A Guide to the Laravel Nuxt UI Starter Kit

Building a modern, full-stack web application often involves a significant amount of setup and configuration. Developers must integrate a backend framework, a frontend JavaScript library, a UI component library, and a build tool, all while ensuring best practices for authentication, testing, and code quality. The Laravel Nuxt UI Starter Kit is a production-ready solution designed to eliminate this initial friction, allowing your team to start building features immediately.

This starter kit combines the power of Laravel on the backend with a sophisticated Vue 3 and Nuxt UI frontend, connected seamlessly by Inertia.js. This guide provides a detailed exploration of the kit, covering its core features, setup process, and practical use cases. We will examine how this integrated stack can accelerate your development process and help you deliver high-quality applications faster.

What is the Laravel Nuxt UI Starter Kit?

The Laravel Nuxt UI Starter Kit is a pre-configured, open-source project that provides a robust foundation for building modern web applications. It bundles several powerful technologies into a cohesive, zero-configuration environment, allowing developers to bypass the tedious setup phase and focus directly on application logic.

The core stack includes:

• Backend: Laravel 12, the latest version of the popular PHP framework.
• Frontend: Vue 3, a progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces.
• UI Components: Nuxt UI, a beautifully designed and accessible component library.
• Styling: Tailwind CSS v4, the industry-standard utility-first CSS framework.
• Integration Layer: Inertia.js v2, for creating single-page applications (SPAs) with server-side routing.

This combination delivers a powerful, type-safe, and performance-optimized development experience right out of the box.

Getting Started: Setup and Installation

One of the primary goals of the starter kit is to provide a zero-configuration setup. You can create a new project and have a fully functional application running in minutes.

Step 1: Create a New Project

You can initialize a new project using either the Laravel installer or Composer.

Using the Laravel Installer:

laravel new your-app-name --kit=jkque/laravel-nuxt-ui-starter-kit

Using Composer:

composer create-project jkque/laravel-nuxt-ui-starter-kit your-app-name

Step 2: Set Up the Environment

Once the project is created, navigate into the new directory and run the development setup command:

cd your-app-name
composer run dev

This single command orchestrates several tasks:

1. Installs all PHP and JavaScript dependencies.
2. Copies the .env.example file to .env and generates an application key.
3. Runs database migrations using the default SQLite database.
4. Builds the frontend assets.
5. Starts the Laravel server, a queue worker, a log viewer, and the Vite development server.

Your application will be available at http://localhost:8000. You can now register an account and explore the pre-built dashboard and settings pages.

Core Features and What's Included

The starter kit is more than just a collection of technologies; it is a fully-featured application foundation with best practices built-in.

• Full Authentication: A complete authentication system powered by Laravel Fortify, including login, registration, email verification, password reset, and two-factor authentication.
• Beautiful UI: A polished user interface built with the Nuxt UI component library, which is itself based on Headless UI and styled with Tailwind CSS.
• Type Safety: The project is configured for end-to-end type safety, using TypeScript on the frontend and strict types with PHP 8.2+ on the backend. It even includes Laravel Wayfinder for type-safe routing between Laravel and Vue.
• Developer Tooling: A comprehensive suite of tools for testing (Pest), static analysis (PHPStan), and code formatting (Laravel Pint, ESLint, Prettier) is pre-configured to enforce high code quality.
• Example Implementations: The kit includes sample pages for a dashboard, customer management, an inbox, and user settings, demonstrating how to use the included components and patterns.

Practical Use Cases and Code Examples

The true value of the starter kit is how it accelerates the development of common application features. Let's explore how to build a dynamic component using the included stack.

Use Case: Building a Dynamic Customer Table

A common requirement for any SaaS or internal tool is a data table for managing records. We will create a simple table to display a list of customers, complete with sorting and filtering.

Step 1: Define the Route and Controller

First, define a route in routes/web.php to handle the customer list.

// routes/web.php
use App\Http\Controllers\CustomerController;

Route::get('/customers', [CustomerController::class, 'index'])
    ->name('customers.index');

Next, create the CustomerController and its index method. The controller will fetch the customer data and pass it to an Inertia view.

