Getting Started

Model Explorer for Laravel is a zero-config developer tool that gives AI coding agents and developers a live, structural view of your Eloquent models — through an MCP server for agents and a browser-based UI for humans. No vendor:publish, no frontend tooling required in your app.

Requirements

• PHP 8.3+
• Laravel 11, 12, or 13

Installation

Install the package via Composer:

composer require --dev onelearningcommunity/laravel-model-explorer

The package auto-discovers and registers itself. No service provider needs to be added manually.

Accessing the UI

Once installed, visit /_model-explorer in your browser:

https://your-app.test/_model-explorer

AI Model Introspection (MCP)

Model Explorer also ships a local laravel/mcp server, model-explorer, that lets AI coding agents query your models' columns, relations, scopes, accessors, and trait-correct source directly — without scanning your source files. Register it with your AI client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "model-explorer": {
      "command": "php",
      "args": ["artisan", "mcp:start", "model-explorer"]
    }
  }
}

This is independent of the browser UI's viewModelExplorer gate below — the server runs as a local stdio process in your own shell, the same trust boundary as tinker.

See the AI Model Introspection guide for the full tool reference (list-models, inspect-model, find-model, model-source, model-neighbors) and configuration options.

Authorization

By default, Model Explorer is only accessible in local environments (app.env === 'local'). This is enforced by a viewModelExplorer gate that is registered automatically.

To grant access in other environments, define the gate in your AppServiceProvider:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;

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

WARNING

Never open Model Explorer to unauthenticated users in a production environment. Always restrict access via the gate or the enabled config option.

Next Steps

• AI Model Introspection (MCP) — full tool reference and configuration
• Configuration — change the URL path, add middleware, or restrict model paths
• Model List — what you see when you first open the UI