XAMPP, Laragon and other stacks
Studio works beside XAMPP, Laragon, Herd, Homebrew and the PHP or MySQL your system already has. It finds their PHP, Composer and database programs and uses them, but it never starts, stops or changes their servers.
What Studio finds
Studio looks for PHP, Composer and MySQL/MariaDB on your PATH and in the usual install folders:
| System | Folders |
|---|---|
| Windows | C:\xampp\php and C:\xampp\mysql\bin (also xampp on another fixed drive, such as D:\xampp), C:\laragon\bin\php\php*, C:\laragon\bin\mysql\*\bin, Herd, Composer-Setup, Program Files\MariaDB * and Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server * |
| macOS | Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin), Herd, Composer's global folder, /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin |
| Linux | /usr/local/bin, Composer's global folder, ~/.local/bin, /opt/lampp/bin |
On macOS and Linux, Studio also asks your login shell for its PATH, because apps started from the Finder or a menu get a short one.
The downloads dialog shows where each tool comes from: From XAMPP, From Laragon, From Herd, Installed on this computer or Downloaded by Studio. To choose a PHP, use Settings > PHP and tools.
Use the stack's database server
In Settings > Database server, choose the server Studio found, for example "XAMPP · MariaDB 10.4". Its note says "start and stop it in XAMPP" (or Laragon). For any other server found, it says "Studio doesn't start or stop it". The sidebar shows the server as running when something listens on its port.
For a new project on that server, the Database step starts with server 127.0.0.1, port 3306 and user root, with an empty password, as XAMPP has. The database must exist already: create it in phpMyAdmin, HeidiSQL or mysql first. Studio writes what you give into the project's .env.
With Another server, Studio fills in the host, port and user you set in Settings.
Studio's MariaDB and a stack's server together
Both use port 3306 by default. When XAMPP's or Laragon's server already holds the port, Studio's MariaDB can't start there. Studio says so and offers Start on 3307 (the next free port). You can also set its Port in Settings. See The server and the database.
The Database tab offers to start Studio's MariaDB only for projects whose database Studio made on it, not for every project that uses 127.0.0.1:3306.
Composer-Setup and .bat programs on Windows
Composer-Setup installs composer.bat, a wrapper around composer.phar. Studio runs the composer.phar beside it through PHP instead.
When PHP or Composer is a .bat or .cmd file, cmd.exe reads the command line itself. Studio then refuses arguments with characters cmd.exe would read itself (" % ^ & | < > ! ( )), such as a project folder named shop (old), and asks you to choose php.exe (or the editor's .exe) instead. See Troubleshooting.