// app/Http/Controllers/CustomerController.php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Customer;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Inertia\Inertia;

class CustomerController extends Controller
{
    public function index(Request $request)
    {
        $customers = Customer::query()
            ->when($request->input('search'), function ($query, $search) {
                $query->where('name', 'like', "%{$search}%");
            })
            ->paginate(10);

        return Inertia::render('Customers/Index', [
            'customers' => $customers,
            'filters' => $request->only(['search']),
        ]);
    }
}

Step 2: Create the Inertia Page Component

Create a new Vue component for the customer index page at resources/js/Pages/Customers/Index.vue. This component will receive the customers data as a prop and display it.

<script setup lang="ts">
import { ref, watch } from 'vue';
import { router } from '@inertiajs/vue3';
import { UTable, UInput, UButton } from '#components'; // Using Nuxt UI auto-imports

const props = defineProps({
  customers: Object,
  filters: Object,
});

const search = ref(props.filters.search);

// Watch for changes in the search input and make an Inertia visit
watch(search, (value) => {
  router.get('/customers', { search: value }, {
    preserveState: true,
    replace: true,
  });
});

const columns = [
  { key: 'name', label: 'Name', sortable: true },
  { key: 'email', label: 'Email', sortable: true },
  { key: 'company', label: 'Company' },
];
</script>

<template>
  <AuthenticatedLayout>
    <div class="p-8">
      <h1 class="text-2xl font-bold mb-6">Customers</h1>

      <div class="flex justify-between items-center mb-4">
        <UInput v-model="search" placeholder="Search by name..." />
        <UButton>Add Customer</UButton>
      </div>

      <UTable :rows="customers.data" :columns="columns" />
    </div>
  </AuthenticatedLayout>
</template>

In this example:

• We use Nuxt UI's UTable, UInput, and UButton components. The starter kit configures auto-imports, so you can use them directly.
• The router.get call from Inertia.js makes a partial request to the server. Laravel detects the Inertia request and returns only the changed data (customers and filters), not a full page reload.
• preserveState: true ensures that the component's local state is maintained across visits.

This pattern demonstrates the power of the TALL stack variation used here: you get a reactive, SPA-like experience while writing traditional server-side controller logic.

Advantages of the Laravel Nuxt UI Starter Kit

• Accelerated Development: Eliminates days or weeks of initial setup. Your team can start building value from day one.
• Enforced Best Practices: The kit enforces high standards for code quality, testing, and type safety, reducing technical debt.
• Unified Stack: Provides a consistent and integrated toolchain, which simplifies onboarding new developers and ensures maintainability.
• Modern User Experience: By leveraging Inertia.js and Vue 3, you can create fast, responsive interfaces that feel like a native application.

Disadvantages and Considerations

• Opinionated by Nature: The kit makes specific choices about the technology stack. If your project requires a different frontend framework (like React) or a different UI library, this starter kit may not be the right fit.
• Learning Curve for the Stack: While the kit simplifies setup, developers new to Laravel, Vue, or Inertia.js will still need to learn the fundamentals of each technology.
• Dependency on the Maintainer: As an open-source project, its long-term maintenance and updates depend on the creator and community contributions.

Performance Considerations

The starter kit is built with performance in mind.

1. Vite Build Tool: Vite provides lightning-fast Hot Module Replacement (HMR) during development and highly optimized bundles for production.
2. Inertia.js Partial Reloads: Inertia minimizes data transfer by fetching only the data that has changed, rather than re-rendering the entire page. This leads to faster navigation and a smoother user experience.
3. Code Splitting: Inertia pages are automatically code-split, meaning JavaScript for a specific page is only loaded when that page is visited.
4. Optional SSR: The kit includes support for Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Inertia, which can improve initial page load times and enhance SEO for public-facing pages.

Conclusion

The Laravel Nuxt UI Starter Kit is an excellent choice for businesses and development teams looking to build modern, full-stack applications on the Laravel and Vue ecosystem. It provides a comprehensive, production-ready foundation that accelerates development, enforces best practices, and delivers a superior developer experience.

By handling the complexities of modern web development setup, this starter kit allows your team to focus on what truly matters: building innovative features and delivering value to your users. It offers a clear path to creating scalable, maintainable, and high-performance applications with confidence.