--- title: Mailbox for Laravel: Preview and Test Rendered Email description: Mailbox for Laravel is a package that captures outgoing email and displays it in a local dashboard at /mailbox, letting developers inspect HTML, plain-text,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Mailbox for Laravel: Preview and Test Rendered Email | daily.dev og:description: Mailbox for Laravel is a package that captures outgoing email and displays it in a local dashboard at /mailbox, letting developers inspect HTML, plain-text,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6TQqnpkDk.png og:image:alt: Mailbox for Laravel: Preview and Test Rendered Email og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Mailbox for Laravel: Preview and Test Rendered Email **[Laravel News](https://daily.dev/sources/ln)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Mailbox for Laravel is a package that captures outgoing email and displays it in a local dashboard at /mailbox, letting developers inspect HTML, plain-text, and raw views without a separate mail service. It requires PHP 8.3+ and supports Laravel 10 through 13. Beyond previewing, it provides a fluent test API (assertSentCount, assertHasSubject, assertHasTo, assertSeeInHtml, assertHasAttachment) for asserting on rendered messages, recipients, and attachments. Captured mail is stored by default in a SQLite database, with options for an existing database connection or file storage. A MAILBOX_DECORATE setting can forward captured mail to a real mailer for actual delivery. The dashboard is disabled by default in production, and automatic pruning of stored messages can be enabled via a retention schedule setting. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I preview and test emails sent from a Laravel app without a real mail service? Install the Mailbox for Laravel package as a dev dependency, run its install command, and set MAIL_MAILER=mailbox. Captured Mailables, mail notifications, and Mail::raw() messages appear in a local dashboard at /mailbox, where you can view HTML, plain-text, and raw versions, plus preview or download attachments. It requires PHP 8.3+ and works with Laravel 10 through 13. _daily.dev surfaces packages like this for developers building out their Laravel testing workflow._ ### How do I write assertions against a rendered Laravel email in a test? Use the Mailbox facade's fluent assertion API: Mailbox::assertSentCount() checks how many messages were captured, and firstSent() returns an object supporting assertHasSubject(), assertHasTo(), assertSeeInHtml(), and assertHasAttachment(). The optional InteractsWithMailbox trait clears captured messages before each test and exposes $this->mailbox() as an alternative to the facade. _Developers wiring up mail assertions can track packages like this one on daily.dev._ ### Can I both capture emails in a local inbox and still deliver them for real during testing? Yes, setting MAILBOX_DECORATE to a configured mailer name, such as smtp, forwards captured messages to that mailer while still showing them in the /mailbox dashboard. Mailbox is disabled by default in production, so the normal production mailer configuration should remain in place separately. _daily.dev helps developers stay current on Laravel packages that shape mail delivery and testing setups._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Statamic Mailables Viewer Previews Laravel Emails in the Control Panel](https://daily.dev/posts/statamic-mailables-viewer-previews-laravel-emails-in-the-control-panel-lzoincw84) · Laravel News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Laravel SMS Catcher: A Local Dashboard for SMS Notifications](https://daily.dev/posts/laravel-sms-catcher-a-local-dashboard-for-sms-notifications-ht7mjitnf) · Laravel News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Local Email Debugging with Mailpit](https://daily.dev/posts/local-email-debugging-with-mailpit-couqanrnq) · Jeff Geerling · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#laravel](https://daily.dev/tags/laravel) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Mailbox for Laravel: Preview and Test Rendered Email","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk"},"datePublished":"2026-09-30T13:41:44.814Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T13:42:07.351Z","description":"Mailbox for Laravel is a package that captures outgoing email and displays it in a local dashboard at /mailbox, letting developers inspect HTML, plain-text,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/51fb7aebf68443a91547897ebd0aae46?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/51fb7aebf68443a91547897ebd0aae46?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Laravel News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Laravel News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/ln","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ln"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"testing,php,laravel","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Laravel News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ln"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Mailbox for Laravel: Preview and Test Rendered Email"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/mailbox-for-laravel-preview-and-test-rendered-email-6tqqnpkdk#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I preview and test emails sent from a Laravel app without a real mail service?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Install the Mailbox for Laravel package as a dev dependency, run its install command, and set MAIL_MAILER=mailbox. 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