CLI reference

Surge can be launched two ways: the standalone surge binary, or the Laravel Artisan command. Both start the same server.

Standalone: surge serve

vendor/bin/surge serve [options]
# from a clone:
php bin/surge serve [options]

Option	Env var	Default	Description
--host=	SURGE_HOST	0.0.0.0	Bind address
--port=	SURGE_PORT	9019	Bind port
--handler=	SURGE_HANDLER	pusher	pusher (Echo-compatible) or broadcast (relay-all)
--runtime=	SURGE_RUNTIME	lite	lite (pure PHP) or turbo (OpenSwoole)
--app-id=	SURGE_APP_ID	surge	App id (pusher handler)
--key=	SURGE_APP_KEY	surge-key	App key (pusher handler)
--secret=	SURGE_APP_SECRET	surge-secret	App secret (pusher handler)

Examples:

# Pusher-compatible server (default)
SURGE_APP_SECRET=s3cr3t php bin/surge serve --app-id=my-app --key=my-key --port=9019

# Simple broadcast relay (every message echoed to all other clients)
php bin/surge serve --handler=broadcast

# Experimental multi-core runtime
SURGE_RUNTIME=turbo php bin/surge serve

Laravel: php artisan surge:serve

Reads everything from config/surge.php, so you usually pass no options.

php artisan surge:serve [--host=] [--port=] [--runtime=lite|turbo]

Option	Default	Description
--host=	config host	Override the bind address
--port=	config port	Override the bind port
--runtime=	lite	lite or turbo

php artisan surge:serve
php artisan surge:serve --port=9020
php artisan surge:serve --runtime=turbo

Both entry points handle SIGINT/SIGTERM for a clean shutdown, so they behave well under systemd or Supervisor — see Deployment.

The broadcast handler

--handler=broadcast runs a dependency-free relay: every message a client sends is forwarded to all other connected clients, with no Pusher protocol, channels, or auth. It's useful for quick demos and as a reference EventHandler; for Laravel, use the default pusher handler.