README

Production-ready support chat for Laravel applications with a floating customer widget, a Livewire-powered support inbox, database-backed conversations, and Reverb-friendly real-time updates.

Package Overview

mahbuburriad/laravel-support-chat is a reusable Laravel package for customer support messaging. It is designed for Blade-first apps and works without forcing Vue or React into the host application. The package ships with:

A floating support widget for guest and authenticated customers
A polished support inbox for agents
Real-time messaging via Laravel broadcasting and Reverb
Transfer, assignment, status tracking, internal notes, unread counts, and typing indicators
Sensible defaults with clear configuration and publishable resources

Supported Versions

PHP 8.2+
Laravel 11 and 12
Livewire 3
Laravel Reverb or another Laravel broadcasting driver

Features

Floating chat bubble with left/right positioning
Responsive chat panel with welcome content and unread badge
Guest chat and authenticated customer chat
Real-time messages with polling fallback
New message audio notification
Agent inbox with filters for status, priority, and assignment
Assign-to-self and agent-to-agent transfers
Internal notes for support staff
Conversation status management: open, pending, resolved, closed
Theme and copy customization from config or optional chat_settings overrides
Authorization through abilities or an agent flag column
Private agent/customer channels plus tokenized guest channels

Installation

composer require mahbuburriad/laravel-support-chat
php artisan support-chat:install
php artisan migrate
php artisan install:broadcasting

Add the widget to your layout:

<x-support-chat-widget />

Or:

@supportChatWidget

Reverb Setup

Install broadcasting support if your app does not already have it:

php artisan install:broadcasting
php artisan reverb:install

Set your broadcast connection:

BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb
SUPPORT_CHAT_BROADCAST_DRIVER=reverb

Start Reverb and your queue worker:

php artisan reverb:start
php artisan queue:work

Load Echo in your host application. The package listens for standard Laravel Echo channel events from Livewire components.

Publish Steps

The installer publishes the essentials automatically. You can also publish resources manually:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=support-chat-config
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=support-chat-migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=support-chat-assets
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=support-chat-views

Migration Steps

The package creates these tables:

chat_conversations
chat_messages
chat_participants
chat_transfers
chat_notes
chat_settings

Run:

php artisan migrate

Authorization Setup

Use one of these approaches:

Define a gate for manage-support-chat
Configure an agent flag column such as is_support_agent

Example gate:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;

Gate::define('manage-support-chat', fn ($user) => $user->is_support_agent);

Example config:

'authorization' => [
    'agent_role_column' => 'is_support_agent',
],

Admin Integration

The package includes a route-based inbox at the configurable admin prefix:

'admin_route_prefix' => 'admin/support-chat',

Visit:

/admin/support-chat

If your app already has an admin layout, point the package to it:

'layouts' => [
    'admin' => 'layouts.admin',
],

You can also render the admin Livewire component inside an existing page:

<livewire:support-chat-admin-dashboard />

Frontend Integration

Global Widget

Drop the widget into your main Blade layout:

<x-support-chat-widget />

Dedicated Chat Page

The package includes a route-based page at:

/support-chat/chat

You can also embed the Livewire widget directly:

<livewire:support-chat-widget />

Configuration Example

return [
    'widget' => [
        'position' => 'right',
        'title' => 'Need Help?',
        'welcome_text' => 'Ask us anything. A human agent will reply shortly.',
        'border_radius' => '28px',
        'logo' => '/images/support-logo.png',
        'sound' => [
            'enabled' => true,
            'volume' => 0.35,
        ],
        'theme' => [
            'primary' => '#0f766e',
            'secondary' => '#ecfeff',
        ],
    ],
    'chat' => [
        'allow_guest_chat' => true,
    ],
    'authorization' => [
        'agent_role_column' => 'is_support_agent',
    ],
];

Screenshots

[Placeholder] Floating widget on storefront pages
[Placeholder] Expanded customer chat panel
[Placeholder] Support inbox with filters and transfer controls

Security Notes

Agent access is gated through Laravel authorization
Customer conversation access is restricted to the owning user
Guest real-time channels use the conversation UUID plus guest token
Messages are sanitized with strip_tags() before storage
Message creation is rate-limited
Livewire actions validate payloads before persistence
Sensitive agent actions are policy-protected

Roadmap

Attachments and uploads
Departments and routing rules
Canned replies
Email notifications
Slack / Telegram relays
Transcript export
Chatbot handoff

Testing

Run the package test suite with:

composer test

Contribution Guide

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Add or update tests with your change
Submit a pull request with a focused description

Issues and PRs should prefer backward-compatible changes, documented config additions, and explicit security reasoning for anything involving channels or authorization.

License

Released under the MIT License.

mahbuburriad / laravel-support-chat

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