Echo Development

Laravel Broadcasting & Echo

When to Apply

Activate this skill when:

• Installing or configuring Laravel broadcasting (Reverb, Pusher, Ably)
• Creating events that implement ShouldBroadcast
• Defining broadcast channels and authorization
• Setting up Laravel Echo on the client side
• Listening for broadcast events, notifications, or model events
• Implementing client-to-client events (whisper)
• Working with presence channels for user awareness

Documentation

Use search-docs for detailed broadcasting patterns and documentation.

Basic Usage

Installing Broadcasting

php artisan install:broadcasting

Use flags for specific drivers: --reverb, --pusher, --ably. This creates config/broadcasting.php and routes/channels.php.

Creating a Broadcast Event

php artisan make:event OrderShipped

namespace App\Events;

use App\Models\Order;
use Illuminate\Broadcasting\InteractsWithSockets;
use Illuminate\Broadcasting\PrivateChannel;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Broadcasting\ShouldBroadcast;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;

class OrderShipped implements ShouldBroadcast
{
    use InteractsWithSockets, SerializesModels;

    public function __construct(public Order $order) {}

    public function broadcastOn(): array
    {
        return [new PrivateChannel('orders.'.$this->order->id)];
    }
}

Dispatch the event:

use App\Events\OrderShipped;

OrderShipped::dispatch($order);

Authorizing Channels

Define authorization in routes/channels.php:

use App\Models\Order;
use App\Models\User;

Broadcast::channel('orders.{orderId}', function (User $user, int $orderId) {
    return $user->id === Order::findOrNew($orderId)->user_id;
});

Create a channel class for complex authorization:

php artisan make:channel OrderChannel

List all registered channels:

php artisan channel:list

Client-Side Setup

Install Echo and Pusher JS:

npm install --save-dev laravel-echo pusher-js

import Echo from 'laravel-echo';
import Pusher from 'pusher-js';
window.Pusher = Pusher;

window.Echo = new Echo({
    broadcaster: 'reverb',
    key: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_APP_KEY,
    wsHost: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_HOST,
    wsPort: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_PORT ?? 80,
    wssPort: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_PORT ?? 443,
    forceTLS: (import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_SCHEME ?? 'https') === 'https',
    enabledTransports: ['ws', 'wss'],
});

Listening for Events

Echo.private(`orders.${orderId}`)
    .listen('OrderShipmentStatusUpdated', (e) => {
        console.log(e.order);
    });

Running Required Processes

php artisan queue:work    # Required for ShouldBroadcast events
php artisan reverb:start  # Required for Reverb driver

What's Possible

Use search-docs to find detailed code examples and configuration for each of these:

Channel Types

• Public (new Channel) — no auth, anyone can subscribe. Use for app-wide announcements, public feeds, or status pages.
• Private (new PrivateChannel) — requires authorization. Use for user-specific data like orders, messages, or account updates.
• Presence (new PresenceChannel) — authorized + tracks who's online. Use for chat rooms, collaborative editing, "who's viewing this" features, or typing indicators.
• EncryptedPrivate — end-to-end encryption, Pusher/Reverb only. Use when payload must be hidden from the broadcast server (e.g., sensitive financial data or private messages).
• Drivers: reverb (self-hosted WebSocket server), pusher (managed service), ably (managed service), log (writes to Laravel log, use for debugging), null (no-op, use for testing)

Event Customization

• broadcastAs() — custom event name (client must use dot prefix: .listen('.custom.name')). Use when you want stable API names decoupled from PHP class names, or shorter event names for the frontend.
• broadcastWith() — control exact payload. Use to avoid leaking sensitive model attributes, slim down large payloads, or add computed data not on the model.
• broadcastWhen() — conditional broadcasting. Use to skip broadcasting when changes are trivial (e.g., only broadcast order updates above a threshold, or skip unchanged fields).
• broadcastQueue() / $queue — route to specific queue. Use to isolate real-time broadcasts from slow background jobs so they're processed faster.
• $connection — set queue connection per event. Use when broadcasts should go through a faster queue backend like Redis while other jobs use the database driver.

