README

Requirements

PHP >= 8.3
Laravel >= 12.x
Laravel Boost >= 1.7
GitHub Copilot plugin installed in PhpStorm

Supported OS

macOS
Windows (Native Windows)
Linux

Note: It also supports Laravel Sail. Before use, start it with vendor/bin/sail up -d.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

This package supports WSL environments where PhpStorm runs on native Windows and PHP runs in WSL. This is a common development setup that provides Windows IDE features with Linux development environment.

Note: "Remote development" running PhpStorm within WSL is not supported.

Requirements for WSL

wslu package must be installed in WSL
Check if installed: wslvar -v
Install if needed: sudo apt install wslu

How it works

Detection: Automatically detects WSL environment by checking WSL_DISTRO_NAME environment variable
Username Resolution: Uses wslvar USERNAME to get Windows username (WSL and Windows usernames may differ)
File Writing: Writes MCP config to Windows side via PowerShell commands
- Creates temporary file in Windows %TEMP% directory
- Uses Base64 encoding to safely transfer JSON content
- Copies to final location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\github-copilot\intellij\mcp.json
Path Handling: Converts WSL paths to Windows paths for absolute command and artisan paths

Troubleshooting WSL

Ensure wslu is installed and wslvar command works
Check that PowerShell is accessible from WSL with powershell.exe -Command "Write-Output 'test'"
Verify Windows username with wslvar USERNAME
If MCP config file is not created, check Windows directory permissions

Alternative for WSL

If you encounter issues with WSL setup, consider using laravel-boost-copilot-cli which uses a different approach better suited for some WSL configurations.

Installation

composer require revolution/laravel-boost-phpstorm-copilot --dev

Usage

When you run the Laravel Boost installation command within your Laravel project, you'll see a PhpStorm with GitHub Copilot item added to the list. Select it to generate MCP config file. To generate .github/copilot-instructions.md, also select the boost standard GitHub Copilot.

php artisan boost:install

Important

With PhpStorm and GitHub Copilot plugin, the MCP configuration file is stored in a system-wide location. Therefore, you need to run the boost:update command to update the configuration file whenever you switch Laravel projects. The configuration file contains the absolute path to your Laravel project.

php artisan boost:update

MCP Configuration File Location by OS

macOS, Linux: ~/.config/github-copilot/intellij/mcp.json
Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\\github-copilot\\intellij\\mcp.json

License

MIT

revolution / laravel-boost-phpstorm-copilot

Maintainers

Details