Mailulator

Self-hosted, Laravel-native email testing. One package ships both sides:

• Receiver — stores ingested email in an isolated database (default SQLite; any Laravel-supported driver works), serves a Vue 3 inbox UI at /mailulator.
• Driver — a Symfony Mailer transport registered as mailulator. Set MAIL_MAILER=mailulator and outbound mail flows to the receiver — over HTTP for standalone deployments, in-process for in-app ones.

Requirements

• PHP ^8.3
• Laravel ^11 || ^12 || ^13

Install

composer require webteractive/mailulator
php artisan mailulator:install

mailulator:install publishes:

• app/Providers/MailulatorServiceProvider.php — customize the auth gate here.
• config/mailulator.php — receiver + driver config.

It then runs migrations against the isolated mailulator connection and creates a protected Default inbox (it cannot be renamed or deleted; at least one inbox must always exist).

The install prints the Default inbox's bearer token. In-app deployments don't need it for delivery, but save it anyway — any sender app you later point at this receiver will need it, and it isn't shown again.

Publish compiled UI assets:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=mailulator-assets

Re-run this tag after each composer update.

Deployment modes

Two shapes, distinguished by where the inbox UI lives.

1. In-app — UI lives with the app it captures

The app sending the mail is also the app you read it from. Install Mailulator there, set MAIL_MAILER=mailulator, and the captured mail shows up at /mailulator on the same host. One app, one inbox, no plumbing.

# .env
MAIL_MAILER=mailulator

No URL, no token. The transport detects in-app mode (driver enabled + receiver enabled + no MAILULATOR_URL) and writes directly to the Default inbox via StoreIncomingEmail, bypassing HTTP entirely. Open /mailulator on the same app to read the captured mail.

Best for: local development, staging, demo environments — any app that just wants to "swallow" its own outbound mail and read it back in place.

2. Standalone — UI lives in a dedicated app, shared by many senders

A single Laravel app exists just to host inboxes and the UI. Any number of other apps point at it via MAILULATOR_URL and route to the right inbox via MAILULATOR_TOKEN. One UI, many senders.

On the standalone receiver — install the package as receiver-only:

# .env
MAILULATOR_RECEIVER_ENABLED=true
MAILULATOR_DRIVER_ENABLED=false

Create one inbox per sender app from the UI (or reuse the seeded Default). Each inbox has its own bearer token; that token is the only thing that ties a sender to its inbox.

On each sender app — install the package as driver-only and point it at the receiver with the inbox's token:

# .env
MAIL_MAILER=mailulator
MAILULATOR_URL=https://mailulator.your-domain.test
MAILULATOR_TOKEN=<token for this app's inbox>
MAILULATOR_RECEIVER_ENABLED=false
MAILULATOR_DRIVER_ENABLED=true

To onboard another sender app, repeat the sender-side .env with a different inbox token. The receiver doesn't care how many apps point at it. Open /mailulator on the receiver to read mail across all inboxes.

Gate

The SPA is gated. Edit app/Providers/MailulatorServiceProvider.php:

protected function gate(): void
{
    Gate::define('viewMailulator', fn ($user) =>
        in_array(optional($user)->email, [
            'you@example.com',
        ])
    );
}

Default: local environment only. Non-local without a customized gate → 403.

Optional hooks in the same provider:

public function boot(): void
{
    parent::boot();

    Mailulator::canViewInbox(fn ($user, $inboxId) =>
        $user->inboxes()->where('inboxes.id', $inboxId)->exists()
    );

    Mailulator::manage(fn ($user) => $user->is_admin ?? false);
}

Sender-side (.env)

Variable	Default	Purpose
MAIL_MAILER	—	Set to mailulator to route outbound email through this driver.
MAILULATOR_URL	—	Base URL of the receiver.
MAILULATOR_TOKEN	—	Per-inbox bearer token printed by mailulator:install or the admin UI.
MAILULATOR_TIMEOUT	5	HTTP timeout (seconds) for ingest calls.
MAILULATOR_ON_FAILURE	log	log (warn + return), silent (return), or throw (raise TransportException).
MAILULATOR_DRIVER_ENABLED	true	Set false to install as receiver-only.

