- Is nunomaduro/ohdear-cli a Laravel package I can install into my application?
- No. It is a standalone console application built on Laravel Zero, distributed as a PHAR or a global Composer binary, so it registers no service provider, facade, config file, or publishable assets and never enters your application's container or lifecycle. The integration boundary is the operating system process, not your codebase. Note also that the package has moved from the nunomaduro vendor path to ohdearapp/ohdear-cli, so pin accordingly.
- How do I install ohdear-cli?
- Install it globally with composer global require ohdearapp/ohdear-cli, or download the PHAR directly. You need PHP 8.x on the machine or CI runner image, plus an Oh Dear account and API token. No changes to your Laravel application are required.
- How does ohdear-cli authenticate with Oh Dear?
- You supply an Oh Dear API token either through an environment variable or a command flag. The tool then calls the Oh Dear API over outbound HTTPS. There is no OAuth flow or in-app credential storage to configure.
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does ohdear-cli support?
- It requires PHP 8.x on the executing host but is otherwise framework-independent, because Laravel Zero ships its own vendored dependency tree. That means it behaves identically whether it runs alongside a Laravel 9, 10, 11, or non-Laravel PHP service. For non-PHP stacks it still works, but you pay the cost of having a PHP runtime in the pipeline image.
- Can I use ohdear-cli in a CI/CD pipeline to verify a deployment?
- Yes, that is one of its strongest fits: a one-line post-deploy step that checks uptime, SSL, DNS, or broken links without touching application code. Decide deliberately whether a failing monitoring check should fail the deployment, since the CLI exits non-zero on failure. Also pin the version if any script parses its output.
- What can I actually check with ohdear-cli?
- It exposes Oh Dear's checks from the terminal: site uptime, broken links, SSL certificates, DNS records, and performance. You can also manage monitors and inspect results using friendly tables. Everything is designed to be readable without opening a browser.
- Will ohdear-cli conflict with my application's Composer dependencies?
- Unlikely, because Laravel Zero bundles its own vendored dependency tree inside the binary. A global Composer install or PHAR download therefore avoids the classic version conflicts you get when a package shares your application's composer.json. Keeping it out of the project's dependencies is the recommended approach.
- Is it safe to store an Oh Dear API token in CI environment variables?
- It is workable but needs governance: an account-level token grants read and write access to your Oh Dear account. Where possible, use a read-only scoped token for routine checks and reserve write access for maintenance-window toggling. Assign a clear owner for rotation and treat the token as a build-infrastructure secret.
- Will the command output change between versions and break my scripts?
- Possibly. The tool has zero dependents and a modest release cadence, so there is little ecosystem pressure enforcing backward compatibility on output formats. If scripts parse the tables, pin an exact version and re-verify output after upgrades. For casual human use this is a non-issue.
- What are the alternatives if I need to query Oh Dear from inside my application?
- Call the Oh Dear HTTP API directly or use a client library, since this CLI is a process-level tool and not intended for in-app programmatic access. The CLI is the right choice for operational automation, deployment verification, and developer convenience. Choosing it as a load-bearing dependency in a critical path is not advisable given its niche maintenance profile.