Using Google IDX/Firebase Studio for PHP

Context or Problem

Skill Issue

Experiment

Tried using Google IDX → Firebase Studio for PHP today 🤗.

Turns out the dev.nix file can set up everything you need for a project—kind of like Docker. Need PHP, Composer, MySQL? Just list the packages and enable the services.

I gave Laravel 12 a shot. Firebase Studio even has an official Laravel template, but it wasn’t quite right—had asset URL issues and CSRF headaches. I’m so over that, especially since I hit the same snag on GitHub Codespaces and GitPod (cloud editors like IDX).

So I started fresh with a blank template: added php83, php83Packages.composer, and enabled MySQL, all in dev.nix. No need to install Node.js manually—IDX gives you that by default.

How to use it?
There really isn’t a “one-command” install—you manually list everything inside dev.nix. The upside: you can spin up multiple Laravel projects in one IDX instance (you’re limited to 10 projects per account). For example:

laravel new project1 && cd project1
laravel new project2 && cd project2

Sounds great…except it didn’t work! Composer was acting dumb and wouldn’t run the laravel command, even though I’d installed it globally. Checking $PATH or running export showed no path to the global Composer bin.

Long story short, I had to manually export the path in dev.nix:

COMPOSER_GLOBAL_PACKAGE = "/home/user/.config/composer/vendor/bin"

Now I run global Composer binaries like:

$COMPOSER_GLOBAL_PACKAGE/laravel new project_name

Not perfect, but it works.

Of course php artisan command will also works fine without $COMPOSER_GLOBAL_PACKAGE, you can also just change that long name to something that you can use and remeber easier.

After that, I installed the Livewire starter kit—smooth as butter. Don’t forget to run npm run dev (or composer run dev) to recompile the Tailwind CSS.

Conclusion: I want a dev environment with PHP + Laravel 12 + Livewire + Composer + MySQL in Google IDX or Firebase Studio…but the laravel new command refuses to run.

Next up: King WordPress

NOTE In this article I fail to do it, but finally found a way to fix it on my new journal Finally I Can Develop WordPress Project in Firebase Studio IDX

• Installed normally with Composer in /real-wp, then served via

  php -S localhost:8080

  Installation worked, but I got stuck in an infinite redirect loop—assets were still loading over http instead of https. Tweaking siteurl, homeurl, and port didn’t help. At least /wp-admin was accessible.

• Tried again with WP-CLI:

  wp server

  The blog showed up with correct asset URLs, but suddenly /wp-admin broke. Go figure.

• Next: Docker, using the official WordPress image from Docker Hub. Copied the default docker-compose.yml, then build and up. Same redirect problem. All ports are public; otherwise you have to log into Google first.

Final thoughts: The issue doesn’t seem to be WordPress. IDX is messing with http/https and port 8080 redirects in some weird way. I’m baffled. Skill issue out.