First Run

This walks through the first five minutes with Rezure: start the services, put a project online, and connect to the database.

1. Start the services

Open the Services page. Nginx and PHP are already installed: hit Start on each, or Start all in the toolbar, and their status turns to Running.

If a service refuses to start, Rezure tells you which port is taken and which program holds it, rather than failing quietly. Port 80 is almost always another local server stack or IIS. For most programs Rezure offers a Stop it and start Nginx button that frees the port for you; see Port Conflicts for the details.

MariaDB isn't bundled: the first time you start it, Rezure downloads it. That's a one-time wait of a minute or two, and only if you need a database.

2. Add a project

There are three ways to get a project listed:

Drop it in www. Create C:\rezure\www\myapp and it shows up on the Projects page as myapp.test. Nothing to configure.

Link a folder you already have. Use Add folder on the Projects page and pick the folder wherever it lives. Rezure shows you the name, the detected framework, the folder it will serve, and the domain, all editable, before saving anything. Nothing is copied or moved; only the path is recorded.

Start a new one. New project creates a Laravel, WordPress, blank PHP, or static HTML project in www for you. See New Project.

Either way Rezure works out the document root for you from the project's framework. For Laravel, CodeIgniter 4, and Symfony that's public/, not the folder itself, and a Vite or Next.js project is served by its dev server. Folder names should stick to letters, digits, and hyphens: an underscore or a space makes an invalid domain, and the project is listed as Not served.

3. Make the domain resolve

Rezure writes an Nginx virtual host for every project automatically, but the .test domain also needs a line in the Windows hosts file before your browser can find it.

On the Projects page, a domain shown in a muted colour isn't in the hosts file yet. Click Sync hosts file at the top of the page. Windows asks for administrator approval; click Yes, or the domain won't resolve. Once it's done the domain switches to the accent colour, and the button greys out with "Every domain already resolves".

You only need to do this when you add a project. If you'd rather not click it each time, turn on Auto-write hosts entries in Settings: Rezure then syncs once each time it starts.

4. Open it

Click Open on the project's row and it opens http://myapp.test in your default browser.

If the domain doesn't load, the usual causes are: Nginx or PHP isn't running, the hosts sync was declined, or the browser is caching an old failure: try a private window. A 502 Bad Gateway means Nginx is up but the PHP service the project uses isn't.

5. Connect to the database

Start MariaDB, then open the Databases page. The bundled server runs with default local credentials:

Host: 127.0.0.1
Port: 3306
User: root
Password: (empty)

In a Laravel .env that's:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=myapp
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

New database creates a schema, and each one lists its table count, size, and the project that appears to use it. Open hands the database to whichever SQL client you have installed (TablePlus, DBeaver, HeidiSQL, MySQL Workbench, or Navicat) with the bundled MariaDB console always available as a fallback. Export writes a .sql dump to C:\rezure\dumps, and Import .sql loads one back.

An empty password and a root login are fine on a machine only you can reach. Don't reuse this setup anywhere that isn't your own laptop.

Using PostgreSQL or SQL Server instead? See PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and the Laravel .env Cheatsheet. Need a database on a staging server or VPS? See Remote Databases.

6. Switch PHP versions (optional)

The Switch page shows the active version of each runtime. Click Install version, pick PHP, and Rezure lists what php.net currently publishes: the newest release of each branch, with a real SHA-256 per build, so the list never goes stale.

Two ways to add one:

1. Install from the app: pick a version and Rezure downloads and verifies it.
2. Drop one in: use Add from folder… in the same dialog, or put a PHP build you downloaded yourself into C:\rezure\custom\php. Rezure picks it up on the next scan.

Then pick the version in the PHP row's dropdown. Switching the global default restarts the main PHP service only. Projects set to Default follow that version. To keep a specific project on a different version while you change the default for everything else, pin it on the Projects page. See PHP Versions and PHP Per Project.

7. Catch outgoing mail (optional)

Click Install on the Mailpit row of the Services page, then Start. Point your project's .env at it:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=127.0.0.1
MAIL_PORT=1025

Every email the project sends now lands in the inbox at http://127.0.0.1:8025; the Open button on the Mailpit row takes you there. See Mailpit.

Where to go next

That's the core loop. From here, run a Requirements Check on a project, open a project terminal, or share a project publicly when you need a temporary link for someone outside your network. Read the FAQ, or open an issue on GitHub if something didn't behave the way this page describes.