Lerd

Lerd is an open-source tool designed for local PHP development on Linux, macOS, and WSL2 systems. It enables developers to run Nginx, PHP-FPM, and other required services as rootless Podman containers, eliminating the need for Docker daemons or elevated privileges. The platform emphasizes a secure and isolated workflow by operating without sudo and avoiding system-level changes, which helps prevent system pollution.

test domains and one-command TLS provisioning using mkcert, allowing developers to quickly serve their projects with trusted HTTPS certificates. localhost domains without the need for DNS configuration or additional resolvers. 0, enabling isolation and easy switching of environments for each repository.

The tool provides advanced debugging and profiling capabilities, including a flame-graph profiler for PHP-FPM requests, a dump debugger that streams output to the dashboard and other interfaces, and N+1 SQL query detection. Developers can interact with a Tinker REPL in the browser, powered by a real language server, to explore code and models with features such as quick-fix imports and inline SQL results. Lerd also offers worker self-healing for managing background jobs and includes support for frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, Drupal, CakePHP, Statamic, CodeIgniter, and Tempest.

Lerd is accessible through a CLI, a web-based dashboard (installable as a PWA), a tabbed mouse-driven TUI, and a system tray interface. It ships with an MCP server that allows integration with AI assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Junie, Antigravity, and Windsurf, enabling actions like scaffolding projects and running migrations via chat. The platform can also manage polyglot sites by running Node, Python, Go, or Ruby alongside PHP projects through custom container files. Lerd is distributed under the MIT open-source license.