Mailbox for Laravel -
Test & Debug Emails Locally

A zero-configuration local email inbox for your Laravel app. Capture, inspect, and debug every outgoing email - no external services required.

View on GitHub Watch the Walkthrough

Mailbox for Laravel

The Problem

You’re building email flows - welcome emails, password resets, invoices, notifications - but testing them is painful.

log driver shows raw text
You get a wall of headers and encoded HTML in your log file. No way to see what the user actually receives.
External services add friction
Mailtrap, Mailhog, and similar tools require accounts, API keys, Docker containers, or running separate processes. Every team member has to set them up.
Emails break silently
A broken layout, a missing variable, a wrong recipient — you don’t catch it until someone reports it or you dig through logs.
Onboarding is slow
New developers on the project need to configure an email testing tool before they can work on anything that sends mail.

Why Mailbox?

Like Mailtrap - but it lives inside your app. No signups. No API keys. No extra processes. One composer require and you’re done.

For solo developers

You’re iterating on a transactional email. Instead of sending it to a real address, checking Mailtrap, or reading log files - just open "/mailbox" in your browser. Every email your app sends is right there, rendered exactly as the recipient would see it.

For teams

Everyone on the team gets the same email debugging experience out of the box. No shared Mailtrap accounts, no “did you configure your mail driver?” questions. It’s in the repo. It just works.

For CI and staging environments

Mailbox captures emails silently without sending them to real recipients, verify email flows in staging without emailing customers. Auto-enabled in non-production environments.

Captured mail includes password-reset links, tokens and personal data, and the default gate is permissive. Outside local dev, require authentication and a strict viewMailbox gate before enabling. Keep MAILBOX_ENABLED=false in production.

Install Mailbox

Mailbox forLaravel: Features

Mailbox intercepts all outgoing emails and displays them in a beautiful, self-contained dashboard.

Zero Configuration

Set MAIL_MAILER=mailbox and you’re done. No API keys, no external accounts, no setup.

Attachment Support

View, download, and preview email attachments including inline images.

Local Email Capture

Every email your application sends is intercepted and stored locally for inspection.

Modern Dashboard

A full-featured email client UI built with Vue 3 and Tailwind, served at /mailbox.

How It Works

Three steps. No accounts. No configuration files. No environment variables beyond the mailer.

Step 1 - Install

Add Mailbox to your Laravel project and install everything it needs.

/mailbox

composer require redberry/mailbox-for-laravel --dev
php artisan mailbox:install

Step 2 - Set your mailer

Point Laravel’s mailer to Mailbox with a single environment variable.

/mailbox

MAIL_MAILER=mailbox

Step 3 - Send an email

Every email is captured and displayed at /mailbox.

/mailbox

Mail::to('user@example.com')->send(new WelcomeMail());

Dashboard

See Every Email at a Glance
Browse all captured emails with subject, sender, recipients, and timestamps.
Inspect Emails Your Way
Switch between HTML preview, plain text, and raw RFC 822 source.
Work with Attachments Easily
View and download attachments directly from the dashboard.
Keep Your Inbox Clean
Delete individual messages or clear the entire inbox
Find What You Need, Fast
Paginated, searchable, and responsive

Database

Default. Uses a dedicated SQLite connection out of the box. Supports MySQL and PostgreSQL.

File

JSON files in storage/app/mailbox/. No database required.

Custom

Implement the MessageStore contract for Redis, S3, or any backend you need.

Configuration

Sensible defaults. Full control when you need it.

Storage driver-
database, file, or a custom implementation.
Retention period -How long to keep captured emails (default: 24 hours)
Polling interval-Real-time update frequency in milliseconds
Attachment limits-Max file size, total size, and allowed MIME types
Authorization gate-Custom gate for dashboard access control
Route prefix -Change the dashboard URL from /mailbox to anything

// config/mailbox.php

1234567891011121314151617

'store' => [

'driver' => env('MAILBOX_STORE_DRIVER', 'database'),

'retention' => [

'seconds' => env('MAILBOX_RETENTION', 86400),

'polling' => [

'enabled' => env('MAILBOX_POLLING_ENABLED', true),

'interval' => env('MAILBOX_POLLING_INTERVAL', 5000),

'attachments' => [

'enabled' => env('MAILBOX_ATTACHMENTS_ENABLED', true),

'max_size' => 5 * 1024 * 1024, // 5MB

Artisan Commands

Safe by Default

Auto-enabled only in non-production environments

Control Access

Gate-based authorization via Laravel’s Gate facade

Customize Redirects

Configurable redirect for unauthorized users

Configure Middleware

Middleware stack is fully customizable

Protect Attachments

MIME type whitelist prevents unsafe file storage

Stop sending emails into the void

Install Mailbox and see every email your Laravel app sends

Github Learn More

composer require redberry/mailbox-for-laravel