Installing SaasForgeKit on macOS

This guide walks you through setting up SaasForgeKit on macOS 12+.

We recommend using Laravel Herd for macOS. It bundles PHP, Composer, and a zero-config local server for Laravel applications.

Laravel Herd

Download and install Herd from the official Herd website.

After installation, complete the onboarding flow. Herd parks projects under ~/Herd by default, and apps inside this directory are served automatically on the .test domain.

Install SaasForgeKit

Clone the repository into your Herd directory:

Lite (open source):

cd ~/Herd
git clone [email protected]:SaasForgeKit/saasforgekit-lite.git
cd saasforgekit-lite

Pro (requires purchase):

cd ~/Herd
git clone [email protected]:SaasForgeKit/saasforgekit-pro.git saasforgekit
cd saasforgekit

Quick setup (recommended)

Run the built-in setup script:

composer run setup

This command installs PHP dependencies, creates .env, generates an app key, runs migrations, installs npm dependencies, and builds frontend assets.

Optional: manual setup steps

If you prefer to run each step manually:

composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate --seed
npm install
npm run build

Start development

composer run dev

This starts the app server, queue worker, log stream, and Vite dev server.

Visit the site

Open:

http://saasforgekit.test

Default admin login

If you seeded the database, the default admin account is:

Email:

[email protected]

Password:

password

Database notes

For tenancy mode configuration, see Tenancy Mode (Required). For local development, SQLite or MySQL are both valid options. Configure your database connection in .env as needed.