Welcome to this beginner-friendly Laravel Breeze tutorial. This guide assumes you have zero knowledge of Laravel. By the end of this tutorial, you will:

• Install Laravel
• Install Laravel Breeze
• Create your first page
• Register and log in users
• Understand authentication
• Connect Laravel to a database using phpMyAdmin
• Protect routes with middleware

Chapter 1: What is Laravel Breeze?

Laravel Breeze is Laravel’s official starter kit. It provides a ready-made authentication system including:

• Login
• Registration
• Password Reset
• Email Verification (optional)
• User Dashboard
• Logout

Instead of building these features yourself, Breeze creates them automatically.

Chapter 2: Requirements

Before installing Laravel, install the following software.

PHP

Laravel requires PHP.

Check your version:

php -v

Composer

Composer is PHP’s package manager.

Check installation:

composer -V

Node.js

Laravel Breeze uses Node.js to compile CSS and JavaScript.

Check:

node -v

npm

Check:

npm -v

Chapter 3: Create Your First Laravel Project

Open Terminal.

Run:

composer create-project laravel/laravel breeze-app

Move into the project.

cd breeze-app

Chapter 4: Open Project

If using VS Code:

code .

Chapter 5: Install Breeze

Run:

composer require laravel/breeze --dev

Install Breeze.

php artisan breeze:install

Choose the following options:

Question: Which Breeze stack would you like to install? Answer: Blade with Alpine is a simple and beginner-friendly choice because it uses Blade templates and lightweight Alpine.js for basic interactivity. Type Blade and press Enter.

Question: Would you like dark mode support? (yes/no) [no] Answer: This question asks whether you want your application to include a dark theme option. Type yes if you want dark mode support. Type no if you do not want dark mode support. For beginners, you can simply press Enter to accept the default answer, which is no.

Question: Which testing framework do you prefer? [Pest] Answer: Pest is a modern and beginner-friendly testing framework for Laravel. It uses a clean and readable syntax, which makes writing tests easier to understand. For this tutorial, you can simply press Enter to accept the default option, which is Pest.

After you answer these questions, Laravel will begin setting up Breeze automatically. During this process, it will publish the authentication files, configure the starter kit, and prepare the project for use. Wait until the installation finishes before moving to the next step.

Install JavaScript packages.

npm install

Compile assets.

npm run dev

Chapter 6: Configure Database

Before running migrations, connect Laravel to your database using phpMyAdmin.

Enter a database name, for example laravel. You can use any database name you want.

Update the .env File

Open the .env file in your Laravel project and update the database settings.

Example:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Explanation

• DB_CONNECTION=mysql tells Laravel to use MySQL
• DB_HOST=localhost means the database is on your local computer
• DB_PORT=3306 is the default MySQL port
• DB_DATABASE=laravel is the name of your database
• DB_USERNAME=root is your MySQL username
• DB_PASSWORD= is your MySQL password

If your MySQL password is not empty, place it inside DB_PASSWORD.

Run Migrations

Now run:

php artisan migrate

Laravel will create all required tables in your MySQL database, and you will be able to see them inside phpMyAdmin.

Chapter 7: Start the Server

php artisan serve

Visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

You should now see:

• Login
• Register

Chapter 8: Register a User

Click Register.

Fill:

• Name
• Email
• Password
• Confirm Password

Click Register.

Laravel automatically logs you in.

Chapter 9: Login

Logout.

Click Login.

Enter:

• Email
• Password

You are authenticated.

Chapter 10: Authentication Flow

When a user registers:

1. User fills the form.
2. Laravel validates the input.
3. Password is encrypted.
4. User is saved in the MySQL database.
5. User is logged in automatically.
6. Session is created.

Chapter 11: Database

This tutorial uses MySQL as the database system, and phpMyAdmin is used to manage it.

Laravel stores user data and authentication records in MySQL tables.

The most common tables created by Laravel Breeze include:

• users
• password_reset_tokens
• sessions
• cache
• jobs (if enabled)

If you want to check your database manually, open phpMyAdmin and look at the tables created after running migrations.

Chapter 12: Important Breeze Files

Routes:

routes/web.php

Authentication controllers:

app/Http/Controllers/Auth/

Views:

resources/views/auth/

Dashboard:

resources/views/dashboard.blade.php

Layout:

resources/views/layouts/

Chapter 13: Protect Routes

Only logged-in users should access the dashboard.

Laravel uses middleware.

Example:

Route::middleware('auth')->group(function () {

    Route::get('/dashboard', function () {

        return view('dashboard');

    });

});

Chapter 14: Logout

Click Logout.

Laravel:

• Destroys the session
• Logs out the user
• Redirects to the home page

Chapter 15: What You’ve Learned

Congratulations!

You have learned how to:

• Install Laravel
• Install Breeze
• Run a Laravel project
• Connect Laravel to MySQL using phpMyAdmin
• Register users
• Log in users
• Understand authentication
• Protect routes with middleware
• Run database migrations

Happy coding with Laravel and MySQL!