README

🎯 Lightweight, production-ready Application Performance Monitoring (APM) middleware for Laravel apps, designed for Watchlog.

Tracks request duration, memory usage, and status codes — stores metrics in a buffer file, and automatically flushes them to your Watchlog Agent every 10 seconds.

🚀 Features

• ✅ Compatible with Laravel 10 & 12+
• 🧠 Smart file-based metric buffering (no database or queue needed)
• 🔁 Aggregates metrics per route (e.g. /users/{id})
• 📊 Tracks duration, memory, and status codes
• 🔒 Safe and non-blocking — doesn't slow down your requests
• 🌐 Sends data automatically every 10 seconds to your Watchlog Agent
• 🏷️ Auto-detects service name from .env (WATCHLOG_APM_SERVICE or fallback to APP_NAME)

📦 Installation

1. Link local package (for development)

composer config repositories.watchlog-apm path ../laravel-watchlog-apm
composer require "watchlog/laravel-apm:*"

Adjust the path to match your local project structure.

⚙️ Usage (Laravel 12+)

In your bootstrap/app.php, register the middleware:

use Watchlog\LaravelAPM\Middleware\WatchlogAPM;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(...)
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        $middleware->append(WatchlogAPM::class);
    })
    ->create();

🛠️ Configuration

Service Identification

You can define your service name explicitly in .env:

WATCHLOG_APM_SERVICE=orders-api

If not set, it will fallback to:

APP_NAME=laravel-app

Agent URL Configuration

The package automatically detects the agent endpoint, but you can override it for Docker:

Option 1: Environment Variable (Recommended for Docker)

WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL=http://watchlog-agent:3774/apm

Option 2: Config File

Publish the config file (if available) or add to your config/services.php:

'watchlog' => [
    'apm' => [
        'agent_url' => env('WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL', ''),
    ],
],

Option 3: Direct Usage

use Watchlog\LaravelAPM\Sender;

$sender = new Sender('http://watchlog-agent:3774/apm');
$sender->flush();

If not provided, the package will auto-detect:

• Local / non-K8s: http://127.0.0.1:3774/apm
• Kubernetes: http://watchlog-node-agent.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:3774/apm

📤 How it works

During each request:

• The middleware tracks route, status code, duration, and memory.
• The data is written to a file: storage/logs/apm-buffer.json

After the request ends:

• A shutdown function checks if 10 seconds have passed since the last flush.
• If yes, it:
  • Reads all pending metrics from apm-buffer.json
  • Aggregates them by route/method
  • Sends them to your Watchlog Agent as a JSON payload
  • Clears the buffer

📦 What gets sent?

{
  "collected_at": "2025-05-18T12:00:00Z",
  "platformName": "laravel",
  "metrics": [
    {
      "type": "aggregated_request",
      "service": "orders-api",
      "path": "hello/{id}",
      "method": "GET",
      "request_count": 3,
      "error_count": 0,
      "avg_duration": 6.1,
      "max_duration": 8.2,
      "avg_memory": {
        "rss": 18432000,
        "heapUsed": 23998464,
        "heapTotal": 25600000
      }
    }
  ]
}

📁 File structure

laravel-watchlog-apm/
├── src/
│   ├── Middleware/
│   │   └── WatchlogAPM.php
│   ├── Collector.php
│   └── Sender.php
├── composer.json
├── README.md

🧪 Debugging & Testing

You can manually flush metrics via tinker:

php artisan tinker
>>> (new \Watchlog\LaravelAPM\Sender())->flush();

📁 Recommended .gitignore

Add the following to your Laravel app's .gitignore:

/storage/logs/apm-buffer.json
/storage/logs/apm-debug.log
/storage/framework/cache/watchlog-apm.lock

🐳 Docker Setup

When running your Laravel app in Docker, configure the agent URL:

Docker Compose Example:

version: '3.8'

services:
  watchlog-agent:
    image: watchlog/agent:latest
    container_name: watchlog-agent
    ports:
      - "3774:3774"
    environment:
      - WATCHLOG_APIKEY=your-api-key
      - WATCHLOG_SERVER=https://log.watchlog.ir
    networks:
      - app-network

  laravel-app:
    build: .
    container_name: laravel-app
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    environment:
      - WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL=http://watchlog-agent:3774/apm
      - WATCHLOG_APM_SERVICE=my-laravel-app
    depends_on:
      - watchlog-agent
    networks:
      - app-network

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

Docker Run Example:

# 1. Create network
docker network create app-network

# 2. Run Watchlog Agent
docker run -d \
  --name watchlog-agent \
  --network app-network \
  -p 3774:3774 \
  -e WATCHLOG_APIKEY="your-api-key" \
  -e WATCHLOG_SERVER="https://log.watchlog.ir" \
  watchlog/agent:latest

# 3. Run Laravel app (set WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL in your .env or docker run)
docker run -d \
  --name laravel-app \
  --network app-network \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -e WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL="http://watchlog-agent:3774/apm" \
  my-laravel-app

Important Notes:

• When using Docker, use the container name as the hostname (e.g., watchlog-agent)
• Both containers must be on the same Docker network
• The agent must be running before your app starts
• Set WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL in your .env file or as an environment variable
• If WATCHLOG_APM_AGENT_URL is not provided, auto-detection will be used (local or Kubernetes)

✅ Notes

• The route path is captured via $request->route()?->uri() for correct dynamic segment grouping (/users/{id})
• Multiple requests within 10 seconds are buffered, then aggregated and sent in a single payload
• The flush lock uses a simple file timestamp (watchlog-apm.lock) to prevent oversending
• The middleware is safe: flush failures won't crash your app

📝 License

MIT © Mohammadreza
Built for Watchlog.io