Enhance MCP commands for WSL compatibility

[HichemTab-tech]

Description:

This PR updates Laravel Boost’s MCP server command configuration to ensure compatibility when running inside WSL. Instead of relying on PhpStorm to directly execute the WSL PHP binary (which fails due to path and process resolution differences), the changes adjust the mcp.json command to invoke PHP in a way that works in both native and WSL environments.

Key changes:

• Added a isRunningInWsl().
• When running under WSL, set the MCP command to "wsl" instead of "php", and pass the PHP binary path as the first argument.
• Introduced a $forceAbsolutePath option to ensure the PHP binary/artisan path is absolute when in WSL mode.
• Preserved the original "php" command for non-WSL environments to maintain backward compatibility.

While this issue was reproduced in PhpStorm, the fix applies to any IDE that runs the MCP command directly without WSL resolution.

Fixes #120

[ceilidhboy]

@HichemTab-tech thanks, man! Much appreciated! You saved some of my hair 🤣 I've installed Boost direct from your fork and it's now working perfectly in Junie on PhpStorm on Windows with the project under WSL2 on Ubuntu.

I can also confirm that it works flawlessly in Augment Code now as well 👏

I hope the Boost team can accept your PR soon so I can switch back to the canonical version.

[HichemTab-tech]

@HichemTab-tech thanks, man! Much appreciated! You saved some of my hair 🤣 I've installed Boost direct from your fork and it's now working perfectly in Junie on PhpStorm on Windows with the project under WSL2 on Ubuntu.

I can also confirm that it works flawlessly in Augment Code now as well 👏

I hope the Boost team can accept your PR soon so I can switch back to the canonical version.

@ceilidhboy lol thanks, I'm glad that it helped.

[spitfire64]

@ceilidhboy How do you set it up to give guidelines to Augment?

[marciozotelli]

@ceilidhboy How do you set it up to give guidelines to Augment?

To use the fork with the fix, point Composer directly to it. Add this to your composer.json.

There's no need to change the package to the fork. Just changing the arguments in mcp.json will work. In any case, the following explanation also includes the fork.

"repositories": [
  {
    "type": "vcs",
    "url": "https://github.com/HichemTab-tech/forked-from-boost.git"
  }
],
"require-dev": {
  "laravel/boost": "dev-fix-mcp-commands-for-wsl as 1.0.0"
}

Then run:

composer update laravel/boost --with-all-dependencies

For MCP setup with Junie/Augment in PhpStorm, add a config like this to .junie/mcp/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "laravel-boost": {
      "command": "wsl.exe",
      "args": [
        "-d", "Ubuntu-24.04",
        "--cd", "/home/<your-wsl-path-to-project>",
        "--exec", "./vendor/bin/sail", "artisan", "boost:mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

[ceilidhboy]

@ceilidhboy How do you set it up to give guidelines to Augment?

So as @marciozotelli wrote, you first need to edit your composer.json and add the following repositories key and edit the version of laravel/boost as shown below:

{
  "require-dev": {
    "laravel/boost": "dev-fix-mcp-commands-for-wsl as 1.0.999"
  },
  "repositories": [
    {
      "type": "vcs",
      "url": "git@github.com:HichemTab-tech/forked-from-boost.git",
      "no-api": true
    }
  ]
}

Then run:

composer update -W laravel/boost

Then in Augment Code, add an MCP server called Laravel Boost with command below, using the absolute path to your PHP binary as the first parameter after wsl and the absolute path to the artisan command in your project directory:

wsl /usr/bin/php8.4 /your/absolute/Laravel/project/directory/artisan boost:mcp

You'll have to add an MCP server entry to each project, with the absolute path to the project's artisan command.

Optional bash script to detect Laravel and use the current directory

To make this even easier, I created a small bash script in a file laravel-boost-mcp which detects a Laravel project in the current directory and does the necessary, like this:

#!/bin/bash
# Laravel Boost MCP wrapper script
# Automatically detects Laravel project in current directory

if [ -f "./artisan" ]; then
    /usr/bin/php8.4 ./artisan boost:mcp
else
    echo "Error: No Laravel project found in current directory" >&2
    echo "Please run this from a Laravel project root directory" >&2
    exit 1
fi

I put it in directory ~/.local/bin/ and did a chmod +x ~/.local/bin/laravel-boost-mcp on it to make it executable. Now I can just call the script ~/.local/bin/laravel-boost-mcp as the command in the Augment MCP server field in every project that requires it.

Works like a charm!