/configure-nightwatch

name: configure-nightwatch
description: Configures Laravel Nightwatch data collection, sampling rates, filtering rules, and redaction policies. Use when setting up Nightwatch, managing data volume, protecting sensitive data (PII), or optimizing event collection for production workloads.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: laravel

Nightwatch Configuration Guide

This skill helps configure Laravel Nightwatch data collection to balance observability, performance, and privacy. Covers sampling strategies, filtering rules, and redaction methods across all event types.

Documentation Reference

The [Nightwatch Documentation](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs) is the definitive and up-to-date source of information for all Nightwatch configuration options. This skill provides practical guidance and common patterns, but always consult the official documentation as the primary source of truth for specific details, environment variables, and API behavior. The documentation includes comprehensive coverage of:

• [Filtering and Configuration](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/filtering) - Core concepts for sampling, filtering, and redaction
• Individual event type pages with specific configuration options:
• [Requests](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/requests) - Request sampling, header handling, payload capture
• [Commands](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/commands) - Command sampling and redaction
• [Queries](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/queries) - Query filtering and redaction
• [Cache](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/cache) - Cache event filtering by key or pattern
• [Jobs](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/jobs) - Job filtering and sampling decoupling
• [Mail](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/mail) - Mail event filtering
• [Notifications](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/notifications) - Notification filtering by channel
• [Exceptions](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/exceptions) - Exception sampling and throttling
• [Outgoing Requests](https://nightwatch.laravel.com/docs/outgoing-requests) - HTTP request filtering
• [reference.md](reference.md) - Quick lookup table by event type, production presets, and verification checklist

Data Collection Flow

Nightwatch processes events through three stages:

1. **Sampling** - Controls which entry points are captured (requests, commands, scheduled tasks) 2. **Filtering** - Excludes specific events after sampling (queries, cache, mail, etc.) 3. **Redaction** - Modifies captured data to remove/obfuscate sensitive information

Request/Command/Scheduled Task
       |
       v
   [Sampling?] ----NO----> Drop entire trace
       | YES
       v
   Events generated
       |
       v
   [Filtering?] ----YES---> Drop specific event
       | NO
       v
   [Redaction] ----------> Store modified data

---

Sampling Configuration

Sampling determines which entry points (requests, commands, scheduled tasks) trigger full trace collection. When an entry point is sampled, all related events are captured.

Global Sample Rates

Configure via environment variables:

# Default: 100% sampling (all requests/commands captured)
NIGHTWATCH_REQUEST_SAMPLE_RATE=0.1      # Recommended: 10% of requests
NIGHTWATCH_COMMAND_SAMPLE_RATE=1.0      # Capture all commands
NIGHTWATCH_EXCEPTION_SAMPLE_RATE=1.0    # Always capture exceptions

**Recommendation**: Start with `0.1` (10%) for requests in production, adjust based on volume and needs.

Route-Based Sampling

Apply different rates to specific routes using the `Sample` middleware:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Laravel\Nightwatch\Http\Middleware\Sample;

// Sample admin routes at 100%
Route::middleware(Sample::rate(1.0))->prefix('admin')->group(function () {
    // All admin routes sampled fully
});

// Sample API routes at 5%
Route::middleware(Sample::rate(0.05))->prefix('api')->group(function () {
    // API routes sampled sparingly
});

// Always sample critical endpoints
Route::post('/checkout', [CheckoutController::class, 'process'])
    ->middleware(Sample::always());

// Never sample health checks
Route::get('/health', [HealthController::class, 'check'])
    ->middleware(Sample::never());

Unmatched Route Sampling

Handle 404/bot traffic with reduced sampling:

Route::fallback(fn () => abort(404))
    ->middleware(Sample::rate(0.01));  // 1% sampling for unmatched routes

Dynamic Sampling

Sample based on runtime conditions (user role, request attributes):

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nightwatch\Facades\Nightwatch;

class SampleAdminRequests
{
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
    {
        if ($request->user()?->isAdmin()) {
            Nightwatch::sample();  // Always sample admin requests
        }
        return $next($request);
    }
}

Command Sampling

Exclude specific commands from sampling:

use Illuminate\Console\Events\CommandStarting;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Event;
use Laravel\Nightwatch\Facades\Nightwatch;

public function boot(): void
{
    Event::listen(function (CommandStarting $event) {
        if (in_array($event->command, ['schedule:finish', 'horizon:snapshot'])) {
            Nightwatch::dontSample();
        }
    });
}

Vendor Commands

Nightwatch automatically ignores framework/internal commands. Opt-in to capture them:

Nightwatch::captureDefaultVendorCommands();

---

Filtering Configuration

Filtering excludes specific events from collection after sampling. Use filtering to reduce noise and quota usage.

Database Queries

**Filter all queries** (disable query collection):

NIGHTWATCH_IGNORE_QUERIES=true

**Filter specific queries** by SQL pattern:

use Laravel\Nightwatch\Facades\Nightwatch;
use Laravel\Nightwatch\Records\Query;