Download the PHP package provydon/docs-generate without Composer

✨ Why Docs Generate?

Stop writing documentation manually! This package automatically generates beautiful Swagger/OpenAPI documentation from your existing Laravel code—no annotations, no code pollution, no maintenance headaches.

🎯 Perfect For:

• Laravel APIs that need professional documentation
• Teams who want docs that stay in sync with code
• Developers who hate writing documentation
• Projects that need client-ready API docs

🚀 Quick Start

Get documented instantly:

That's it! 🎉 Your API is now fully documented.

🔗 Use with Any API Client

The generated JSON is compatible with all major API clients:

Import into your favorite tools:

• 📮 Postman - Import OpenAPI 3.0 JSON
• 🌙 Insomnia - Import OpenAPI spec
• 🚀 Thunder Client - VS Code extension
• 🔥 Bruno - Open-source API client
• 📱 Any OpenAPI-compatible tool

Code changes → run command → docs automatically reflect changes

🔄 Documentation Stays in Sync

The best part? Your documentation automatically stays up-to-date with your code:

1. Make code changes → Add new routes, update controllers, modify validation
2. Run php artisan docs:generate → Regenerates the documentation
3. Deploy your code → Documentation file goes with your code
4. Documentation is always current → No manual updates needed!

The docs.json file lives in your public/ folder, so it's part of your project and gets deployed with every code update. Your API documentation will always reflect your latest code changes.

🧱 Always Auto Update Your Documentation

Add php artisan docs:generate to your deployment script or build pipeline so every release ships with freshly generated docs:

You can even surface the progress logs in your CI/CD output:

✨ What You Get

🎨 Beautiful Swagger UI

• Modern, responsive design
• Interactive "Try it out" functionality
• Professional API explorer
• Mobile-friendly interface

🔄 Zero Maintenance

• Auto-detects your routes, validation, and auth
• Stays in sync with your code changes
• No annotations to maintain
• Regenerate with one command

🛡️ Production Ready

• Configurable authentication
• CORS handling included
• Error handling built-in
• Laravel-native integration

🎯 Key Features

📋 Requirements

• PHP 8.1+ (Laravel 13 requires PHP 8.3+ on the host app, matching laravel/framework)
• Laravel 9.0 through 13.x

🛠️ Installation

Step 1: Install via Composer

Step 2: Publish Configuration

This creates:

• config/docs-generate.php - Configuration file
• resources/views/vendor/docs-generate/ - Swagger UI view

Step 3: Generate Documentation

Step 4: View Your Documentation

Navigate to: http://your-app-url/docs

🎨 Authentication

Documentation Access Control

Control who can access your API documentation:

API Authentication Detection

The package automatically detects authentication requirements by checking for these middleware:

• auth
• auth:sanctum
• auth:api
• sanctum
• Any middleware containing Authenticate

⚙️ Configuration

Route Configuration

Customize your documentation routes:

API Information

Edit config/docs-generate.php:

📁 Output File

The generated API documentation is saved as public/docs.json in your Laravel project. This approach offers several benefits:

• Always Accessible: File is in the public folder, accessible via web server
• Stays with Code: Documentation file is part of your project and version controlled
• Auto-Updates: Latest docs automatically follow code updates when you deploy
• Part of Project: Included in version control and deployments
• CDN Ready: Can be served via CDN for better performance
• Simple: No complex storage configuration needed

Direct Access:

Via Route (with error handling):

🔧 How It Works

1. Route Analysis

Scans all Laravel routes with the api/ prefix and extracts:

• HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.)
• URI patterns and parameters
• Controller and method names
• Applied middleware (for auth detection)

2. Validation Extraction

For each route, it inspects the controller method:

• Identifies FormRequest classes in method parameters
• Detects inline $request->validate() calls in method body
• Extracts validation rules from both sources
• Converts rules to OpenAPI schema definitions

3. Smart Type Detection

Based on field names and validation rules, it automatically detects:

• email fields → format: email
• password fields → format: password, minLength: 8
• phone fields → format: phone
• url fields → format: uri
• date fields → format: date
• uuid fields → format: uuid
• image/file fields → format: binary

4. Authentication Detection

Automatically adds security requirements if route has:

• auth middleware
• auth:sanctum middleware
• auth:api middleware
• sanctum middleware
• Any middleware containing Authenticate

📚 Examples

Example 1: FormRequest Validation

Laravel Code:

Generated Swagger:

Example 2: Inline Validation

Laravel Code:

Generated Swagger:

🚀 Commands

Generate Documentation

Generates fresh API documentation from your current routes and controllers.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Documentation not showing?

Make sure you've run:

Routes not appearing?

Check that routes have the api/ prefix:

404 on /docs?

Clear route cache:

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

☕ Support

If this package helped you, consider buying me a coffee to support development!