Installation

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Requirements

Laravel Nova has a few minimum requirements you should be aware of before installing:

• Composer 2
• Laravel Framework 10.x, or 11.x
• Inertia.js 2.x
• Laravel Mix 6.x
• Node.js (Version 18.x+)
• NPM 9.x

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Browser Support

Nova supports modern versions of the following browsers:

• Apple Safari
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox

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Installing Nova via Composer

You may install Nova as a Composer package via our private Satis repository. To get started, add the Nova repository to your application’s composer.json file:

"repositories": [
    {
        "type": "composer",
        "url": "https://nova.laravel.com"
    }
],

Or, you may use the following CLI command to add the Composer repository to your composer.json file:

composer config repositories.nova '{"type": "composer", "url": "https://nova.laravel.com"}' --file composer.json

Next, you may add laravel/nova to your list of required packages in your composer.json file:

"require": {
    "php": "^8.2",
    "laravel/framework": "^11.0",
    "laravel/nova": "^5.0"
},

After your composer.json file has been updated, run the composer update command in your console terminal:

composer update --prefer-dist

When running composer update, you will be prompted to provide a username and password. You should use your Nova website email for the username and a license key should be used as the password. These credentials will authenticate your Composer session as having permission to download the Nova source code.

To avoid manually typing these credentials, you may create a Composer auth.json file while using your license key in place of your password:

composer config http-basic.nova.laravel.com [email protected] your-license-key

Finally, run the nova:install and migrate Artisan commands. The nova:install command will install Nova’s service provider and public assets within your application:

php artisan nova:install

php artisan migrate

The default App\Nova\User Nova resource references the App\Models\User model. If you place your models in a different directory or namespace, you should adjust this value within the resource:

namespace App\Nova;

class User extends Resource
{
    /**
     * The model the resource corresponds to.
     *
     * @var class-string<\App\Models\User>
     */
    public static $model = \App\Models\User::class;
}

If your application’s users table is empty or you want to create a new user, you can run the nova:user Artisan command:

php artisan nova:user

That’s it! Next, you may navigate to your application’s /nova path in your browser and you should be greeted with the Nova dashboard which includes links to various parts of this documentation.

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Registering a Nova License Key and Production URL

Nova requires a license key and a production URL to be used in production environments. Nova will check your license key and the current host against the values from the license details found in your Nova account.

You can generate license keys and register the production URL for your project inside the license’s page on your Nova account at https://nova.laravel.com/licenses:

You can register your license key by setting the NOVA_LICENSE_KEY variable to .env file or license_key option in your config/nova.php configuration file:

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Verifying Your Nova License Key Configuration

To verify everything has been configured correctly, you should run the nova:check-license command:

php artisan nova:check-license

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Authenticating Nova in CI Environments

It’s not recommended to store your Composer auth.json file inside your project’s source control repository. However, there may be times you wish to download Nova inside a CI environment like CodeShip. For instance, you may wish to run tests for any custom tools you create.

To authenticate Nova in these situations, you can use Composer’s config command to set the configuration option inside your CI system’s pipeline, injecting environment variables containing your Nova username and license key:

composer config http-basic.nova.laravel.com "${NOVA_USERNAME}" "${NOVA_LICENSE_KEY}"

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Using Nova on Development and Staging Domains

Since Nova can be used in local and staging development environments, Nova will not check your license key when used on localhost or local TLDs like those specified in IETF RFC 2606:

• .test
• .example
• .invalid
• .localhost
• .local

Nova will also not check the current license key when the subdomain is one of these commonly-used staging subdomains:

• staging.
• stage.
• test.
• testing.
• dev.
• development.

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Authorizing Access to Nova

Within your app/Providers/NovaServiceProvider.php file, there is a gate method. This authorization gate controls access to Nova in non-local environments. By default, any user can access the Nova dashboard when the current application environment is local. You are free to modify this gate as needed to restrict access to your Nova installation:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;

// ...

/**
 * Register the Nova gate.
 *
 * This gate determines who can access Nova in non-local environments.
 */
protected function gate(): void
{
    Gate::define('viewNova', function ($user) {
        return in_array($user->email, [
            '[email protected]',
        ]);
    });
}

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Customization

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Branding

Although Nova’s interface is intended to be an isolated part of your application that is managed by Nova, you can make some small customizations to the branding logo and color used by Nova to make the interface more cohesive with the rest of your application.

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Brand Logo

To customize the logo used at the top left of the Nova interface, you may specify a configuration value for the brand.logo configuration item within your application’s config/nova.php configuration file. This configuration value should contain an absolute path to the SVG file of the logo you would like to use:

'brand' => [
    'logo' => resource_path('/img/example-logo.svg'),

    // ...
],

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Brand Color

To customize the color used as the “primary” color within the Nova interface, you may specify a value for the brand.colors configuration item within your application’s config/nova.php configuration file. This color will be used as the primary button color as well as the color of various emphasized items throughout the Nova interface. This configuration value should be a valid RGB, RGBA, or HSL string value:

'brand' => [
    // ...

