Installation

Requirements

PHP 8.2+
Laravel 11, 12 or 13

Steps

Install the package:
```
composer require darvis/lemmings
```
Laravel finds the service provider by itself (package discovery). There is no migration and no asset.
Make the token and set your link, in one go:
```
php artisan lemmings:install --url=https://your-own-site.example
```
The command writes LEMMINGS_URL and a fresh LEMMINGS_CLEAR_TOKEN (48 hex characters) to .env and shows the token once; copy it somewhere safe. A token that is already in .env is kept, unless you pass --force. Without .env the command stops and writes nothing.

You can also do it by hand. Without LEMMINGS_URL the umbrella links to https://lemmings.darvis.nl; without LEMMINGS_CLEAR_TOKEN the maintenance page and the packages page stay closed:
```
php -r "echo bin2hex(random_bytes(24));"
```
```
LEMMINGS_URL=https://your-own-site.example
LEMMINGS_CLEAR_TOKEN=paste-the-48-characters-here
```
When your application caches its config or routes, build the caches again:
```
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
```

.env is not in git, so run lemmings:install on every server, or copy the token there.

All settings are on the Configuration page.

Check that it works

The easter egg page. Open https://your-site.example/lemmings in a browser. You see a black page with the picture “Oh no! More Lemmings!”. Click the umbrella: the address from LEMMINGS_URL opens in a new tab.

The maintenance page without a token. It must answer 404:

curl -i https://your-site.example/clearDgP

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

The first line can say HTTP/2 404 instead; the number is what counts.

The maintenance page with the token, when you did step 3. It answers 200 and a line of JSON:

curl -i -H "X-Lemmings-Token: paste-the-48-characters-here" https://your-site.example/clearDgP

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

{"status":"success","message":"All caches have been cleared and storage link recreated."}

After this call the config and route caches are gone. Run step 4 again when you use them.

You see	It means
404 on `/lemmings`	The path was changed with `LEMMINGS_ROUTE`, or the routes were cached before you installed the package
The umbrella opens `lemmings.darvis.nl`	`LEMMINGS_URL` is not set, or the config cache is older than your `.env`
404 on `/clearDgP` with the token	The token does not match, or the config cache is older than your `.env`
404 on `/clearDgP` with the right token, after a few failed tries	Five wrong tokens came from your IP address within a minute. Wait a minute

Each of these is worked out on the Troubleshooting page.

Publish the config file

You only need the file when you don’t want to use .env:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=lemmings-config

This writes config/lemmings.php.

Upgrade from 1.5.0 or 1.6.0

In those versions /clearDgP was open to every visitor. After the upgrade it is closed. If you use it, do step 3 and send the token with the request. If you closed it with your own route on /clearDgP, you can remove that route.

Remove the package

composer remove darvis/lemmings

Delete config/lemmings.php and resources/views/vendor/darvis-lemmings when you created them, and remove route('lemmings') from your views. Run php artisan route:cache again when you cache your routes.