Laravel Pulse: Real-Time Application Health Monitoring

· 3 min read
#laravel #monitoring #pulse #debugging

Monitoring is crucial for maintaining a healthy application. Laravel Pulse provides an instant, at-a-glance dashboard of your application's health and performance without the need for complex external APM tools.

Installation

composer require laravel/pulse
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Pulse\PulseServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

Pulse stores its metrics in your database.

The Dashboard

Access your dashboard at /pulse. You need to authorize access in App\Providers\PulseServiceProvider:

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

Key Metrics Monitored

Pulse tracks several key metrics out of the box:

  • Server Stats: CPU, Memory, Disk usage.
  • Application Usage: Top users making requests.
  • Exceptions: Most frequent errors occurring in your app.
  • Slow Routes: Endpoints that take the longest to respond.
  • Slow Queries: SQL queries that need optimization.
  • Jobs: Queue throughput and failure rates.
  • Cache: Hit and miss ratios.

Configuring Recorders

You can customize what to record in config/pulse.php.

For example, to lower the threshold for "Slow Queries":

'recorders' => [
    \Laravel\Pulse\Recorders\SlowQueries::class => [
        'threshold' => 500, // 500ms
        'sample_rate' => 1, // Record 100% of slow queries
    ],
],

Customizing the Dashboard

You can modify the dashboard layout by publishing the view:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pulse-dashboard

This creates resources/views/vendor/pulse/dashboard.blade.php. You can rearrange cards using standard Blade components:

<x-pulse>
    <livewire:pulse.servers cols="full" />

    <livewire:pulse.usage cols="4" rows="2" />

    <livewire:pulse.slow-queries cols="8" />
</x-pulse>

Custom Cards (Livewire)

You can build your own metrics. For example, a "Business Revenue" card.

  1. Create a Recorder.
  2. Create a Livewire component for the card.

1. Recording Custom Data

Use the Pulse facade to record arbitrary entries.

// In a payment controller
Pulse::record('revenue', 'stripe', $amount, now());

2. Creating the Component

php artisan make:livewire RevenueCard

In the component class, fetch data using Pulse queries.

Pulse vs Telescope vs Horror

  • Telescope: Best for debugging individual requests (inspecting headers, exact query flow). Great for local dev.
  • Horizon: Best for queue management specifically (Redis only).
  • Pulse: Best for aggregate performance health (aggregating trends over time). Great for production overview.

It's common to use all three: Telescope locally, Horizon for workers, and Pulse for production health checks.

Running the Worker

Pulse needs to aggregate data periodically.

php artisan pulse:check

In production, run the pulse:work command via Supervisor or a daemon to process incoming metrics without slowing down user requests.

php artisan pulse:work

Summary

Laravel Pulse fills the gap between local debugging and enterprise APM solutions like Datadog or New Relic. It's:

  • Free and open-source.
  • Self-hosted (data stays with you).
  • Lightweight compared to external agents.
  • Beautifully designed out of the box.

Start monitoring your slow queries today before your users report them!

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