Set up Reverb

The service

File: docker-compose.yml

reverb is the same image as app with a different command:

command: ["php", "artisan", "reverb:start", "--host=0.0.0.0", "--port=8080", "--no-interaction"]

• The app, queue and scheduler containers publish events to it over the Docker network as reverb:8080 (REVERB_HOST, REVERB_PORT and REVERB_SCHEME are hard-coded in the compose file, like NSFW_SERVICE_URL).
• Browsers connect to the published port (8080 by default, REVERB_PUBLISHED_PORT changes it) or, in production, to a TLS proxy.
• The image needs the pcntl PHP extension (the Dockerfile installs it).
• The queue worker must read the live queue first: queue:work --queue=live,default --tries=3 (already set in the compose file and in composer dev). Without it live events are never delivered.

After pulling the live-updates code run make composer-install and make npm-install: they rebuild the images and renew the vendor and node_modules volumes of every PHP service (app, queue, scheduler, reverb), each of which keeps its own copy.

Generate the credentials

make reverb-keys

prints a fresh trio. Nothing is written anywhere; paste it into Doppler (or .env):

BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb
REVERB_APP_ID=<generated id>
REVERB_APP_KEY=<generated key>
REVERB_APP_SECRET=<generated secret>

The key is public (the browser receives it); the secret never leaves the server.

Development

REVERB_PUBLIC_HOST=localhost
REVERB_PUBLIC_PORT=8080
REVERB_PUBLIC_SCHEME=http

make up, then open two browsers (or a normal and a private window) signed in as two members of the same project and change an issue in one. make logs-reverb tails the server.

Production

Put a reverse proxy with TLS in front of the reverb container so the browser uses wss:// on port 443. The public host can be a subdomain of the app:

BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb
REVERB_PUBLIC_HOST=ws.example.com
REVERB_PUBLIC_PORT=443
REVERB_PUBLIC_SCHEME=https
REVERB_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=example.com

Caddy (certificates are automatic):

ws.example.com {
    reverse_proxy reverb:8080
}

nginx (it needs a certificate for the host; with Let's Encrypt, certbot certonly --nginx -d ws.example.com creates the two files referenced below, and renews them):

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name ws.example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/ws.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/ws.example.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://reverb:8080;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_read_timeout 120s;
    }
}

REVERB_ALLOWED_ORIGINS is the list of hosts (comma separated) whose pages may open a socket; a connection from any other origin is refused. It defaults to the host of APP_URL.

Doppler checklist

Add to the config of every environment that should be live:

Optional: LIVE_POLL_INTERVAL, REVERB_PUBLISHED_PORT, REVERB_APP_MAX_CONNECTIONS (default 1000), REVERB_APP_RATE_LIMITING_ENABLED (default on). Leave every REVERB_* credential empty and live updates are simply off.

How the app decides it is live

File: config/live.php

live.enabled is true only when BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb and the app id, key, secret and host are all present. config/broadcasting.php downgrades the default broadcaster to null in the same situation, so a half-configured environment never throws on boot. The browser never reads VITE_* variables for this: HandleInertiaRequests hands the connection (public key, host, port, scheme, poll interval) to the page as the shared live prop at runtime, which keeps Doppler the only place to configure it.

Scaling

One Reverb instance is plenty for a small team. To run several behind a load balancer set REVERB_SCALING_ENABLED=true: instances then exchange events over Redis pub/sub (the same redis service), so a client on one instance receives events published through another.

Tests

• tests/Feature/Live/LiveConfigTest.php — the shared prop, the guard that degrades to null, the poll interval bounds.
• tests/Feature/Live/LiveChannelsTest.php — channel authorisation.
• resources/js/live/echo.test.ts — the Echo client.