README

Illuminate your API — Interactive API inspector for Laravel 12 with Inertia + React.

Spectra is a powerful, developer-focused API inspector built exclusively for Laravel 12 applications. It provides an embedded, interactive console accessible at /spectra that helps you explore, test, and debug your API endpoints during development.

Features

🔍 Auto-discovery of all application routes and parameters
📋 JSON Schema generation (2020-12) from FormRequest validation rules
⚡ Internal request execution through Laravel's HTTP kernel
🔐 Multiple authentication modes: current user, impersonate, Bearer token, Basic auth
🍪 Cookie inspector with Laravel encryption support
🎨 Modern React UI built with Inertia.js (no external packages needed)
💾 Request collections with export/import functionality
🌙 Dark mode support
🔒 Production-safe with comprehensive security controls

Requirements

PHP 8.4 or higher
Laravel 12.x
Inertia.js (automatically included)

Installation

Install the package via Composer:

composer require --dev akira/laravel-spectra

Install and publish configuration:

php artisan spectra:install

This will publish the configuration file to config/spectra.php.

Configuration

The configuration file provides comprehensive control over Spectra's behavior:

return [
    // Enable/disable Spectra (defaults to local environment only)
    'enabled' => env('SPECTRA_ENABLED', app()->environment('local')),
    
    // Restrict to local environment only
    'only_local' => env('SPECTRA_ONLY_LOCAL', true),
    
    // Authentication guard to use
    'guard' => env('SPECTRA_GUARD', 'web'),
    
    // Gate for impersonation feature
    'impersonation_gate' => 'use-spectra',
    
    // Rate limiting for execute endpoint
    'rate_limit' => [
        'max' => 60,
        'per_minutes' => 1,
    ],
    
    // Headers to strip from requests
    'strip_headers' => [
        'authorization',
        'cookie',
        'x-api-key',
    ],
    
    // Fields to mask in responses
    'mask_fields' => [
        'password',
        'token',
        'authorization',
        'api_key',
        'secret',
    ],
];

Usage

Accessing Spectra

Once installed, visit /spectra in your browser when running in a local environment. You must be authenticated and have the use-spectra permission.

Gate Configuration

By default, Spectra defines a use-spectra gate that checks if the user has a developer role. You can customize this in your AuthServiceProvider:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;

Gate::define('use-spectra', function ($user) {
    return $user->email === 'admin@example.com';
});

Authentication Modes

Spectra supports four authentication modes for executing requests:

Current User: Execute requests as the currently authenticated user
Impersonate: Execute requests as a different user (requires use-spectra gate approval)
Bearer Token: Provide a Bearer token for authentication
Basic Auth: Use username/password authentication

Working with Schemas

Spectra automatically generates JSON Schema (2020-12) from your FormRequest validation rules. Supported validation rules include:

Basic types: string, integer, numeric, boolean, array
Formats: email, url, date, uuid
Constraints: min, max, between, in (enum), regex
Files: file, image, mimes
Modifiers: nullable, required, sometimes

Request Collections

Save frequently used requests as collections:

Configure your request (endpoint, parameters, auth mode)
Click "Save" in the Collections panel
Give it a name
Load it anytime with one click

Export/import collections as JSON for sharing with your team.

Security

Spectra is designed with security as a top priority:

Disabled by default outside local environments
Rate limiting on request execution
Sensitive header stripping (Authorization, Cookie, etc.)
Field masking for sensitive data in responses
Gate-based authorization for all features
No external network requests — all execution is internal

Production Safety

Spectra will automatically return a 404 error when:

enabled config is false
only_local is true and the environment is not local

Never enable Spectra in production environments.

Extensibility

Service Container Bindings

All Spectra services are bound to the container and can be extended or replaced:

app()->bind(RouteScanner::class, function ($app) {
    return new CustomRouteScanner($app['router']);
});

Custom Schema Builders

Override the schema builder to add custom rule conversions:

app()->extend(SchemaBuilder::class, function ($builder, $app) {
    // Add custom logic
    return $builder;
});

Testing

Run the test suite:

composer test

Run static analysis:

composer analyse

Format code:

composer format

CI/CD

Spectra includes GitHub Actions workflows for:

PHP tests with Pest
Static analysis with Larastan
Code style with Pint
JavaScript build and type checking
Commitlint for conventional commits
Automated releases with release-it

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow the conventional commits specification for all commits.

Security Vulnerabilities

If you discover a security vulnerability, please email security@akira-io.com. All security vulnerabilities will be promptly addressed.

Credits

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

akira / laravel-spectra

Maintainers

Details