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Northwestern Laravel Starter

Introduction

The Northwestern Laravel Starter is a Laravel starter kit for Northwestern University applications, with Northwestern sign-in, roles and permissions, auditing, an OAuth-secured API and the University’s branding built in.

What’s Included

Section titled “What’s Included”

Northwestern Integrations

  • WebSSO/Entra ID - Single sign-on with Northwestern authentication
  • Directory Search API - User lookup and demographic sync
  • Wildcard Photos - ID photo integration with auto-caching
  • EventHub - Publish to topics and consume events through configured webhooks

Architecture

  • Domain-Driven Design - Organized by business concerns
  • Action-Based Logic - Single-responsibility action classes
  • Idempotent Seeding - Production-safe database seeders
  • Advanced Permissions - Fine-grained role-based access

Security & Compliance

  • Multi-Auth Methods - SSO, email verification codes, and OAuth for the API and AI clients
  • Comprehensive Auditing - Complete trail of all changes
  • Data Encryption - At-rest and in-transit protection
  • User Impersonation - Secure troubleshooting capability
  • Data Retention - Daily pruning of records past their retention period

API Features

  • Service Clients - Rotation, expiring secrets, IP allowlists and reminders for integrations
  • Personal Access Tokens - People call the API as themselves, within scopes they choose
  • Connected Applications - OAuth with a consent screen and PKCE
  • MCP Server - AI clients use your application’s tools as the person who connected them
  • Request Analytics - Performance metrics & sampling
  • RFC 9457 Errors - Standardized error responses
  • Trace IDs - Correlate logs and requests

User Interface

  • App Panel - /app for your application’s features, with the Account area, announcements, notifications and Contact Support
  • Administration Panel - /administration for users, roles, API access, announcements, audits, and sign-in and API analytics
  • Public Pages - Landing page, sign-in, changelog, and branded error pages
  • Northwestern Branding - Filament 5 themed to University styling guidelines

Developer Experience

  • Database Snapshots - Save and restore state
  • Health Checks - Monitor platform services
  • Laravel Telescope - Powerful debugging tool
  • CI/CD Ready - GitHub Actions workflows included
  • Browser Tests - Every page the starter ships checked with axe, in light and dark mode, through Pest and Playwright

Who Should Use This Starter

Section titled “Who Should Use This Starter”
  • Northwestern IT Projects - Web applications or APIs that integrate with University services.
  • Administrative Systems - Applications requiring user management, authentication, audit logging, and policy compliance.
  • API Services - API-driven services that integrate with other Northwestern systems.