Laravel Boost Custom CodeEnvironment for PhpStorm with GitHub Copilot plugin

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.3
• Laravel >= 12.x
• Laravel Boost >= 1.7
• GitHub Copilot plugin installed in PhpStorm

Supported Platforms

• macOS
• Windows (Native Windows)
• Linux

Laravel Sail

It also supports Laravel Sail. Before use, start it with vendor/bin/sail up -d.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

This package supports WSL environments where PhpStorm runs on native Windows and PHP runs in WSL. This is a common development setup that provides Windows IDE features with Linux development environment.

Note: "Remote development" running PhpStorm within WSL is not supported.

Requirements for WSL

• wslu package must be installed in WSL
• Check if installed: wslvar -v
• Install if needed: sudo apt install wslu

How it works

1. Detection: Automatically detects WSL environment by checking WSL_DISTRO_NAME environment variable
2. Username Resolution: Uses wslvar USERNAME to get Windows username (WSL and Windows usernames may differ)
3. File Writing: Writes MCP config to Windows side via PowerShell commands
   • Creates temporary file in Windows %TEMP% directory
   • Uses Base64 encoding to safely transfer JSON content
   • Copies to final location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\github-copilot\intellij\mcp.json
4. Path Handling: Converts WSL paths to Windows paths for absolute command and artisan paths

Troubleshooting WSL

• Ensure wslu is installed and wslvar command works
• Check that PowerShell is accessible from WSL with powershell.exe -Command "Write-Output 'test'"
• Verify Windows username with wslvar USERNAME
• If MCP config file is not created, check Windows directory permissions
• Ensure your home directory is on the C drive

Recommendation for WSL

Consider using laravel-boost-copilot-cli, which allows you to use a project-level MCP configuration file.

Testbench for Package Developers

Not supported. Please use laravel-boost-copilot-cli instead.

Installation

composer require revolution/laravel-boost-phpstorm-copilot --dev

Usage

When you run the Laravel Boost installation command within your Laravel project, you'll see a PhpStorm with GitHub Copilot item added to the list. Select it to generate MCP config file. To generate .github/copilot-instructions.md, also select the boost standard GitHub Copilot.

php artisan boost:install

Important

With PhpStorm and GitHub Copilot plugin, the MCP configuration file is stored in a system-wide location. Therefore, you need to run the boost:update command to update the configuration file whenever you switch Laravel projects. The configuration file contains the absolute path to your Laravel project.

php artisan boost:update

MCP Configuration File Location by OS

• macOS, Linux: ~/.config/github-copilot/intellij/mcp.json
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\\github-copilot\\intellij\\mcp.json

License

MIT