A receiver outage will not break the sender app's request unless MAILULATOR_ON_FAILURE=throw.

Receiver-side (.env)

Variable	Default	Purpose
MAILULATOR_RECEIVER_ENABLED	true	Turn receiver off to install as driver-only.
MAILULATOR_DB_CONNECTION	mailulator	Connection name to use. Set to any connection defined in your host app's config/database.php (e.g. mysql) to share that DB; leave as mailulator for an isolated, package-managed connection.
MAILULATOR_DB_DRIVER	sqlite	Driver for the auto-managed connection — only used when MAILULATOR_DB_CONNECTION=mailulator and the host hasn't pre-defined it.
MAILULATOR_SQLITE_PATH	database_path('mailulator.sqlite')	SQLite file, auto-touched.
MAILULATOR_DB_HOST / _PORT / _DATABASE / _USERNAME / _PASSWORD / _CHARSET	—	Credentials for the auto-managed connection (non-SQLite drivers).
MAILULATOR_ATTACHMENTS_DISK	local	Filesystem disk for attachment bytes.
MAILULATOR_RATE_LIMIT	600	Ingest requests/min per inbox.
MAILULATOR_RETENTION_DAYS	30	Default retention for newly created inboxes. Per-inbox override available; null keeps forever.
MAILULATOR_UI_PATH	mailulator	SPA path prefix.
MAILULATOR_UI_DOMAIN	—	Optional subdomain (e.g. mail.your-staging.com).
MAILULATOR_REALTIME_ENABLED	true	Master switch for realtime updates.
MAILULATOR_REALTIME	polling	polling or broadcast.
MAILULATOR_POLL_INTERVAL	3	Polling interval (seconds).
MAILULATOR_BROADCASTER	reverb	reverb or pusher when MAILULATOR_REALTIME=broadcast.

Ingest API

POST /api/emails — bearer-token authenticated, rate-limited per inbox.

Accepts JSON (base64 attachments) or multipart/form-data (UploadedFile attachments). Returns 201 { "id": <email_id> }.

Realtime

Three states, controlled by two env vars:

MAILULATOR_REALTIME_ENABLED	MAILULATOR_REALTIME	Behavior
true (default)	polling (default)	UI polls every MAILULATOR_POLL_INTERVAL seconds. Zero extra deps.
true	broadcast	Echo subscribes to mailulator.inbox.{id} private channels.
false	—	Static UI. No polling, no broadcast.

To enable broadcasting, install Reverb / Pusher in the host app, then:

MAILULATOR_REALTIME=broadcast
MAILULATOR_BROADCASTER=reverb
MAILULATOR_ECHO_KEY=...
MAILULATOR_ECHO_CLUSTER=...      # Pusher only
MAILULATOR_ECHO_HOST=...          # Reverb only
MAILULATOR_ECHO_PORT=...
MAILULATOR_ECHO_SCHEME=https

EmailReceived dispatches to mailulator.inbox.{id} on every ingest. Channel authorization routes through Mailulator::canViewInbox. If MAILULATOR_REALTIME=broadcast is set without a configured MAILULATOR_ECHO_KEY, the client logs a warning and falls back to polling.

Inboxes

• Each inbox has a name, optional retention period, optional color (UI accent), and a hashed bearer token.
• The seeded Default inbox is protected — it cannot be renamed or deleted.
• The last remaining inbox cannot be deleted regardless of name.
• Regenerating a key invalidates the previous token immediately at the ingest boundary.

Retention

Set retention_days per inbox; the daily PruneEmails job deletes older emails and cleans their attachment files. null = keep forever.

The job is auto-scheduled. Ensure your host app runs schedule:run via cron or schedule:work.

Upgrade

composer update webteractive/mailulator
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=mailulator-assets --force
php artisan migrate --database=mailulator

License

MIT.