1 · Prepare your environment

Goal: know, before you install anything, that this machine can run the panel — and know which line to fix if it cannot.

Nothing here is guesswork. Every constraint below is declared in the package's own composer.json and package.json, which means composer enforces them at install time rather than letting them surface as a runtime error three steps later.

Do this

Run all four. Each one answers a question the installer would otherwise answer for you later.

php -v                              # 8.2 or newer
php -m | grep -E '^(json|zip)$'     # both must print
composer -V                         # 2.2 or newer
node -v                             # 20.19 or newer

What each one is for

Requirement	Constraint	Why the package needs it
php	^8.2	PHP 8.2 is supported through Laravel 12, the newest Laravel that runs on it
ext-json	any	Metadata crosses to Vue as JSON, and .panel-assets.json is read and written as JSON
ext-zip	any	XLSX import and export — an .xlsx file is a zip archive
composer-runtime-api	^2.2	Reports a plugin's installed version instead of trusting a hand-written string
laravel/framework	^12.0 || ^13.0	Laravel 11 is not supported and cannot be
inertiajs/inertia-laravel	^3.0	Every panel screen is an Inertia response; version 2 is not supported
laravel/fortify	^1.37.2	Login, registration, password reset, two-factor and passkeys
Node	20.19+	Vite 7's floor, which is what builds the panel's Vue components

PHP 8.2 with Laravel 13 does not exist

Laravel 13 requires PHP 8.3. On PHP 8.2 you get Laravel 12, and that combination is tested as a real CI job rather than assumed to work.

ext-zip is required even if you never export a spreadsheet

It is declared in require, not in suggest, so composer refuses to install the package without it. On Debian and Ubuntu: sudo apt install php8.3-zip. With Homebrew's PHP it is already compiled in.

The database

Nothing in the package is engine-specific — queries are ordinary Eloquent, and the test suite runs on SQLite. Any database Laravel supports will do, including the database/database.sqlite file a fresh Laravel application creates for you.

What the package does need is its own schema, which ships as four migrations that run from the package by default. You do not publish them, and you do not copy them:

Migration	What it creates
create_notifications_table	Laravel's notifications table, read on every panel request
add_email_two_factor_to_users_table	two_factor_email_confirmed_at on users
create_panel_integrations_table	panel_integrations
add_history_and_signing_to_panel_integrations	panel_integration_deliveries, and a secret column

Each one skips itself when the table or column is already there, so they are safe on an application that already has a notifications table.

Do not publish the migrations "to be safe"

Publishing a copy while load_migrations is still true gives you the package's copy and yours — the same schema applied twice. Publish only when you want to own them, and set load_migrations to false in the same commit.

What the panel expects of your application

Three things must be true of the frontend, and none of them is something the package can do for you. Step 2 gives you all three at once; this table is so you recognise them when the installer names one.

	What	Where it lives
1	An Inertia root view, and Inertia's middleware	resources/views/app.blade.php, app/Http/Middleware/HandleInertiaRequests.php
2	A Vite config	vite.config.ts or vite.config.js
3	The npm packages the components import, and the @/… modules your application owns	package.json, resources/js/

And one thing of the user model — though only the first two matter today:

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Laravel\Fortify\TwoFactorAuthenticatable;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use Notifiable;                  // the notification centre
    use TwoFactorAuthenticatable;    // the security settings page
}

A Laravel Vue starter kit application already has both traits.

Check it worked

You are ready when all four commands printed a version in range and neither json nor zip was missing. Write down what php -v said — if composer require refuses in step 3, that number is the first thing to compare against.

If it did not work

Symptom	Cause	Fix
php -m prints no zip	The extension is not installed	apt install php8.3-zip, or enable extension=zip in php.ini
node -v prints 18.x or 20.10	Below Vite 7's floor	Install Node 20.19+ or 22 LTS — nvm install 22
composer -V prints 1.x	Too old for composer-runtime-api ^2.2	composer self-update --2
Two PHP versions on the machine	The CLI PHP is not the one your web server runs	Compare php -v with a phpinfo() page before debugging anything else

Next

Everything above is a property of the machine. The next step is a property of the project.

→ 2 · Create the project

See also

• Requirements — the same list, with the reasoning in full
• Compatibility matrix — what CI tests, and what is deliberately unsupported
• Frontend requirements — every npm package and host module