> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usenightowl.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> The monitoring dashboard for Laravel Nightwatch — your data, your database.

NightOwl is a monitoring dashboard built on top of [Laravel Nightwatch](https://github.com/laravel/nightwatch). It takes the telemetry data that Nightwatch collects from your Laravel app and stores it in your own PostgreSQL database.

## How it works

1. **Laravel Nightwatch** instruments your app and collects telemetry (requests, exceptions, queries, jobs, etc.)
2. **The NightOwl agent** receives that telemetry, buffers it locally, and drains it into your PostgreSQL database
3. **The NightOwl dashboard** gives you a full monitoring UI on top of that data

<Note>
  `laravel/nightwatch` is pulled in automatically as the instrumentation library when you `composer require nightowl/agent` — you do **not** need a Laravel Cloud or Nightwatch hosted account, subscription, or `NIGHTWATCH_TOKEN` for a standalone NightOwl install. You only set `NIGHTWATCH_TOKEN` if you deliberately run [alongside Nightwatch's hosted agent](/agent/running-alongside-nightwatch).
</Note>

## What you get

* All 12 Laravel event types: requests, exceptions, queries, jobs, commands, scheduled tasks, cache, mail, notifications, outgoing requests, logs, and users
* Issue management with priority, assignment, comments, and activity timelines
* Multi-channel alert notifications (Slack, Discord, Email, Webhook)
* Performance thresholds that auto-create issues
* Granular data clearing with preview and protection windows
* Agent instance health monitoring with capacity insights
* No event limits, no retention caps — you scale the way you want

## Agent reference

The full agent README — every environment variable, production deployment recipes (supervisord, systemd), testing setup, and internals — lives in the agent repo:

<Card title="NightOwl Agent on GitHub" icon="github" href="https://github.com/lemed99/nightowl-agent#readme">
  Installation, configuration reference, production deployment, and architecture notes.
</Card>