- What is ycodetech/valet-windows and how does it differ from Laravel Valet?
- It is a Valet-inspired local development environment for Windows that lets you park directories, link Laravel or plain PHP sites, and serve them on local .test domains with simple CLI commands. Unlike the original Laravel Valet, which targets macOS, this package reimplements that workflow for Windows so you can avoid Vagrant and heavyweight virtual machines. It is workstation tooling rather than an application dependency, so it never belongs in your project's composer.json.
- Do I need to composer require ycodetech/valet-windows inside my Laravel project?
- No. This is developer-environment tooling, not an application dependency, so it should never be added to a Laravel app's composer.json or deployed to a server. It is installed globally on a Windows workstation and configures that machine to serve .test domains for whatever projects you park. Your application code and its Composer dependencies stay untouched.
- How do I install ycodetech/valet-windows on Windows?
- Installation is a single global install plus a setup step that registers the background service, binds ports 80 and 443, and configures the hosts file and local DNS resolution for .test domains. You will need administrator rights at install time for those system-level changes. After that you can park a directory and link individual sites, and it is intended to work with both native Windows and WSL2-based workflows, though you should verify your specific combination before rolling it out.
- Does ycodetech/valet-windows require administrator rights to run day to day?
- Administrator rights are primarily needed during installation and service registration, when the tool binds low ports and edits the Windows hosts file. Whether routine operation also needs elevation depends on how the background service is registered, so confirm this on your own machines before standardizing. Corporate antivirus or EDR policy can additionally block hosts-file edits and background services, so check with your security team first.
- How does HTTPS work in ycodetech/valet-windows, and is the certificate trusted?
- Local TLS is handled through a local certificate authority such as mkcert, which issues per-site certificates so your .test domains serve over HTTPS without browser warnings once the CA is trusted in the Windows certificate store. Confirm where certificates are stored, how they are rotated, and whether renewal is automatic, because an expired local CA is a classic mid-demo failure. Trusting a local CA has security implications, so treat it as a deliberate, documented decision.
- Which PHP versions does ycodetech/valet-windows support, and how do I switch between them?
- The tool serves PHP sites and expects PHP to be installed and managed on the workstation, so the exact supported 8.x range and the switching mechanism should be confirmed against the repository before adoption. Whatever the mechanism, verify it maps to the same PHP minor you run in staging and production, since a mismatch will hide real bugs. Pin the version you standardize on in your onboarding doc rather than letting it float.
- Will ycodetech/valet-windows conflict with IIS, Docker Desktop, or VPN clients?
- Potentially. Anything else that wants ports 80 and 443, or that intercepts DNS, can collide with it, which includes IIS/W3SVC, Docker Desktop networking, and corporate VPN clients with their own resolvers. Test coexistence explicitly on a representative machine and document how to stop or reconfigure the competing service. Stale hosts entries and DNS conflicts are the most common day-to-day breakages.
- How does ycodetech/valet-windows compare to Laravel Herd and Laravel Sail?
- Herd is the better-resourced incumbent for Windows local development, while this package is the lighter, MIT-licensed, no-account alternative. Sail is the right choice when container parity with production matters, because it runs your stack in Docker rather than natively. If you are currently on XAMPP, WAMP, or hand-maintained hosts entries and want a simpler .test workflow, this is a reasonable middle option.
- Can I use ycodetech/valet-windows in production or CI pipelines?
- No. It is a per-workstation local development environment and has no role in production deployments or CI. It exists to serve .test domains on a developer's machine, and its configuration is inherently machine-specific. Keep production and CI on standard, reproducible infrastructure.
- Is ycodetech/valet-windows actively maintained, and what happens if it is abandoned?
- The project has a small user base and an effective bus factor of one, so treat project health as the primary risk rather than the technology itself. The MIT license is your hedge: you can vendor or fork a patched copy if the maintainer goes quiet, and you should pin an exact version in your setup documentation. Adoption also needs a named internal champion who owns the onboarding guide and absorbs troubleshooting; if nobody volunteers, do not standardize on it.