I built lerd to solve a problem I had as a PHP developer on Linux. Laravel Herd is great but it's macOS and Windows only, and the existing alternatives all depend on Docker. I wanted something that felt as simple as Herd but was Podman-native, rootless, and without a Docker dependency.

Lerd runs Nginx, PHP-FPM and optional services like MySQL, Redis, PostgreSQL, Meilisearch, Minio, Mailpit, Stripe Mock and Reverb as rootless Podman containers. It gives you automatic .test domains, per-project PHP and Node version isolation, and one-command TLS without touching your system PHP or requiring elevated permissions anywhere.

There is also a built-in web UI you can install as a PWA where you can manage sites, switch PHP and Node versions, toggle services and watch live logs per project.

On Linux it integrates with systemd user services. On macOS it uses launchd and Podman Machine, which I just released as a stable version today.

The project has been getting organic traction, was featured by Laravel News, and already has external contributors sending pull requests.

Tech stack is Go for the CLI and daemon.

github.com/geodro/lerd docs: geodro.github.io/lerd