> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://laraowl.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Getting started

> Sign in, create your first project, and connect an application.

Once the [LaraOwl server is installed](/installation), this guide takes you from an empty dashboard to receiving live telemetry from your first monitored application.

## Prerequisites

* A running LaraOwl server with an admin account (created during installation).
* A Laravel application (PHP 8.3+) you want to monitor.

## Sign in and create a project

<Steps>
  <Step title="Log in">
    Open your LaraOwl server URL in a browser and sign in with the admin credentials you created during installation.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a team">
    LaraOwl is multi-tenant. On first login you're prompted to create a **team** — this is the top-level workspace that owns your projects, members, and integrations. Name it after your organization.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a project">
    Inside your team, click **New Project** and give it a name (for example, the name of the app you're about to monitor). A project is one monitored application: it has its own dashboard, API token, alert rules, and data-retention policy.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Copy the API token">
    Open **Project Settings → API Keys** and copy the generated token. You'll use it to authenticate the client package in the next step.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Connect an application

Install and configure the client package inside the Laravel app you want to monitor.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install the client package">
    In your monitored application's directory:

    ```bash theme={null}
    composer require laraowl/client
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run the setup command">
    The interactive installer writes the required configuration for you:

    ```bash theme={null}
    php artisan laraowl:install
    ```

    Alternatively, add the values manually to the app's `.env`:

    ```dotenv theme={null}
    LARAOWL_SERVER_URL=https://your-laraowl-server.com
    LARAOWL_TOKEN=your_project_api_token
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="(Optional) Forward application logs">
    To ship your app's logs to LaraOwl's centralized log viewer, add the `laraowl` channel to your log stack:

    ```dotenv theme={null}
    LOG_STACK=stack,laraowl
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Generate traffic">
    Hit a few routes in your application. Within seconds, requests, queries, and any exceptions begin flowing into the project dashboard in real time.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Check>
  If data doesn't appear, confirm the server's queue worker and Reverb process are running, and that `LARAOWL_SERVER_URL` is reachable from your app. See [Troubleshooting](/troubleshooting).
</Check>

## Navigate the dashboard

Each project dashboard is organized into focused sections:

| Section                                              | What you'll find                                                            |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Overview**                                         | Project health at a glance — request volume, error rate, and performance.   |
| **Requests**                                         | HTTP traffic with route-level breakdowns, status codes, and durations.      |
| **Exceptions**                                       | Grouped errors with stack traces, occurrence counts, and resolution status. |
| **Queries**                                          | Database query analytics, slow queries, and N+1 detection.                  |
| **Jobs / Commands / Scheduled Tasks**                | Queue, Artisan, and cron execution history and failures.                    |
| **Mail / Notifications / Cache / Outgoing Requests** | Channel- and key-level analytics for the rest of your stack.                |
| **Users**                                            | Authenticated vs. guest activity and per-user drill-down.                   |
| **Uptime**                                           | Availability monitoring with response-time history.                         |
| **Logs**                                             | Centralized, searchable application logs.                                   |
| **Security / Firewall**                              | Threat detection and optional Cloudflare WAF management.                    |
| **Settings**                                         | General, Integrations, Alert Rules, Thresholds, API Keys, and Cloudflare.   |

Use the **time-range filter** (1h, 24h, 7d, 14d, 30d, or a custom range) at the top of each section to scope charts and tables.

## Set up alerts

To be notified when something breaks:

1. Go to **Project Settings → Integrations** and connect a channel — Slack, Discord, Telegram, email, or a webhook.
2. Open **Settings → Alert Rules** and enable triggers such as new exceptions, high latency, uptime down, or error spikes.
3. Configure throttling to avoid alert fatigue during incidents.

<Tip>
  Set **Thresholds** (per-project response-time, query-time, and job-runtime budgets) so LaraOwl automatically flags regressions before your users notice.
</Tip>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Configuration" icon="gear" href="/configuration">
    Tune retention, mail, and real-time settings.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Troubleshooting" icon="wrench" href="/troubleshooting">
    Fix common connection and dashboard issues.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>