    'colors' => [
        "400" => "24, 182, 155, 0.5",
        "500" => "24, 182, 155",
        "600" => "24, 182, 155, 0.75",
    ]
],

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Customizing Nova’s Footer

There are times you may wish to customize Nova’s default footer text to include relevant information for your users, such as your application version, IP addresses, or other information. Using the Nova::footer method, you may customize the footer text of your Nova installation. Typically, the footer method should be called within the boot method of your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider class:

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Blade;
use Laravel\Nova\Nova;

// ...

/**
 * Boot any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void
{
    parent::boot();

    Nova::footer(function (Request $request) {
        return Blade::render('
            @env(\'prod\')
                This is production!
            @endenv
        ');
    });
}

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Customizing Nova’s Authentication Guard

Nova uses the default authentication guard defined in your auth configuration file. If you would like to customize this guard, you may set the NOVA_GUARD value using .env file or guard value within Nova’s configuration file:

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Customizing Nova’s Storage Disk Driver

Nova uses the default storage disk driver defined in your filesystems configuration file. If you would like to customize this disk, you may set the NOVA_STORAGE_DISK value using .env file the storage_disk value within Nova’s configuration file:

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Customizing Nova’s Initial Path

When visiting Nova, the Main dashboard is typically loaded by default. However, you are free to define a different initial path that should be loaded using Nova’s initialPath method. Typically, this method may be invoked from the register method of your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider service provider:

/**
 * Register any application services.
 */
public function register(): void
{
    parent::register();

    Nova::initialPath('/resources/users');

    // ...
}

In addition to a string path, the initialPath method also accepts a closure that returns the path that should be loaded. This allows you to dynamically determine the initial path based on the incoming request:

/**
 * Register any application services.
 */
public function register(): void
{
    parent::register();

    Nova::initialPath(function ($request) {
        return $request->user()->initialPath();
    });

    // ...
}

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Enabling Breadcrumbs

If you would like Nova to display a “breadcrumb” menu as you navigate your Nova dashboard, you may invoke the Nova::withBreadcrumbs method. This method should be invoked from within the boot method of your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider class:

/**
 * Boot any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void
{
    parent::boot();

    Nova::withBreadcrumbs();
}

The withBreadcrumbs method also accepts a closure that allows you to enable breadcrumbs for specific users or other custom scenarios:

use Laravel\Nova\Http\Requests\NovaRequest;
use Laravel\Nova\Nova;

// ...

Nova::withBreadcrumbs(function (NovaRequest $request) {
    return $request->user()->wantsBreadcrumbs();
});

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Enabling RTL Support

If you wish to display Nova’s content “right-to-left” (RTL), you can enable this behavior by calling the enableRTL method from your App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider service provider:

/**
 * Boot any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void 
{
    parent::boot();

    Nova::enableRTL();
}

The enableRTL method also accept a closure that allows you to enable RTL support for specific users or in other custom scenarios:

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nova\Nova;

// ...

Nova::enableRTL(fn (Request $request) => $request->user()->wantsRTL());

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Disabling Nova’s Theme Switcher

If you wish to completely hide Nova’s light/dark mode switcher and instead have Nova honor the system preference only, you can call the withoutThemeSwitcher method from your App/Providers/NovaServiceProvider:

/**
 * Boot any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void
{
    parent::boot();

    Nova::withoutThemeSwitcher();
}

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Error Reporting

Nova uses its own internal exception handler instead of using the default App\Exceptions\ExceptionHandler. If you need to integrate third-party error reporting tools with your Nova installation, you should use the Nova::report method. Typically, this method should be invoked from the register method of your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider class:

/**
 * Register any application services.
 */
public function register(): void
{
    parent::register();

    Nova::report(function ($exception) {
        if (app()->bound('sentry')) {
            app('sentry')->captureException($exception);
        }
    });
}

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Updating Nova

To update your Nova installation, you may run the composer update command:

composer update

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Updating Nova’s Assets

After updating to a new Nova release, you should be sure to update Nova’s JavaScript and CSS assets using the nova:publish Artisan command and clear any cached views using the view:clear Artisan command. This will ensure the newly-updated Nova version is using the latest versions of Nova’s assets and views:

php artisan nova:publish
php artisan view:clear

The nova:publish command will re-publish Nova’s public assets, configuration, views, and language files. This command will not overwrite any existing configuration, views, or language files. If you would like the command to overwrite existing files, you may use the --force flag when executing the command:

php artisan nova:publish --force

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Keeping Nova’s Assets Updated

To ensure Nova’s assets are updated when a new version is downloaded, you may add a Composer hook inside your project’s composer.json file to automatically publish Nova’s latest assets:

"scripts": {
    "post-update-cmd": [
        "@php artisan vendor:publish --tag=laravel-assets --ansi --force",
        "@php artisan nova:publish --ansi"
    ]
}

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Code Distribution

Nova’s license does not allow the public distribution of its source code. So, you may not build an application using Nova and distribute that application public via open source repository hosting platforms or any other code distribution platform.

If you would like to develop a third party package that augments Nova’s functionality, you are free to do so. However, you may not distribute the Nova source code along with your package.