Vite dev server cannot find `php` binary — Wayfinder type generation fails on startup

[alejandroperezpujante]

Description

When starting the Vite dev server via lerd web ui, the @laravel/vite-plugin-wayfinder plugin fails immediately during its buildStart hook because the php binary is not available in the environment where the Vite process runs.

This works correctly when running npm run dev from a terminal that has php on its PATH.

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new Laravel project using the Vue starter kit:

laravel new myapp --using=laravel/vue-starter-kit

2. Link the project with lerd link (make sure Vite is checked).
3. Observe the error in the linked site in the lerd UI.

---

Error output

Error: Error generating types: Error: Command failed: php artisan wayfinder:generate --with-form
/bin/sh: php: command not found
at PluginContext._formatLog (file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/node.js:30486:39)
at PluginContext.error (file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/node.js:30483:14)
at runCommand (file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/@laravel/vite-plugin-wayfinder/dist/index.mjs:2101:15)
at async Promise.all (index 2)
at async EnvironmentPluginContainer.hookParallel (file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/node.js:30130:3)
at async EnvironmentPluginContainer.buildStart (file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/node.js:30140:3)
at async file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/node.js:26358:41
at async httpServer.listen (file:///Users/username/myapp/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/node.js:26369:5) {
  plugin: '@laravel/vite-plugin-wayfinder'
}

[geodro]

Hey, thanks for the report. This should already be fixed on main by #376. The host worker scripts on both macOS and Linux weren't putting lerd's bin directory on PATH, so the php shim that lerd installs at $XDG_DATA_HOME/lerd/bin wasn't visible to subprocesses that npm run dev spawned, which is exactly what Wayfinder's buildStart hook does when it shells out to php artisan wayfinder:generate. The fix prepends that directory in the launchd guard script on macOS and adds a proper PATH directive to the systemd unit on Linux. It'll go out in the next beta after v1.21.0-beta.1. If you want to try it before then you can build from main. Leaving this open until the release lands so others see it before opening a new one.

[geodro]

Related: #375

[wijzijnweb]

I'm still getting this, you sure this is resolved?
I have a global php installed. It's now taking that php instead of lerd's version

lerd npm run dev

> dev
> vite

error when starting dev server:
Error: Error generating types: Error: Command failed: php artisan wayfinder:generate 
Composer detected issues in your platform:

Your Composer dependencies require a PHP version ">= 8.4.1". You are running 8.3.6.

Already on latest: v1.24.1

[geodro]

You're right, and thanks for pushing back. The earlier fix only covered the systemd host workers, so the worker route was fine but running vite straight from the terminal with lerd npm run dev was never actually fixed. What was happening is exactly what you saw, your global php was sitting ahead of lerd's php shim on PATH, so when vite shelled out to php artisan wayfinder:generate it grabbed your system 8.3.6 instead of lerd's version and tripped the composer platform check.

I just put up #539 which makes lerd's shim lead PATH for every node process it spawns, the interactive npm npx and node commands, the captured npm the UI uses, the bun runner, and the idle engine's one off vite build. With that in place the wayfinder child runs through lerd php and gets the project's pinned version inside the right container, so a global php on the host no longer shadows it. I tested it by planting a fake global php ahead of the shim and confirmed the child still resolved to the project's pinned version.

It'll land in the next release, I'll leave this open until that ships so you can confirm on a stable build.