Broadcasting Interfaces

• ShouldBroadcast — queue the broadcast (default). Use for most events to avoid blocking the HTTP response.
• ShouldBroadcastNow — broadcast synchronously, skip queue. Use during development or for time-critical events where queue latency is unacceptable.
• ShouldDispatchAfterCommit — wait for DB transaction commit. Use when the event references newly created records that listeners need to query (prevents race conditions).
• ShouldRescue — auto-catch broadcast exceptions. Use to prevent broadcast failures (e.g., WebSocket server down) from disrupting the user's HTTP request.
• InteractsWithSockets — required for toOthers(). Use on any event where you want to exclude the sender (optimistic UI updates).
• InteractsWithBroadcasting — override driver per event via broadcastVia(). Use in multi-driver setups (e.g., some events via Reverb, others via Pusher).

Broadcasting Helpers

• broadcast(new Event)->toOthers() — exclude current user's socket. Use when the client already updates optimistically from the API response to avoid duplicate updates.
• broadcast(new Event)->via('pusher') — override connection. Use to route specific events through a different broadcast driver than the default.
• Broadcast::on(), Broadcast::private(), Broadcast::presence() — anonymous broadcasting without event classes. Chain .as('name')->with($data)->send() or .sendNow(). Use for simple one-off broadcasts where creating a full event class is overkill (e.g., quick status updates, simple notifications).

Channel Authorization

• Closure-based in routes/channels.php — use for simple authorization logic (e.g., checking ownership).
• Model binding: Broadcast::channel('orders.{order}', fn (User $user, Order $order) => ...) — use when authorization depends on the model instance (auto-resolves from route parameter).
• Channel classes via php artisan make:channel — use for complex authorization logic that benefits from dependency injection or reusable logic across channels.
• Multiple guards: ['guards' => ['web', 'admin']] — use when the channel should be accessible by users authenticated via different guards (e.g., both regular users and admins).

Model Broadcasting

• BroadcastsEvents trait auto-broadcasts created/updated/deleted/trashed/restored. Use to automatically keep clients in sync with Eloquent model changes without writing individual events.
• Channel convention: App.Models.Post.{id} — clients subscribe to model-specific channels.
• broadcastAs($event) and broadcastWith($event) for per-action customization. Use to send different payloads for create vs update, or suppress certain event types.
• newBroadcastableEvent($event) for event instance customization (e.g., ->dontBroadcastToCurrentUser()). Use when you need to modify the underlying event object before it's dispatched.

Client-Side Features

• Client events: whisper() / listenForWhisper() — peer-to-peer without server roundtrip (private/presence channels only). Use for typing indicators, cursor positions, or any ephemeral state that doesn't need server persistence.
• Presence channels: Echo.join() with here(), joining(), leaving(), error() callbacks. Use for showing online users, "X is viewing this document" features, or live participant counts.
• Notification broadcasting: .notification() on user's private channel. Use to show real-time notifications (toast, badge counts) pushed from Laravel's notification system.
• Connection management: Echo.connectionStatus(), Echo.leaveAllChannels(), Echo.disconnect(). Use to show connection indicators, clean up on logout, or handle offline/reconnect scenarios.
• Custom namespace: new Echo({ namespace: 'App.Other.Namespace' }). Use when your events live outside the default App\Events namespace.

Common Pitfalls

• Queue worker must be running for ShouldBroadcast events. Use ShouldBroadcastNow during development.
• BROADCAST_CONNECTION not BROADCAST_DRIVER: Laravel 11+ renamed this env key.
• toOthers() requires InteractsWithSockets trait AND X-Socket-ID header. Echo auto-adds this to global Axios. For fetch, manually send Echo.socketId().
• CORS: When frontend/backend are on different origins, add broadcasting/auth to config/cors.php paths and set supports_credentials to true.
• Missing VITE_ prefix: Client-side env vars must start with VITE_.
• channels.php not loaded: Verify it's included in withRouting() in bootstrap/app.php.
• Reverb is long-running: Code changes require php artisan reverb:restart.
• Presence channel auth must return an array of user data (['id' => $user->id, 'name' => $user->name]), not true. Returning true silently fails.
• Dot prefix rule: When using broadcastAs(), client must prefix with . (e.g., .listen('.custom.name')). Without the dot, Echo looks for App\Events\custom.name which silently fails.
• Reverb host separation: REVERB_SERVER_HOST/REVERB_SERVER_PORT (internal bind) vs REVERB_HOST/REVERB_PORT (public address) vs VITE_REVERB_HOST/VITE_REVERB_PORT (client JS).
• Sanctum SPA auth: Ensure /broadcasting/auth uses auth:sanctum middleware and CSRF tokens are sent with withCredentials: true.