.env file. This page covers the variables you’re likely to actually touch — the rest of .env.example is framework boilerplate you can leave at its default.
Application
Database
Orbit defaults to SQLite (DB_CONNECTION=sqlite, backed by database/database.sqlite) — no other configuration is required for local development. For MySQL or PostgreSQL, switch DB_CONNECTION and set the standard DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD variables.
Session, cache, and queue
All three default to thedatabase driver (SESSION_DRIVER, CACHE_STORE, QUEUE_CONNECTION), which needs no extra infrastructure — just a migrated database. Redis (REDIS_HOST, REDIS_PORT, REDIS_PASSWORD) and Memcached (MEMCACHED_HOST) variables are present in .env.example if you’d rather run one of those instead, but neither is required.
File storage
FILESYSTEM_DISK=local is used for user avatar uploads. If you want avatars stored on S3 instead, set FILESYSTEM_DISK=s3 and fill in AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION, and AWS_BUCKET.
Mail and broadcasting
MAIL_MAILER=log and BROADCAST_CONNECTION=log are Laravel framework defaults present in .env.example. Orbit’s own notifications are in-app only — nothing in the app currently sends mail or broadcasts over a websocket connection, so these variables don’t need to be configured for any of Orbit’s features to work.
Frontend
VITE_APP_NAME="${APP_NAME}" mirrors APP_NAME into the frontend build — update APP_NAME and this follows automatically.