DevTent

The free, open-source local dev environment — forever.

DevTent is a portable local stack for PHP, Nginx, MySQL, and more — with profiles, pretty URLs (*.localhost / *.test), Quick Add runtimes, and a tray-first desktop app. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is fully open source under DTCL v1.0: free to use, modify, and share, with no license keys and no selling the software.

Built by developers, for developers. Fork it, extend it, ship features the community needs.

Screenshots

Screenshots use fictional demo data (bookstore.test, api-demo.test, etc.) — not a real install.

Dashboard	Projects

Services	Tooling

Dumps	Profiles

Tray quick panel

The dashboard is your home base — stack health, recent sites, and quick actions. Projects covers sites, per-site PHP, SSL, park/link, and share. Under Developer you get Services, Logs, Tooling, and live Dumps. Profiles switch your PHP / web server / database stack. The tray quick panel keeps start/stop and sites one click away.

Regenerate screenshots after UI changes:

npm run screenshots -w @devtent/desktop

Why DevTent?

• Own your stack — one portable folder (c:\devtent); copy, back up, or move it anywhere
• Free & open — DTCL v1.0 copyleft; source stays open in derivatives
• Just works on first run — optional one-click recommended stack (PHP, Nginx, MySQL, mkcert) with services auto-started
• Database peace of mind — automatic MySQL backups before stop, daily while the app is open, 7-day retention
• Modern full stack — PostgreSQL, Redis, Mailpit, Node/Bun/Composer tooling, mkcert via Quick Add / Tooling
• Park & link sites — serve www/, parked folders, or external projects on *.test
• Developer tooling — Composer, Node, Bun, and Laravel installer in one Tooling tab
• Environment doctor — devtent doctor --fix and dashboard health checks with safe repairs
• Pretty URLs — myapp.test via auto virtual hosts + hosts file
• Profiles — switch PHP / stack configs from the UI
• Import wizard — copy projects, databases, and runtimes from an existing local environment
• Tray + dashboard — quick panel for day-to-day work

How DevTent compares

DevTent sits in the same space as Laravel Herd, Yerd, and Lerd — free and open source, with a portable folder you fully own. Started Windows-first; now ships installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

	Herd	Yerd	Lerd	DevTent
Windows	✓	✗	✗	✓
macOS	✓	✓	✓	✓
Linux	✗	✓	✓	✓
Open source	✗	✓	✓	✓
No containers	✓	✓	✗	✓
doctor health checks	✗	✓	✗	✓
DB + mail (no Pro paywall)	Pro	✓	✓	✓
Laravel live dumps	Pro	✓	✓	✓ (Dumps tab)
Public tunnel / share	✓	✓	✓	✓ (devtent share <site>)
PHP per site	✓	✓	✓	✓ (per-site PHP dropdown)

Laravel dumps, share & per-site PHP

These ship in the desktop app and CLI — not on a roadmap.

Laravel live dumps — dump() / errors from any PHP site, plus Laravel telemetry (queries, jobs, views, requests, logs, cache, HTTP) via AppServiceProvider listeners. Quick App and doctor --fix install capture automatically. Open the Dumps tab (or use the CLI).

devtent dumps list          # tail dump log in the terminal
devtent dumps clear

Public share — Cloudflare quick tunnels for one-off demos, or named tunnels with a stable hostname (devtent share login first).

devtent share myapp              # quick tunnel; Ctrl+C to stop
devtent share named create demo
devtent share named configure demo --site myapp --hostname app.example.com
devtent share named start demo

Local CA & DNS — devtent ssl ca / Doctor trust mkcert; devtent dns start answers *.{tld} on port 15353 (macOS can install /etc/resolver).

PHP per site — each site can run a different PHP version (separate php-cgi on ports 9082, 9083, 9084…). Regenerates vhosts and Procfile automatically.

devtent sites php myapp php-8.4
devtent sites php myapp           # show current version

| MariaDB | ◐ | ✓ | ◐ | ✓ |

Full feature matrix, honest gaps, and roadmap: docs/COMPARISON.md.

Custom services

Any other tool (Apache, Memcached, etc.) can be added via the Procfile editor in the tray panel once binaries are in bin/.

