Laravel Debugging Part 1 - Laravel Telescope

Learn how to use Laravel Telescope for debugging and monitoring your Laravel application.

Introduction

Laravel Telescope is a powerful debugging and monitoring tool that provides insights into your application's requests, database queries, cache operations, and more. This guide will show you how to set up and use Telescope effectively.

Prerequisites

Laravel 6.x or higher
Composer installed
Database configured
Basic understanding of Laravel

1 Install Laravel Telescope

Install Telescope via Composer:

composer require laravel/telescope --dev

Publish the configuration and migration files:

php artisan telescope:install
php artisan migrate

2 Configure Telescope

Update your `config/telescope.php` file:

return [
    'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_ENABLED', true),
    'domain' => env('TELESCOPE_DOMAIN', null),
    'path' => env('TELESCOPE_PATH', 'telescope'),
    'storage' => [
        'database' => [
            'connection' => env('DB_CONNECTION', 'mysql'),
            'chunk' => 1000,
        ],
    ],
    'ignore_paths' => [
        //
    ],
    'ignore_commands' => [
        //
    ],
    'watchers' => [
        Watchers\CacheWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_CACHE_WATCHER', true),
            'hidden' => [],
        ],
        Watchers\CommandWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_COMMAND_WATCHER', true),
            'ignore' => [],
        ],
        Watchers\DumpWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_DUMP_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\EventWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_EVENT_WATCHER', true),
            'ignore' => [],
        ],
        Watchers\ExceptionWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_EXCEPTION_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\JobWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_JOB_WATCHER', true),
            'ignore' => [],
        ],
        Watchers\LogWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_LOG_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\MailWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_MAIL_WATCHER', true),
            'outgoing' => true,
        ],
        Watchers\ModelWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_MODEL_WATCHER', true),
            'events' => ['eloquent.*'],
            'hydrations' => true,
        ],
        Watchers\NotificationWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_NOTIFICATION_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\QueryWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_QUERY_WATCHER', true),
            'ignore_packages' => true,
            'slow' => 100,
        ],
        Watchers\RedisWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_REDIS_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\RequestWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_REQUEST_WATCHER', true),
            'size_limit' => env('TELESCOPE_RESPONSE_SIZE_LIMIT', 64),
            'ignore_status_codes' => [],
        ],
        Watchers\ScheduleWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_SCHEDULE_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\ViewWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_VIEW_WATCHER', true),
        ],
        Watchers\GateWatcher::class => [
            'enabled' => env('TELESCOPE_GATE_WATCHER', true),
            'ignore_abilities' => [],
            'ignore_packages' => true,
        ],
    ],
];

3 Configure Access

Update your `app/Providers/TelescopeServiceProvider.php`:

protected function gate()
{
    Gate::define('viewTelescope', function ($user) {
        return in_array($user->email, [
            'admin@example.com',
        ]);
    });
}

4 Using Telescope

Access Telescope at:

http://your-app.test/telescope

Monitor various aspects of your application:

Requests and responses
Database queries
Cache operations
Queue jobs
Mail notifications
Exceptions and errors

5 Pruning Data

Add the prune command to your scheduler in `app/Console/Kernel.php`:

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    $schedule->command('telescope:prune')->daily();
}

Key Features Covered

Installation and setup
Configuration options
Access control
Data monitoring
Data pruning
Performance tracking

Best Practices

Disable in production
Regular data pruning
Restrict access
Monitor performance impact
Use for debugging only

Common Issues

Performance overhead
Storage space issues
Access permission problems
Configuration conflicts
Database connection issues

Laravel Debugging Part 1 - Laravel Telescope