flock Flock home

Your Laravel stack. Running natively.

Flock runs PHP, Node, databases, mail, trusted HTTPS and many other services natively on Windows and macOS. No Docker, no virtual machine.

Download Flock Read the docs

Free and open source · Windows 10+ and macOS 15+

Flock Settings

General

The Flock daemon runs your sites, PHP and services in the background.

Daemon

Status
Version 1.2.0
Process

Network

Domain *.test
HTTP port 80
HTTPS port 443
DNS port 53535

Startup

Project folders

~/Code
~/Sites

Sites

Sites you added one by one, plus every folder inside your project folders.

Site PHP Node HTTPS Actions

A version picked here applies on this machine only. To set it for everyone working on a project, pin it: PHP goes into .flockrc, Node.js into .nvmrc.

PHP

Every installed version runs its own PHP-FPM pool. Sites use the default unless pinned to a version.

Versions Checked ·

Background builds

Build updates and new PHP versions automatically

Patch updates and newly released PHP versions are built in the background, so installing them is instant.

Node

node, npm and npx follow the project's .nvmrc / .node-version, then the site's version, then the default.

Official builds from nodejs.org, verified against their checksums. Global npm packages belong to a Node line and survive its updates.

Services

Databases, caches, search and the tools around your sites. Everything listens on 127.0.0.1 only.

Mail

Flock catches every email your apps send — nothing leaves your .

SMTP server

Host 127.0.0.1
Port 2525
Status Running

Environment Variables

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=127.0.0.1
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USERNAME="${APP_NAME}"

MAIL_USERNAME picks the inbox, so every project gets its own.

Caught emails

Dumps

Send dump() and dd() output to Flock instead of the page or terminal — no changes to your projects.

Capture dumps
Captured 2

Turn it off to see dumps in the page again.

Sources

Open files in

Debugger

Step through requests and commands with Xdebug.

Load Xdebug

Loading Xdebug slows every request down, so keep it off when you don't need it.

Connect your IDE

Client port 9003
Mode debug, develop

Use the Xdebug browser extension, add ?XDEBUG_TRIGGER=1 to the URL, or run XDEBUG_TRIGGER=1 php artisan …

Availability

Latest Request Only

From to

HTML Text

GET acme.test/orders/1042 just now

app/Http/Controllers/OrderController.php:38

App\Models\Order {#1204

"id" => 1042

"status" => "paid"

"total" => 129.90

}

app/Services/Shipping.php:12

array:2 [ "carrier" => "dhl", "eta" => "2026-10-17" ]

An interactive preview of the Flock app. Go ahead, try it out.

01 · Features

Everything Laravel needs. Nothing it doesn't.

One small native app and a CLI. No containers to build, no config files to edit.

https://acme.test
https://tenant1.acme.test
https://api.acme.test

.test domains with real HTTPS

Park a folder to give every project in it a .test domain, or link a single project from anywhere. Subdomains included, and HTTPS works out of the box with no browser warnings.

PHP 8.5 acme, shop
PHP 8.4 blog
PHP 8.2 legacy

A PHP version per project

Every PHP from 8.1 to 8.5, side by side. Isolate a project to any of them, and switch whenever you like.

PostgreSQL 18
Valkey 9.1
Meilisearch

Databases in one click

PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis and more, as native processes that start with your computer.

Welcome to Acme, Jamie! now
Reset your password 14m
Order #1042 confirmed 1h

Every email, caught

Mail goes to a local inbox, one per app, with HTML preview and attachments. Nothing reaches real people.

OrderController.php:38

App\Models\Order {#1204

"status" => "paid"

"total" => 129.90

}

dump() without the mess

Dumps land in a timeline grouped by request, with a link to the line in your editor. No code changes.

Xdebug
Detect breakpoints

Step debugging, only when you need it

Set a breakpoint in PhpStorm and Flock debugs that site's requests automatically, or use the browser extension. Everything else stays fast.

02 · Services

Services, ready when you are.

Native builds, signed and verified, started in the background. Pick a version and Flock installs it for you.

Pg :5432

PostgreSQL

Database · 18, 17, 16

Several major versions side by side, each with its own databases.

Install
My :3306

MySQL

Database · 9.7 LTS, 8.4 LTS, 8.0

The world's most popular open-source database.

Install
Ma :3306

MariaDB

Database · 12.3, 11.8, 11.4

The community fork of MySQL. Runs next to MySQL on its own port.

Install
Mo :27017

MongoDB

Database · 9.0, 8.0, 7.0

Store flexible JSON documents and query them with Eloquent.

Install
Va :6379

Valkey

Cache & queue · 9.1

The open-source Redis for your cache, queues and sessions. Laravel's Redis settings work unchanged.

Install
Me :7700

Meilisearch

Search · 1.x

Fast full-text search for Laravel Scout.

Install
Ts :8108

Typesense

Search · 30, 29 · macOS only

Typo-tolerant search for Laravel Scout.

Install
Rf :9000

RustFS

Storage · 1.x

S3-compatible object storage for your filesystem disks, with a web console.

Install

Also built in: a mail catcher on :2525, a dump server on :9912 and Redis on macOS. The services docs list the .env lines for each.

03 · Platforms

Native on both sides.

Built natively for each platform: a SwiftUI app on macOS, a WinUI 3 app on Windows, and the same CLI on both.

macOS

Lives in your menu bar

  • macOS 15+, Apple silicon
  • Static PHP builds, one-click updates
  • .test DNS without root, certificates in your keychain

Windows

Lives in your tray

  • Windows 10 and 11, x64
  • Official PHP builds from windows.php.net
  • Starts at sign-in, no console windows

04 · FAQ

Questions before you switch.

Yes. Flock is open source and free to use. There is no paid tier and no account to create.

No. Flock runs PHP, the web server and the services as native processes on your machine. Nothing is containerized, so there is no file sync, and requests are as fast as your disk.

Any PHP project works. Flock serves public/index.php when there is one (Laravel, Symfony, Statamic, Craft…) and the project root otherwise, which also covers plain PHP and static sites. Other languages and frameworks are on the roadmap.

Yes. Pin a version in a committed .flockrc file, isolate one per site on your machine, or rely on the default. The php and composer commands in your terminal follow the same rules as the browser.

Flock creates a local certificate authority on install and trusts it in your system. Its root certificate is restricted to your local TLD and localhost, so even a leaked key could not be used to impersonate real websites.

Yes, and your projects don't need any changes. Flock uses ports 80 and 443, so stop the other tool first; if a port is busy, Flock tells you which program is using it. Tools to import your sites from other environments are coming soon.

flock uninstall removes the daemon, PATH entry, DNS and certificate trust, but keeps your databases and site settings unless you pass --purge.

Join the flock.

Install Flock, park your code folder and open https://your-app.test.

Download Flock Star on GitHub