This guide forms part of my personal aide memoire, it’s hyper specific to my workflow and the tools I use.

Why use Valet

LocalWP is probably the first choice for most developers working on WordPress locally. Before this we had DesktopServer and manual options like XAMPP.

In some instances I prefer to use Valet, mainly because it’s faster, less bloated with GUI and gives me more control. Hence the need to install Valet.

Install Homebrew

Homebrew is the macOS package manager Valet relies on. Open Terminal and run:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)”

Then:

brew --version

Install PHP

Valet always uses the Homebrew-installed PHP and not the one bundled with macOS

brew install php

and verify the installation:

php -v

Install Composer

Composer is needed to install Valet.

brew install composer

and verify:

composer ---version

Don’t forget to install mysql

brew install mysql

Install Laravel Valet

Now the fun part: installing Valet globally via Composer.

composer global require laravel/valet

This installs Valet into Composer’s global bin directory, which is typically something like:

• ~/.config/composer/vendor/bin (newer systems)

To make sure you can run the valet command from anywhere in Terminal, you’ll need to add that directory to your shell’s PATH — which is a list of folders your terminal looks in when running commands.

When you type valet install, your terminal needs to know where the valet executable is. If it’s not in your PATH, you’ll get a “command not found” error.

Add Composer’s global bin to your PATH

It’s worth checking where your Composer global directory is, as this will alter the next step:

composer global config bin-dir --absolute

you are likely to see:

/.config/composer/vendor/bin

/.composer/vendor/bin

next run:

export PATH="$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin:$PATH"

(or /.config/composer/ )

Reload shell:

source ~/.zshrc
source ~/.bash_profile

Test that Valet is available

Valet --version

Now install Valet

You may need to enter your password at this point

valet install

This sets up:

DnsMasq for .test domains
Nginx for the web server
starts PHP

Now to install WordPress on Valet

I choose to run a script inside my development folder. The script checks all the requried services are running and prompts for the basic WordPress details.

#!/bin/bash

# Ensure MySQL is running

# === MySQL Installation + Running Check ===
echo "🔍 Checking for MySQL installation..."

if ! brew list mysql &> /dev/null; then
    echo "❌ MySQL is not installed."
    read -p "Would you like to install MySQL now? (y/n): " INSTALL_MYSQL
    if [[ "$INSTALL_MYSQL" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
        brew install mysql
        brew services start mysql
        echo "✅ MySQL installed and started."
    else
        echo "⚠️ MySQL is required. Exiting."
        exit 1
    fi
else
    echo "✅ MySQL is installed. Checking if it's running..."
    if brew services list | grep mysql | grep started > /dev/null; then
        echo "✅ MySQL is already running."
    else
        echo "🚀 Starting MySQL..."
        brew services start mysql
    fi
fi

# Ensure Valet is running
echo "Checking if Valet is running..."
valet status | grep 'Valet services are running' > /dev/null
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Starting Valet..."
    valet start
else
    echo "Valet is already running."
fi

# Prompt for site details
read -p "Enter site name (no spaces, e.g., mysite): " SITE_NAME
read -p "Enter WordPress admin username: " ADMIN_USER
read -p "Enter WordPress admin email: " ADMIN_EMAIL

# Prompt for admin password (silent input)
read -s -p "Enter WordPress admin password: " ADMIN_PASS
echo ""
read -s -p "Confirm WordPress admin password: " ADMIN_PASS_CONFIRM
echo ""

if [ "$ADMIN_PASS" != "$ADMIN_PASS_CONFIRM" ]; then
    echo "❌ Passwords do not match. Exiting."
    exit 1
fi

# Generate random database name and user
DB_SUFFIX=$(LC_ALL=C tr -dc a-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 6)
DB_NAME="wp_${DB_SUFFIX}"
DB_USER="wp_${DB_SUFFIX}"
DB_PASS="password"  # Set a default password if needed for non-root setups

# Create site folder
mkdir -p "$SITE_NAME"
cd "$SITE_NAME" || exit

# Download WordPress core
wp core download

# Create wp-config.php and database
wp config create --dbname="$DB_NAME" --dbuser="root" --dbpass=""
wp db create

# Install WordPress
wp core install --url="$SITE_NAME.test" --title="$SITE_NAME" --admin_user="$ADMIN_USER" --admin_password="$ADMIN_PASS" --admin_email="$ADMIN_EMAIL"

# Link with Valet
valet link "$SITE_NAME"

# Secure with HTTPS
valet secure "$SITE_NAME"

# Display summary
echo ""
echo "✅ Site created and secured with SSL!"
echo "🌐 URL: https://$SITE_NAME.test"
echo "🛢️ Database name: $DB_NAME"
echo "👤 Admin username: $ADMIN_USER"
echo "🔑 Admin password: (hidden - you set it)"
echo ""

Make it executable: chmod +x valetwp.sh

To run the script from within the same directory that it’s located in you can run:

./valetwp.sh

As an alternative you can specify the folder you’d like sites to be created in by changing the code above. Personally I prefer to keep the script in my dev folder and run it from there.

Installing and running WordPress on Valet locally on macOS