Start with Skills for the packages already in your Laravel project. A Livewire project, a Filament admin panel, and an Inertia application need different guidance. Adding every available Skill makes it harder to tell which instructions fit the task.
If you are deciding whether you need Boost, MCP, or AI SDK, start with the Laravel AI tools comparison.
Choose guidance that matches your stack
| Your project uses | Guidance to look for | A useful evaluation task |
|---|---|---|
| Livewire | Livewire development | Plan a form using the installed component conventions. |
| Inertia | Guidance for your actual frontend framework | Trace a page’s existing data and form flow before changing it. |
| Filament 5 | Filament’s supplied development Skill | Plan a resource with the project’s authorization rules. |
| Pest or PHPUnit | Testing guidance for the installed versions | Add a test for a meaningful behavior change. |
| A domain-specific workflow | A project Skill | Follow the application’s invoice or import conventions. |
The table is a selection aid. Use the installer and generated files to confirm availability in your dependency combination. Avoid copying a Skill from an unrelated major version just because its name appears in a tutorial.
Install and inspect the result
In a Laravel development checkout, the official setup uses:
composer require laravel/boost --dev
php artisan boost:installSelect the agent you use and enable Skills in the interactive installer. Boost detects packages and generates agent resources. Official setup and Skills documentation.
After setup, inspect the generated files before your first implementation task:
- Confirm that the installer selected the agent you actually launch in this checkout.
- Read the relevant
SKILL.mdand compare its instructions with your installed stack. - Review the configuration diff so you understand what changed.
- Start a small task and check whether the agent identifies the relevant guidance.
- Run the project’s existing checks and inspect the resulting code.
Treat the last two steps as an acceptance check. A file on disk proves installation output exists; it does not by itself prove the agent discovered it or used it correctly.
Fix a missing Filament Skill
For Filament 5, the official AI-assisted development guide says to run php artisan boost:install, select Agent Skills, then filament/filament (skills). Check your agent’s Skills directory for filament-development/SKILL.md.
If you installed Boost before Filament supplied its Skill, rerun the installer and enable that feature. Filament explicitly distinguishes this from running boost:update alone, which does not enable new features.
This recommendation covers the Filament development Skill. Check the Filament documentation separately before choosing any additional planning extension or paid package.
Refreshing resources and discovering new packages
Use php artisan boost:update to refresh existing resources. Current Boost documentation also provides php artisan boost:update --discover to look for newly installed packages. Rerun the installer when you need to enable Skills or change the initial feature choices. Official update behavior.
A practical sequence after a dependency change is to review the lockfile diff, update the relevant resources, and inspect their diff together. This makes changes to framework assumptions visible during review.
Testing Skill names can change
At this review date, the Boost documentation table still lists pest-testing, while merged Boost PR #769 describes consolidated testing guidance. The review example in that PR uses testing-best-practices.
Check your installed release and generated Skill name before debugging a missing old name. Do not install overlapping testing instructions just to make every historical name present. Keep a short note of the PHP, framework, Boost, and testing package versions alongside any team setup instructions.
Add a project Skill when the workflow is specific
Boost supports .ai/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md for custom project Skills, which can be installed with boost:update. Official custom Skills documentation.
For an invoice-import workflow, useful instructions might identify the existing parser, required validation, duplicate handling, and the command that verifies import behavior. Describe where the agent should look and the result it must check. Keep package-level guidance with the package Skills and application-specific decisions with your project’s instructions.
Troubleshooting checklist
| What you observe | What to inspect next |
|---|---|
| No Skills were generated | Installer feature choices and the selected agent. |
| A package Skill is absent | The installed package version, its supplied resources, and discovery or installation choices. |
| The file exists but the agent ignores it | The agent’s documented discovery location and the Skill’s task description. |
| Generated code follows an older framework API | The lockfile, resource diff, and instructions that may conflict. |
| A testing Skill has a different name | Release changes and the generated files, rather than an old tutorial’s table. |
Sources were reviewed on October 6, 2026 against Laravel 13.x and Filament 5.x documentation. These are documented setup steps and review suggestions, not a claim of a completed installation in your particular environment. Browse PHP agent Skills for other workflows and inspect each one’s source before adopting it.