If you aren't able to write a unit test for your issue, Laravel Liferaft allows you to create a demo application that recreates the issue. Liferaft can even automate the forking and sending of pull requests to the Laravel repository. Once your Liferaft application is submitted, a Laravel maintainer can run your application on [Homestead](/docs/4.2/homestead) and review your issue.

<a name="creating-liferaft-applications"></a>

Laravel Liferaft provides a fresh, innovative way to contribute to Laravel. First, you will need to install the Liferaft CLI tool via Composer:

composer global require "laravel/liferaft=~1.0"

Make sure to place the `~/.composer/vendor/bin` directory in your PATH so the `liferaft` executable is found when you run the `liferaft` command in your terminal.

Before getting started with Liferaft, you need to register a GitHub personal access token. You can generate a personal access token from your [GitHub settings panel](https://github.com/settings/applications). The default scopes selected by GitHub will be sufficient; however, if you wish, you may grant the `delete_repo` scope so Liferaft can delete your old sandbox applications.

liferaft auth my-github-token

To create a new Liferaft application, just use the `new` command:

liferaft new my-bug-fix

This command will do several things. First, it will fork the [Laravel GitHub repository](https://github.com/laravel/laravel) to your GitHub account. Next, it will clone the forked repository to your machine and install the Composer dependencies. Once the repository has been installed, you can begin recreating your issue within the Liferaft application!

After creating a Liferaft application, simply recreate your issue. You are free to define routes, create Eloquent models, and even create database migrations! The only requirement is that your application is able to run on a fresh [Laravel Homestead](/docs/4.2/homestead) virtual machine. This allows Laravel maintainers to easily run your application on their own machines.

Once you have recreated your issue within the Liferaft application, you're ready to send it back to the Laravel repository for review!

Once you have recreated your issue, it's almost time to send it for review! However, you should first complete the `liferaft.md` file that was generated in your Liferaft application. The first line of this file will be the title of your pull request. The remaining content will be included in the pull request body. Of course, GitHub Flavored Markdown is supported.

After completing the `liferaft.md` file, push all of your changes to your GitHub repository. Next, just run the Liferaft `throw` command from your application's directory:

liferaft throw

This command will create a pull request against the Laravel GitHub repository. A Laravel maintainer can easily grab your application and run it in their own Homestead environment!

<a name="grabbing-liferaft-applications"></a>

Intrested in contributing to Laravel? Liferaft makes it painless to install Liferaft applications and view them on your own [Homestead environment](/docs/4.2/homestead).

First, for convenience, clone the [laravel/laravel](https://github.com/laravel/laravel) into a `liferaft` directory on your machine:

git clone https://github.com/laravel/laravel.git liferaft

Next, check out the `develop` branch so you will be able to install Liferaft applications that target both stable and upcoming Laravel releases:

git checkout -b develop origin/develop

Next, you can run the Liferaft `grab` command from your repository directory. For example, if you want to install the Liferaft application associated with pull request #3000, you should run the following command:

liferaft grab 3000

The `grab` command will create a new branch on your Liferaft directory, and pull in the changes for the specified pull request. Once the Liferaft application is installed, simply serve the directory through your [Homestead](/docs/4.2/homestead) virtual machine! Once you debug the issue, don't forget to send a pull request to the [laravel/framework](https://github.com/laravel/framework) repository with the proper fix!

Have an extra hour and want to solve a random issue? Just run `grab` without a pull request ID:

liferaft grab