One of the biggest questions developers ask before migrating to Laravel Cloud is a simple one: will my app just work? Until recently, the only way to answer it was to read the docs, audit your dependencies by hand, or reach out to support.
That changed last week when Laravel partnered with JMac and Laravel Shift to launch the Laravel Cloud Pre-Check — a free static analysis Shift that scans your repository and gives you a clear compatibility report before you commit to migrating.
I caught up with JMac for a quick chat about how it came together and what it actually looks at.
How It Works
Like any other Shift, you connect your repo (GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab), and Shift does the rest. It runs a static analysis on your code and configuration, then delivers the results as a pull request with one of three outcomes:
- Ready for Cloud — green light, you're good to deploy.
- Warnings — minor items to review, with specific guidance on each.
- Blockers — incompatibilities you'll need to address, with actionable feedback on what to fix.
What It Checks
The Pre-Check runs around a dozen checks covering the most common things teams run into when moving to Cloud, including:
- Minimum
laravel/frameworkversion - Minimum PHP version
- Required PHP extensions
- Laravel Octane configuration (Swoole, RoadRunner, FrankenPHP)
- Database configuration, including read/write connections
- Calls to system commands
- Hardcoded system paths
As JMac mentioned in our conversation, Shift has been analyzing Laravel codebases for years — over 170,000 upgrades to date — so the domain knowledge baked into these checks runs deep.
Try It
The Cloud Pre-Check is completely free to run. If you've been on the fence about Laravel Cloud, this is the easiest way to find out where your app actually stands.
