Laravel Pulse

laravel-pulse

When to use

Use this skill when working with Laravel Pulse:

• Setting up the Pulse monitoring dashboard
• Configuring built-in recorders (slow queries, exceptions, queues, etc.)
• Creating custom Pulse cards and recorders
• Performance monitoring and alerting

Procedure: Set up Pulse

1. Inspect current monitoring — Check composer.json, existing telemetry packages, and config/ for Pulse, Telescope, or Horizon already installed; identify gaps.
2. Install — composer require laravel/pulse, publish config, run migrations.
3. Configure — Set up recorders in config/pulse.php.
4. Add dashboard — Register route and authorize access.
5. Verify — Visit /pulse dashboard, confirm data is being recorded.

Installation

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

Dashboard

Access control

// PulseServiceProvider or Gate
Gate::define('viewPulse', function (User $user): bool {
    return $user->isSuperuser();
});

Dashboard route

Pulse registers /pulse automatically. Customize in config/pulse.php:

'path' => 'pulse',
'middleware' => ['web', 'auth'],

Built-in cards

Dashboard view

{{-- resources/views/vendor/pulse/dashboard.blade.php --}}
<x-pulse>
    <livewire:pulse.servers cols="full" />

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

    <livewire:pulse.slow-queries cols="8" />
    <livewire:pulse.exceptions cols="4" />

    <livewire:pulse.slow-requests cols="6" />
    <livewire:pulse.slow-jobs cols="6" />
</x-pulse>

Configuration

config/pulse.php

'recorders' => [
    \Laravel\Pulse\Recorders\SlowQueries::class => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'threshold' => 1000,  // ms
        'sample_rate' => 1.0,
    ],
    \Laravel\Pulse\Recorders\SlowRequests::class => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'threshold' => 1000,  // ms
        'sample_rate' => 1.0,
    ],
    \Laravel\Pulse\Recorders\Exceptions::class => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'sample_rate' => 1.0,
    ],
],

// Data retention
'ingest' => [
    'trim' => [
        'lottery' => [1, 1000],
        'keep' => '7 days',
    ],
],

Custom recorders

use Laravel\Pulse\Facades\Pulse;

// Record a custom entry
Pulse::record('api_call', 'stripe', 250)  // type, key, value
    ->avg()
    ->count();

Core rules

• Trim old data — configure retention to prevent database bloat.
• Use sample rates in production — not every request needs recording.
• Separate database — consider a dedicated DB connection for Pulse data.
• Restrict access — always gate the dashboard behind authentication.
• Monitor what matters — don't enable all recorders if you don't need them.

Output format

1. Pulse configuration with recorders and dashboard cards
2. Custom recorder class if needed

Auto-trigger keywords

• Pulse
• monitoring dashboard
• slow queries
• slow requests
• application monitoring
• performance dashboard

Gotcha

• Pulse stores data in the same database by default — configure a separate connection for production.
• The model forgets that Pulse data is sampled, not exact — don't use it for billing or exact counts.
• Custom recorders must be registered in a service provider — they don't auto-discover.

Do NOT

• Do NOT expose the Pulse dashboard without authentication.
• Do NOT set sample rate to 1.0 on high-traffic production — use 0.1 or lower.
• Do NOT forget to run pulse:check for server metrics.
• Do NOT store Pulse data in the main application database on large apps.