Laravel 12 Setup in One Command: The composer setup Script That Changes Everything

😩 The Pain: Laravel Setup Was Always a Multi-Step Ritual

If you’ve worked with Laravel for any length of time, you know the drill:

Clone the repo
Run composer install
Copy .env.example to .env
Generate app key
Run migrations
Seed the database
Set permissions
Maybe clear caches
And hope you didn’t miss a step

It’s not hard—but it’s repetitive. And when onboarding new devs or deploying to staging, these steps become friction.

✅ The Fix: Laravel 12’s `composer setup` Script

Laravel 12 introduces a game-changing shortcut:

composer setup

This single command automates the entire post-clone setup process. It’s like hitting “Start” on a Laravel-ready machine.

🔍 What Does `composer setup` Actually Do?

Under the hood, it’s a custom Composer script defined in your composer.json. When you run composer setup, it executes a series of tasks:

Copies .env.example to .env
Runs php artisan key:generate
Executes php artisan migrate --seed
Clears and caches config
Sets up storage symlinks
Optionally installs frontend assets (via Vite or Mix)

You can customize it to fit your project’s needs. Here’s a sample snippet from composer.json:

"scripts": {
  "setup": [
    "@php -r \"file_exists('.env') || copy('.env.example', '.env');\"",
    "php artisan key:generate",
    "php artisan migrate --seed",
    "php artisan storage:link",
    "php artisan config:cache"
  ]
}

🚀 From Clone to Production in Seconds

Imagine this workflow:

git clone https://github.com/your-org/your-laravel-app.git
cd your-laravel-app
composer install
composer setup

Boom—your Laravel app is ready to run.

Want to deploy to production? Just add environment-specific tweaks:

composer setup-prod

You can define that script to skip seeding, run config:cache, and set permissions.

🧠 Why This Matters for Teams and SaaS Builders

🧑‍💻 Faster onboarding: New devs can get started with one command
🧪 Consistent environments: No more “it works on my machine”
🚀 Rapid deployment: CI/CD pipelines become cleaner
🧩 Customizable: Tailor it to your stack (Redis, Horizon, Vite, etc.)

If you’re building SaaS tools, client portals, or internal dashboards—this script saves time and reduces setup errors.

🛠 Pro Tip: Extend It for Your Stack

You can add anything to the script:

"setup": [
  "@php artisan horizon:install",
  "@php artisan telescope:install",
  "@php artisan queue:restart"
]

Or create multiple scripts:

"scripts": {
  "setup": [...],
  "setup-prod": [...],
  "refresh": [
    "php artisan migrate:fresh --seed",
    "php artisan config:clear"
  ]
}

🔮 Final Thoughts

Laravel 12’s composer setup isn’t just a convenience—it’s a mindset shift. It encourages automation, consistency, and speed.

If you’re still manually copying .env files and running migrations one by one, it’s time to upgrade your workflow.

From clone to production in seconds? That’s the Laravel way.