Getting Started

Attention

These docs are for Scribe v2, which is no longer maintained. See scribe.knuckles.wtf/laravel for Scribe v3.

Set up the package

First, install the package:

composer require --dev knuckleswtf/scribe

Next, publish the config file.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Knuckles\Scribe\ScribeServiceProvider" --tag=scribe-config

This will create a scribe.php file in your config directory. Cool, now you’re ready to take it for a spin.

Basic configuration

There are two important settings we need to verify in our scribe.php config file before trying it out.

  • How do you want your documentation to be routed? This is set in the type key in the config file. You have two options:
    • As a simple set of HTML/CSS/JavaScript files (type = static): This generates a single index.html file (plus CSS and JS assets) to your public/docs folder. The benefit of this is that it’s easy; on your local machine, you can just right-click the file and “Open in Browser”, and on your server, just visit /docs. The routing of this file does not pass through Laravel. The downside of this is that you cannot easily add authentication, or any other middleware.
    • As a Blade view through your Laravel app (type = laravel): Use this type if you want to add auth or any middleware to your docs, or if you just prefer serving it through Laravel. With this type, Scribe will automatically add the corresponding Laravel route for you, but you can customize this.
  • The router key. This is important so Scribe can retrieve your routes properly. If you’re using Dingo, you should change this to dingo. Otherwise, leave it as laravel.

Do a test run

Now, let’s do a test run. Run the command to generate your docs.

php artisan scribe:generate

Visit your newly generated docs:

  • If you’re using static type, find the docs/index.html file in your public/ folder and open it in your browser.
  • If you’re using laravel type, start your app (php artisan serve), then visit /docs.

There’s also a Postman collection generated for you by default. You can get it by visiting public/docs/collection.json for static type, and <your-app>/docs.json for laravel type.

If you’d like an OpenAPI (Swagger) spec, Scribe can do that too. Set openapi.enabled in your config to true, then run the generate command. You can get the generated spec by visiting public/docs/openapi.yaml for static type, and <your-app>/docs.openapi for laravel type.

Great! You’ve seen what Scribe can do. Now, let’s refine our docs to match what we want.

Add general information about your API

First, let’s add some general info about the API. Here are some things you can customise with Scribe:

  • The introductory text
  • Authentication information
  • Languages for the example requests
  • A logo to show in your docs.

For details, check out Documenting API information.

Choose your routes

Next up, decide what routes you want to document. This is configured in the routes key of scribe.php. By default, Scribe will try to document all of your routes, so if you’re okay with that, you can leave it at that.

If you’d like to exclude some routes, there are two ways:

  • In the docblock for the controller method or class, add this tag: @hideFromAPIDocumentation. Any routes handled by methods or controllers with this doc block tag won’t be added to the doc.
  • The second way is by configuring your routes config. Here’s what it looks like:
    'routes' => [
        [
            'match' => [
                'domains' => ['*'],
                'prefixes' => ['*'],
                'versions' => ['v1'],
            ],
            'include' => [
                // 'users.index', 'healthcheck*'
            ],
            'exclude' => [
                // '/health', 'admin.*'
            ],
            'apply' => [
                'headers' => [
                    'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
                    'Accept' => 'application/json',
                ],
                'response_calls' => [
                    'methods' => ['GET'],
                    'config' => [
                        'app.env' => 'documentation',
                        'app.debug' => false,
                    ],
                    'cookies' => [
                        // 'name' => 'value'
                    ],
                    'queryParams' => [
                        // 'key' => 'value',
                    ],
                    'bodyParams' => [
                        // 'key' => 'value',
                    ],
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],

With Scribe, you split up your routes into route groups. Each entry in the routes array is a single group. The main purpose of these groups is so you can apply different settings to multiple endpoints in one go. For instance, for some routes, you’d like an Api-Version header to be added to some routes, but not others, you can easily configure that here. You can also configure response calls in here.

By default, all your routes are in a single group, and we recommend leaving them like that. You can split your routes later if you realise you need to.

Here’s the full documentation on configuring routes.

Add information to your routes

Scribe tries to figure out information about your routes, but it needs more help from you to go far. Here’s some information you can enrich:

  • Groups (you can group your endpoints by domain eg “User management”, “Order information”)
  • URL parameters
  • Request Headers
  • Body parameters
  • Query parameters
  • Example responses
  • Fields in the response

Check out how to do this in the guide on Documenting your API.

Generate and publish

After making changes as needed, you can run php artisan scribe:generate as many times as you want.

When you’re happy with how your documentation looks, you’re good to go. You can add the generated documentation to your version control and deploy as normal, and your users will be able to access it as you’ve configured.

Need advanced customization?

Don’t like how the template looks? Want to change how things are organized, or add a custom language for the examples? Thinking of custom ways to extract more information about your routes? Check out the guide on advanced customization.