Quick start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ — developers building from source only
• Windows 10/11, macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon), or a modern Linux x64 desktop

End users — installers

Download the installer for your OS from GitHub Releases:

• Windows: DevTent Setup x.y.z.exe
• macOS: DevTent-x.y.z-arm64.dmg
• Linux: DevTent-x.y.z-x64.AppImage or .deb

Windows SmartScreen: The Windows installer may be unsigned. The setup wizard explains what to do if Windows shows a warning (More info → Run anyway). See docs/SIGNING.md for optional code signing.

On macOS/Linux, install nginx (and optionally redis) via your package manager before Quick Add if you use downloadType: system manifests (brew install nginx, apt install nginx).

Developers — run from source

The DevTent window opens on first run for setup. After that, look for the tent icon in your system tray (bottom-right on Windows).

Already have a local stack? On setup or in Settings → Import environment, point DevTent at your existing environment folder. It can copy www projects, php.ini, database data, and runtimes. The source folder is never modified or deleted.

npm install
npm start

1. Click Get Started with Install recommended stack checked (default)
2. DevTent downloads PHP, Nginx, MySQL, and mkcert, enables services, and can start them for you
3. Use Quick App to create a project, then open myapp.test (run as Administrator once if hosts sync needs it)

If *.test URLs do not resolve after Sync Virtual Hosts, approve the Administrator prompt that DevTent opens (DevTent itself does not need admin).

Updating: Re-run the installer into the same folder (e.g. p:\devtent). The installer asks DevTent to quit automatically; if that fails, open Task Manager → Details → end DevTent.exe, then continue. Your www/ and data/ folders are left in place.

Build the installer

# End DevTent.exe in Task Manager (Details tab) if it is running, then:
npm run dist

Output: packages/desktop/release/DevTent Setup 1.3.0.exe

CLI (optional)

npm run devtent -- init
npm run devtent -- stack install
npm run devtent -- start
npm run devtent -- mysql backup
npm run devtent -- migrate import --from C:\\path\\to\\environment

Project structure

devtent/                  # Your portable instance (after setup)
├── bin/                   # Downloaded runtimes (PHP, Nginx, MySQL, mkcert…)
├── etc/                   # Generated configs (nginx, ssl)
├── www/                   # Your projects → auto virtual hosts
├── data/                  # Database data directories
│   └── backups/mysql/     # Automatic MySQL dumps
├── logs/                  # Service logs
├── profiles/              # Stack profiles
└── devtent.toml          # Main configuration

CLI reference

devtent init [path]              # Initialize at c:\devtent (or custom path)
devtent stack install            # PHP 8.3 + Nginx + MySQL + mkcert, enable services
devtent start [service...]       # Start all or specific services
devtent stop [service...]        # Stop services (backs up MySQL first)
devtent status                   # Show running services & URLs
devtent mysql backup             # Manual mysqldump (MySQL must be running)
devtent mysql list-backups       # List saved backups
devtent mysql restore <id>       # Restore from a backup
devtent open [view]              # Open desktop app (services, settings, …)
devtent health                   # Environment health summary
devtent export <dest>            # Export environment bundle
devtent import-bundle <folder>   # Import export bundle
devtent profile create <name> --redis --mailpit  # Optional profile services
devtent profile list             # List profiles
devtent profile use <name>       # Switch active profile
devtent vhost sync               # Regenerate virtual hosts from www/
devtent ssl enable <domain>      # Generate mkcert certificate
devtent quick-add list           # List installable runtimes
devtent quick-add <name>         # Install from manifests/
devtent quick-app <template>     # Scaffold a new project
devtent node list                  # List installable Node versions
devtent node install <version>     # Install Node (e.g. node-22)
devtent node use <version>         # Set active Node for profile
devtent sites link <path>       # Link external project
devtent sites php <name> <ver> # Per-site PHP (php-8.2, php-8.3, php-8.4)
devtent share <site>           # Public quick tunnel (Ctrl+C to stop)
devtent share named list       # Named Cloudflare tunnels
devtent dns status             # Local DNS for custom TLDs
devtent dumps list             # Live dump / Laravel telemetry
devtent doctor --fix           # Diagnose and repair environment

migrate laragon is a legacy alias for migrate import.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Security reports: SECURITY.md.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

License

DevTent is licensed under the DevTent Community License v1.0 (DTCL).

• Free forever — use, modify, and share at no cost.
• No sale, ever — no paid downloads, subscriptions, or license keys.
• No proprietary forks — derivatives must release source under DTCL v1.0.

See docs/LICENSE-FAQ.md for a plain-language summary.

Community

• GitHub Issues
• GitHub Discussions
• Releases