Installation Guide

Five steps from composer require to a first call: install, set up Broadcasting, publish, put the assets on the page, and let beam:doctor tell you what is left.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or higher
• Laravel 12.61 or 13.12 and up — those minimums are the lowest release of each line with no published security advisory, which is also what Beam's own test matrix resolves to
• Laravel Broadcasting with Reverb, Pusher or Ably — a call's offer and answer travel over it
• HTTPS in production (browsers refuse the camera on plain http away from localhost)

Step 1: Composer Magic

composer require realrashid/beam

The package uses Laravel's auto-discovery, so the service provider and the Beam facade are registered automatically.

Step 2: Broadcasting

If the application does not broadcast yet:

php artisan install:broadcasting

That installs Reverb and writes resources/js/echo.js. Beam signals over whatever Broadcasting you use; a log or null driver means no call can connect, and beam:doctor says so.

Step 3: Set Up the Foundation

php artisan beam:install
php artisan migrate

beam:install publishes config/beam.php, publishes the beam_push_subscriptions migration (when push.store is database, the default), and writes a VAPID key pair for Web Push into .env — once; it never overwrites keys without --force.

Want a working call screen and an incoming-call modal to start from?

php artisan beam:install --views

They land in resources/views/beam/ (plus Call.vue or Call.jsx under resources/js/Pages/Beam/ when package.json has Vue or React) and belong to you from then on. See Headless by Design.

Step 4: Include the Assets

Beam's client is one framework-free class, published to npm as @realrashid/beam and also compiled into the Composer package for apps without a build step. Pick one.

With Vite

npm install @realrashid/beam

import Beam from '@realrashid/beam';          // or '@realrashid/beam/vue', '/react', '/jquery'

Without a build step

<head>
    @vite(['resources/js/app.js'])   {{-- sets up window.Echo --}}
    @beamAssets
</head>

@beamAssets prints the meta tags Beam reads (the signed-in user's id, the route prefix, the CSRF token) and a versioned <script> for the compiled client, which exposes window.Beam. It prints no ICE servers and no keys — those travel in the token.

Step 5: Ask the Doctor

php artisan beam:doctor

One line per thing that can be wrong — Broadcasting, STUN, TURN, the gate, VAPID keys, the service worker, the web app manifest, the client version, HTTPS, client events, the queue — each saying what to do next. On a fresh install expect a warning about TURN: it costs money, and you decide when.

Step 6: A First Call

use RealRashid\Beam\Facades\Beam;

Route::post('/call/{user}', function (User $user) {
    $call = Beam::call($user)->video()->ring();

    return view('beam.call', ['token' => $call->token]);
})->middleware('auth');

Open the page in one browser, the callee's dashboard (with the incoming modal included) in another, and press call. Everything from here — rooms, files, push, events, testing — is in Usage.

Happy coding!

Made with ❤️ from Pakistan