidate for standalone use in older applications.
- What is demo mode and how does the rotating published password work?
- Demo mode is an optional surface for running a public, resettable instance: a scheduled reset, a rotating published password, login prefill, abuse throttling and a floating notice bar with a shadow-DOM-isolated countdown. As of v1.6.0 that logic lives in the separately versioned lauroguedes/laravel-demo-mode package instead of being inlined in the kit. The published password is intentional for a demo, but it is still a credential sitting in an environment variable, and demo:doctor exits non-zero when the demo configuration is unsafe.
- What does DEMO_SANDBOX=scoped actually isolate?
- It scopes records to the App\Models\User model so visitor accounts stay separate, while roles and permissions remain shared so the authorization story the kit demonstrates keeps working. The seeded demo accounts carry a null sandbox id and therefore stay common property by design. Note that query-builder uniqueness rules such as unique:users,email still apply across sandboxes, and logging out does not end a sandbox, so clearing what you created remains the reset primitive.
- Is it safe to run a project generated from this kit in production?
- Yes, provided you strip the demo surface before deploying: disable demo mode, remove the published password and reset scheduler, and drop the sandbox column if you do not need it. The demo package extraction means a moderate behavioural regression surface, so verify parity against your own extensions rather than relying on the kit's tests alone. Pin lauroguedes/laravel-demo-mode to an exact version and keep a vendored fork as a contingency.
- How do I test a Laravel app generated from this starter kit?
- The kit ships a 238-test suite covering the demo surface, sandbox behaviour and core screens, which gives you a solid baseline on day one. Extend it for every feature you add, because existing coverage says nothing about your own code. If you use the sandbox, confirm that tests/Feature/DemoSandboxTest.php is exercised across driver values rather than only the default driver.
- What dependency risks should I check before installing, like the Guzzle 8 bump?
- The kit moves Guzzle from 7 to 8 and bumps brick/math from 0.18 to 1.0 and laravel/mcp from 0.9 to 1.0, all of which are major or pre-1.0 to 1.0 jumps. Guzzle majors cascade into HTTP-adjacent packages, so run composer why-not guzzle/guzzle 8 to surface blockers before committing. The brick/math and laravel/mcp bumps are covered by the kit's suite, but that coverage does not extend to your customisations.
- How does it compare with Laravel Breeze, Jetstream or a Filament starter kit?
- Breeze and Jetstream focus on authentication scaffolding, while Filament-based kits give you a batteries-included CRUD admin. This kit's differentiator is Mary UI, which provides DaisyUI-styled Blade and Livewire components plus a Tailwind admin foundation without adopting a full admin framework. Choose it when you want a component-driven Livewire UI with an optional demo-mode layer you can strip out, and choose Filament when you need ready-made resource CRUD.
- Is the kit actively maintained and can I use only the demo package?
- It is a single-maintainer project, though v1.6.0 shows active extraction and refactoring work rather than abandonment. If you only want the demo surface, install lauroguedes/laravel-demo-mode into any Laravel application instead of adopting the full kit, and pin an exact version because the package has no independent adoption history yet. Check whether the DEMO_* environment contract changed during extraction, since that determines how much templating work you inherit.