Think of Laravel Telescope as a security camera for your Laravel application.

It helps you see:

• Requests coming into your website
• Database queries
• Errors and exceptions
• Jobs and queues
• Emails sent by Laravel
• Cache operations
• Logs

Telescope is mainly used by developers while building and debugging applications.

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Check Laravel First

If Laravel is already installed, go to Step 2.

If Laravel is already installed and your database is ready, you can go to Step 3.

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Step 1: Install Laravel First

Before using Telescope, you need a Laravel project.

What you need first

Make sure these are installed on your computer:

• PHP
• Composer
• A database like MySQL or SQLite
• A code editor like VS Code

Check if PHP is installed

Open Terminal or Command Prompt and run:

php -v

If PHP is installed, you will see the version number.

Check if Composer is installed

Run:

composer -V

If Composer is installed, you will see its version number.

Create a new Laravel project

Run this command:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-project

What happens?

Laravel will be downloaded and installed into a folder named my-project.

Go into the project folder

cd my-project

Check that Laravel is working

Run:

php artisan --version

You should see something like:

Laravel Framework 12.x.x

If you see this, Laravel is installed correctly.

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Step 2: Configure MySQL Database

Before using Telescope, Laravel must be connected to your MySQL database.

Create a MySQL database

Open your MySQL tool, such as:

• phpMyAdmin
• MySQL Workbench
• Command line MySQL

Create a new database.

Example database name:

laravel_telescope

Open the .env file

Inside your Laravel project, find the .env file.

This file stores database settings.

Update the database settings

Find these lines:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_telescope
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

What do these mean?

• DB_CONNECTION = database type
• DB_HOST = database server address
• DB_PORT = database port number
• DB_DATABASE = database name
• DB_USERNAME = MySQL username
• DB_PASSWORD = MySQL password

Save the file

After editing .env, save it.

Test the database connection

Run:

php artisan migrate

If the database is connected correctly, Laravel will create its tables successfully.

If you see an error, check:

• Database name
• Username
• Password
• MySQL server is running

---

Step 3: Install Laravel Telescope

Run:

composer require laravel/telescope --dev

What happens?

Composer downloads Telescope and adds it to your project.

Wait until installation completes successfully.

---

Step 4: Install Telescope Files

Run:

php artisan telescope:install

What happens?

Laravel creates:

• Telescope configuration file
• Database migration files
• Telescope service provider

You should see success messages.

---

Step 5: Create Telescope Database Tables

Run:

php artisan migrate

What happens?

Laravel creates Telescope tables in your database.

Example tables:

• telescope_entries
• telescope_entries_tags
• telescope_monitoring

These tables store Telescope data.

---

Step 6: Start Laravel Server

Run:

php artisan serve

Output:

INFO Server running on http://127.0.0.1:8000

Keep this terminal open.

---

Step 7: Open Telescope Dashboard

Open your browser.

Visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/telescope

You should see the Telescope dashboard.

Congratulations! Telescope is running.

---

Step 8: Generate Some Activity

Open another browser tab and visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

Refresh the page a few times.

Why?

Because Telescope only shows activity after something happens.

---

Step 9: Refresh Telescope

Go back to:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/telescope

Refresh the page.

Now you should see:

• Requests
• Queries
• Logs
• Events

being recorded.

---

Step 10: View Requests

Click:

Requests

You can see:

• URL visited
• Response status
• Execution time
• User information

Example:

GET /
Status: 200
Duration: 25ms

---

Step 11: View Database Queries

Click:

Queries

You can see SQL statements executed by Laravel.

Example:

select * from users

Useful for finding slow queries.

---

Step 12: View Errors

Create an intentional error.

Example route:

Route::get('/error', function () {
    throw new Exception('Test Error');
});

Visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/error

Now check Telescope → Exceptions.

You will see:

Test Error

and its details.

---

Step 13: View Logs

Add a log entry:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;

Log::info('Testing Telescope Logs');

Refresh the page.

Open Telescope → Logs.

You should see:

Testing Telescope Logs

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Step 14: Clear Telescope Data

Sometimes Telescope stores lots of data.

Clear old records:

php artisan telescope:clear

---

Step 15: Pause Telescope Recording

You can stop recording:

php artisan telescope:pause

Resume recording:

php artisan telescope:resume

---

Common Commands

Install Laravel project:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-project

Check Laravel version:

php artisan --version

Configure MySQL database:

Edit the .env file

Install Telescope:

composer require laravel/telescope --dev

Install Telescope Files:

php artisan telescope:install

Run Migrations:

php artisan migrate

Start Server:

php artisan serve

Clear Telescope Data:

php artisan telescope:clear

Pause Telescope:

php artisan telescope:pause

Resume Telescope:

php artisan telescope:resume

---

Easy Memory Trick

Think of Telescope as:

Laravel App
      ↓
Telescope Watches Everything
      ↓
Shows Information on Dashboard
      ↓
Developer Finds Problems Faster

Formula

Install Laravel
   ↓
Configure MySQL
   ↓
Install Telescope
   ↓
Migrate
   ↓
Serve
   ↓
Open /telescope
   ↓
Generate Activity
   ↓
Inspect Results

That’s the complete beginner workflow for Laravel Telescope.