Artisan Commands

Complete guide to Laravel's command-line interface

Introduction to Artisan

Artisan is the command-line interface included with Laravel. It provides helpful commands for building your application.

Viewing All Commands

# List all available Artisan commands
php artisan list

# Get help for a specific command
php artisan help migrate

# Check Laravel version
php artisan --version

Common Commands

Development Server 
# Start development server
php artisan serve

# Custom host and port
php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080
Application Key 
# Generate application key
php artisan key:generate

# Show current key
php artisan key:show
Clear Cache 
# Clear application cache
php artisan cache:clear

# Clear all cache types
php artisan optimize:clear
Queue Management 
# Start queue worker
php artisan queue:work

# Process queue jobs once
php artisan queue:listen

Make Commands

Generate new files and classes using Artisan make commands:

Command Description Example
make:controller Create a new controller php artisan make:controller UserController
make:model Create a new Eloquent model php artisan make:model User
make:migration Create a new migration file php artisan make:migration create_users_table
make:seeder Create a new database seeder php artisan make:seeder UserSeeder
make:factory Create a new model factory php artisan make:factory UserFactory
make:middleware Create a new middleware php artisan make:middleware CheckAge
make:request Create a new form request php artisan make:request StoreUserRequest
make:command Create a new Artisan command php artisan make:command SendEmails

Useful Make Flags

# Create model with migration, factory, and seeder
php artisan make:model User -mfs

# Create resource controller
php artisan make:controller UserController --resource

# Create API controller
php artisan make:controller API/UserController --api

# Create invokable controller
php artisan make:controller SendEmailController --invokable

Database Commands

Migration Commands

# Run all pending migrations
php artisan migrate

# Rollback last migration
php artisan migrate:rollback

# Rollback all migrations
php artisan migrate:reset

# Rollback and re-run all migrations
php artisan migrate:refresh

# Drop all tables and re-run migrations
php artisan migrate:fresh

# Run migrations with seed
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

# Check migration status
php artisan migrate:status

Database Seeding

# Run database seeders
php artisan db:seed

# Run specific seeder
php artisan db:seed --class=UserSeeder

# Refresh database and seed
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

Database Operations

# Show database information
php artisan db:show

# Show table information
php artisan db:table users

# Drop all tables and migrations
php artisan db:wipe

Cache Commands

Clear Cache
# Clear application cache
php artisan cache:clear

# Clear config cache
php artisan config:clear

# Clear route cache
php artisan route:clear

# Clear view cache
php artisan view:clear

# Clear all cache
php artisan optimize:clear
Cache Optimization
# Cache config files
php artisan config:cache

# Cache routes
php artisan route:cache

# Cache views
php artisan view:cache

# Optimize for production
php artisan optimize

Custom Commands

Create your own Artisan commands for application-specific tasks.

Creating a Custom Command

# Generate new command
php artisan make:command SendNewsletters

Example Command Class

<?php

namespace App\Console\Commands;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;

class SendNewsletters extends Command
{
    /**
     * The name and signature of the console command.
     */
    protected $signature = 'email:send-newsletters {--queue}';

    /**
     * The console command description.
     */
    protected $description = 'Send newsletters to all subscribers';

    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        $this->info('Sending newsletters...');

        // Your logic here

        $this->info('Newsletters sent successfully!');

        return Command::SUCCESS;
    }
}

Running Custom Commands

# Run custom command
php artisan email:send-newsletters

# With options
php artisan email:send-newsletters --queue

Task Scheduling

Schedule Artisan commands to run automatically using Laravel's task scheduler.

Setting Up Cron

# Add this to your crontab
* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Scheduling Commands

// app/Console/Kernel.php

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    // Run daily at midnight
    $schedule->command('email:send-newsletters')->daily();

    // Run hourly
    $schedule->command('backup:run')->hourly();

    // Run every minute
    $schedule->command('queue:work')->everyMinute();

    // Custom schedule
    $schedule->command('reports:generate')->dailyAt('13:00');
}

View Scheduled Tasks

# List all scheduled tasks
php artisan schedule:list

# Test scheduler
php artisan schedule:test