Reference

Middleware aliases

watch registers two middleware aliases you can use in your application:

Alias	Behaviour
watch.writable	Returns 403 when WATCH_WRITABLE is not true
watch.local	Returns 403 when the app environment is not local, development, or testing

Use watch.local on the watch route group to prevent the cockpit from being accessible in staging or production:

Route::middleware(['watch.local'])->group(function () {
    // watch routes
});

Use watch.writable on individual cockpit actions that modify files:

Route::post('/watch/forge/generate', GenerateSpecController::class)
    ->middleware('watch.writable');

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CSRF and HTMX

watch uses HTMX for server round trips. HTMX sends a HX-Request header with every request. watch’s routes are not on the web middleware group, so they do not use Laravel’s CSRF cookie by default.

If you wrap watch routes in a web-stack middleware group, configure HTMX to send the CSRF token:

<meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">
<script>
    document.body.addEventListener('htmx:configRequest', (event) => {
        event.detail.headers['X-CSRF-TOKEN'] = document.querySelector('meta[name="csrf-token"]').content;
    });
</script>

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Extending the cockpit

Any package can add pages to the watch cockpit by following three steps:

1. Register routes under the watch.* naming convention:

Route::get('/watch/my-feature', MyFeatureController::class)
    ->name('watch.my-feature');

2. Use the <x-watch::layout> Blade component:

<x-watch::layout title="My Feature">
    <!-- your page content -->
</x-watch::layout>

3. Nav link appears automatically:

watch checks for registered routes via Route::has('watch.my-feature'). When the route exists, a nav link appears in the cockpit sidebar automatically — no additional registration needed.

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Blade component namespace

watch publishes Blade components under the watch:: namespace:

Component	Description
<x-watch::layout>	Full cockpit page layout with nav and header

Use <x-watch::layout> in any Blade view that should appear inside the cockpit shell.