As a Laravel developer, I kept running into the same problem:
👉 “What is actually happening in my APIs?”
- Which endpoints are being hit the most?
- Which requests are slow?
- Where are the errors happening?
Most solutions like Datadog or New Relic felt:
- Overkill
- Expensive
- Time-consuming to set up
So I built something simpler.
⚡ Introducing ApiLens
A lightweight Laravel package that gives you a real-time dashboard of your API activity.
No setup headaches. No external services.
🎯 What it does
- Logs every request (endpoint, method, status, duration)
- Shows recent API activity
- Helps identify errors (4xx / 5xx)
- Highlights slow endpoints
- Simple filter system to debug quickly
📸 Dashboard Preview
📦 Installation
composer require apilens/laravel-api-lens
php artisan apilens:install
Open:
http://localhost:8000/apilens?token=secret
That’s it.
🧠 Why I built this
I didn’t need:
- Distributed tracing
- Enterprise dashboards
- Complex setup
I just needed:
👉 A quick way to understand what my APIs are doing
💡 Who this is for
- Laravel developers
- Freelancers building APIs
- Startups that need quick visibility
- Anyone debugging backend issues
⚖️ ApiLens vs Datadog
| Feature | ApiLens | Datadog |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 1 min | Complex |
| Cost | Free | Paid |
| Focus | Laravel | Generic |
| Use case | Dev + small teams | Enterprise |
🚧 What’s coming next
- Time-based filters
- Charts & analytics
- Alerts
- SaaS version (multi-project dashboard)
💬 Feedback
Would love your thoughts 🙌
- What features would you want?
- Would you use something like this?
🔗 GitHub