# Getting started

These pages cover the two clients, what each kind of telemetry records, what opens an issue, and the integrations. This one gets a Laravel application reporting in a few minutes; the tree on the left has the rest.

## Create an application

An application is the thing an event is reported to. It holds its own keys, its own settings and its own history.

1. **Sign in and open Applications.** A free account is enough; [create one](/register) if you have none.
2. **Create a new application.** Give it a name and pick the environments it runs in.
3. **Copy its keys.** The application's page has the two keys and the DSN that combines them. [Applications and keys](/docs/general/projects-and-keys) says what each is for and how to rotate one.

## Install the Laravel client

```bash
composer require larabug/larabug
```

Add the keys to `.env`. There is nothing to register and no log channel to add.

```env .env
LB_DSN=https://ingest-key:project-key@www.larabug.com/api/log
```

[Installation](/docs/laravel/installation) has the supported versions, and [Configuration](/docs/laravel/configuration) every option in `config/larabug.php`.

## Send a test event

```bash
php artisan larabug:test
```

The command builds a test exception and runs it through the whole pipeline: the environment check, the deduplication window, the filters, the HTTP call. A matching issue appears in your dashboard within a few seconds.

![The dashboard after the first events have arrived: new and open issues, the telemetry and issues chart, and the recent issues](/images/docs/dashboard.png)

If nothing arrives, [Troubleshooting](/docs/laravel/troubleshooting) starts with the four things that cause almost all of it.

## Add the browser client

The server package does not see what breaks in the browser. One of the browser packages does, and reports it into the same application, mapped back to your source.

```bash
npm install @larabug/browser
```

The [JavaScript installation](/docs/javascript/installation) has the React, Vue 3 and Inertia packages and the `init()` call.

## Switch on telemetry

Out of the box the client reports exceptions, queue jobs and the vulnerable packages in `composer.lock`. Requests, queries, logs, commands and scheduled tasks are off until you turn them on, in `.env` and on the application in the panel, because each costs your application something. [What LaraBug records](/docs/telemetry/overview) has the switches and what each kind costs; [What opens an issue](/docs/issues/overview) has what the panel raises from them.

## Where to go next

* [How LaraBug works](/docs/general/how-larabug-works): applications, events, issues and retention, the four words the rest of the pages use.
* [Applications and keys](/docs/general/projects-and-keys): the two keys, the DSN, where they can go and how to rotate one.
* [Configuration](/docs/laravel/configuration), [User context](/docs/laravel/user-context) and [Testing your setup](/docs/laravel/testing): the Laravel client in full.
* [What opens an issue](/docs/issues/overview): every kind of issue, and the telemetry each is read from.
* [What LaraBug records](/docs/telemetry/overview): every kind of telemetry, its switch and its cost.
* [Filtering sensitive data](/docs/guides/filtering-sensitive-data): keeping passwords, keys and personal data out of what is sent.
* [Alerts and notifications](/docs/guides/alerts-and-notifications): Slack, Discord, Teams, email, webhooks and the mobile apps.
* [MCP server](/docs/integrations/mcp-server) and [HTTP API](/docs/integrations/http-api): reading LaraBug from an agent, or from your own code.

## Reading this with something other than your eyes

Every page has a markdown twin: add `.md` to its address, or ask the page itself for `Accept: text/markdown`. The **Copy** button in the bar above copies the page, or hands it to ChatGPT or Claude. The whole tree is indexed at [llms.txt](/llms.txt), and in one file at [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). If it is the API you want rather than the documentation, [/api](/api) describes itself.

## Getting help

The [support page](/support) has the ways in. If something in these pages is wrong or missing, say so there: it is quicker to fix a page than to answer the same question twice.