What is Arqel?

Arqel is an MIT-licensed open-source framework for building admin panels in Laravel 12+/13 with Inertia 3 and React 19.2+. It positions itself as an alternative to Filament and Laravel Nova.

Philosophy

Three opinionated choices form the heart of the project:

1. Server-driven UI

Resources, Fields, Tables, and Forms are declared in PHP. The React front-end only consumes the JSON serialized by the server. You describe what the admin is, not how the components are assembled:

final class PostResource extends Resource
{
    protected static string $model = Post::class;

    public function fields(): array
    {
        return [
            Field::text('title')->required(),
            Field::slug('slug')->fromField('title'),
            Field::textarea('body'),
        ];
    }
}

That single file generates index, create, edit, show, routes, validation rules, and Inertia payload.

2. Inertia-only

Arqel forbids TanStack Query, SWR, or other fetch libraries in Resource CRUD (ADR-001). Inertia props are the default state. The result: zero impedance mismatch between Laravel and React, natural SSR navigation, and a single mental model — "props come from the server, callbacks go back to the server".

3. Laravel-native

Policies, Gates, FormRequest, Eloquent — used directly. Arqel has no Role model, no permission table, no parallel ACL. If you know Laravel, you know Arqel.

Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	PHP 8.3+ · Laravel 12+
Bridge	Inertia 3
Frontend	React 19.2+ · TypeScript 5.6+ strict
UI	shadcn CLI v4 (new-york) · Radix UI · Tailwind CSS v4
Tables	TanStack Table v8
Bundler	Vite 5 (app) · tsup (libs)
Tests	Pest 3 · Vitest · Playwright

Packages

One-line installation

composer require arqel-dev/framework

The arqel-dev/framework meta-package pulls the entire PHP stack. If you want to know what's underneath:

PHP

Package	Responsibility
arqel-dev/framework	Meta-package — bundles everything below
arqel-dev/core	Panels, Resources, polymorphic routes, Inertia bridge, command palette, telemetry
arqel-dev/auth	Login/Register/Forgot/Reset/Verify bundled (Inertia React pages) + AbilityRegistry
arqel-dev/fields	21 field types + ValidationBridge
arqel-dev/table	Table builder + Columns + Filters
arqel-dev/form	Form builder + Layout components + FormRequest gen
arqel-dev/actions	RowAction, BulkAction, ToolbarAction, HeaderAction
arqel-dev/nav	NavigationItem, NavigationGroup, BreadcrumbsBuilder

JavaScript

The JS packages are installed automatically by arqel:install:

Package	Responsibility
@arqel-dev/types	Shared TypeScript types (zero runtime)
@arqel-dev/react	createArqelApp, <ArqelProvider>, <ThemeProvider>, contexts
@arqel-dev/hooks	useResource, useArqelForm, useTable, useNavigation, useFlash, useCanAccess
@arqel-dev/ui	AppShell + Sidebar (shadcn sidebar-07) + DataTable + FormRenderer + 16 shadcn primitives
@arqel-dev/auth	LoginPage / RegisterPage / ForgotPasswordPage / ResetPasswordPage / VerifyEmailNoticePage (split-screen login-04)
@arqel-dev/fields	21 rich inputs registered via FieldRegistry
@arqel-dev/theme	Semantic tokens + dark-mode + ThemeToggle (FOUC-safe)

Comparison with Filament and Nova

Criteria	Filament	Nova	Arqel
Bridge	Livewire	Vue/Inertia	Inertia + React
Frontend stack	Alpine + Tailwind	Vue 3	React 19 + shadcn (Radix) + Tailwind v4
License	MIT	Commercial	MIT
Client validation	partial	partial	Zod via ValidationBridge
TypeScript	—	partial	strict + exactOptionalPropertyTypes
Field count	30+	25+	21 covering canonical cases

Non-goals

Arqel will not ship:

• Visual form builder (drag-drop) — declarative-only
• Full multi-tenancy in Phase 1 — only scaffold
• Real-time collab — Phase 4 considers Laravel Reverb
• Custom ORM — Eloquent only

Next steps

• Getting Started — setup in < 5 min
• Panels — multi-panel architecture
• Resources — declare models
• Roadmap — 4 phases, 328 tickets