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Missing Error Tracking Analyzer ​

Analyzer IDCategorySeverityTime To Fix
missing-error-tracking⚡ Best PracticesInfo30 minutes

What This Checks ​

Detects applications without error tracking services or custom error monitoring. Checks for:

  • Popular Error Tracking Packages: Sentry, Bugsnag, Rollbar, Airbrake, Honeybadger, Flare, Ray (9 packages total)
  • Custom Error Tracking: CloudWatch, Datadog, New Relic implementations in app/Exceptions/Handler.php (Laravel ≤10) or bootstrap/app.php (Laravel 11+)
  • Logging Configurations: Papertrail, Logtail, LogEntries in config/logging.php
  • APM Solutions: AWS SDK (CloudWatch), custom error reporting logic
  • Complex Custom Implementations: Custom report() methods with >10 lines of logic

Why It Matters ​

Without error tracking, production issues go unnoticed until users complain:

  • Blind to Production Errors: You don't know when exceptions occur in production
  • No Stack Traces: Debugging becomes guesswork without context
  • Slow Response Time: Manual error discovery delays fixes by days or weeks
  • Poor User Experience: Users encounter broken features without your knowledge
  • Lost Revenue: Critical bugs in checkout/payment flows go undetected
  • No Error Grouping: Can't identify patterns or prioritize fixes
  • Compliance Risk: Some regulations require error logging and monitoring

How to Fix ​

Quick Fix (5 minutes) ​

Install a popular error tracking service via Composer:

Sentry (Recommended)

bash
composer require sentry/sentry-laravel

# Publish config
php artisan sentry:publish

# Add to .env
echo "SENTRY_LARAVEL_DSN=your-dsn-here" >> .env

Bugsnag

bash
composer require bugsnag/bugsnag-laravel

# Publish config
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Bugsnag\BugsnagLaravel\BugsnagServiceProvider"

# Add to .env
echo "BUGSNAG_API_KEY=your-api-key" >> .env

Rollbar

bash
composer require rollbar/rollbar-laravel

# Publish config
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Rollbar\Laravel\RollbarServiceProvider"

# Add to .env
echo "ROLLBAR_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token" >> .env

Proper Fix (30 minutes) ​

Implement comprehensive error tracking with context enrichment:

1. Install and Configure Sentry (Most Popular)

bash
# Install package
composer require sentry/sentry-laravel

# Publish configuration
php artisan sentry:publish

# Configure environment
cat >> .env << 'EOF'
SENTRY_LARAVEL_DSN=https://your-dsn@sentry.io/project-id
SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE=0.2
SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT=production
EOF

2. Enrich Error Context

php
// app/Exceptions/Handler.php
use Sentry\State\Scope;

public function register()
{
    $this->reportable(function (Throwable $e) {
        if (app()->bound('sentry')) {
            \Sentry\configureScope(function (Scope $scope) {
                // Add user context
                $scope->setUser([
                    'id' => auth()->id(),
                    'email' => auth()->user()?->email,
                    'username' => auth()->user()?->name,
                ]);

                // Add environment tags
                $scope->setTag('environment', app()->environment());
                $scope->setTag('php_version', PHP_VERSION);
                $scope->setTag('laravel_version', app()->version());

                // Add custom context
                $scope->setContext('request', [
                    'url' => request()->url(),
                    'method' => request()->method(),
                    'ip' => request()->ip(),
                ]);
            });
        }
    });
}

3. Configure Release Tracking

php
// config/sentry.php
return [
    'dsn' => env('SENTRY_LARAVEL_DSN'),

    // Track releases to identify which deployment introduced bugs
    'release' => env('APP_VERSION', exec('git log --pretty="%h" -n1 HEAD')),

    // Set environment
    'environment' => env('SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT', env('APP_ENV')),

    // Sample rate (0.0 to 1.0)
    'traces_sample_rate' => (float) env('SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE', 0.2),

    // Ignore common exceptions
    'ignore_exceptions' => [
        \Illuminate\Auth\AuthenticationException::class,
        \Illuminate\Validation\ValidationException::class,
        \Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Exception\NotFoundHttpException::class,
    ],
];

4. Custom Error Tracking with CloudWatch

If you prefer AWS CloudWatch or already have APM:

php
// app/Exceptions/Handler.php
public function report(Throwable $exception)
{
    if ($this->shouldReport($exception) && app()->environment('production')) {
        // Custom CloudWatch error reporting
        $cloudwatch = app('cloudwatch');
        $cloudwatch->putLogEvents([
            'logGroupName' => '/aws/laravel/errors',
            'logStreamName' => date('Y-m-d'),
            'logEvents' => [[
                'timestamp' => now()->timestamp * 1000,
                'message' => json_encode([
                    'message' => $exception->getMessage(),
                    'exception' => get_class($exception),
                    'file' => $exception->getFile(),
                    'line' => $exception->getLine(),
                    'trace' => $exception->getTraceAsString(),
                    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
                    'url' => request()->url(),
                    'method' => request()->method(),
                    'ip' => request()->ip(),
                ]),
            ]],
        ]);
    }

    parent::report($exception);
}

5. Datadog via Logging Config

php
// config/logging.php
return [
    'default' => env('LOG_CHANNEL', 'stack'),

    'channels' => [
        'stack' => [
            'driver' => 'stack',
            'channels' => ['datadog', 'stderr'],
            'ignore_exceptions' => false,
        ],

        'datadog' => [
            'driver' => 'monolog',
            'handler' => Monolog\Handler\SocketHandler::class,
            'handler_with' => [
                'connection_string' => env('DATADOG_HOST', 'tcp://localhost:10518'),
            ],
            'level' => 'error',
            'processors' => [
                // Add context to logs
                function ($record) {
                    $record['extra']['user_id'] = auth()->id();
                    $record['extra']['environment'] = app()->environment();
                    return $record;
                },
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

6. Test Your Error Tracking

php
// Create a test route to verify error tracking works
Route::get('/test-error-tracking', function () {
    if (!app()->environment('production')) {
        throw new \Exception('Testing error tracking - this should appear in Sentry/CloudWatch/Datadog');
    }
    abort(403, 'Only available in non-production');
});

// Or use Artisan Tinker
php artisan tinker
>>> throw new \Exception('Test error tracking');

7. Set Up Alerts

Configure your error tracking service to send alerts:

  • Slack Integration: Real-time notifications for new errors
  • Email Alerts: Daily digest or immediate alerts for critical errors
  • PagerDuty: For on-call rotations
  • Threshold Alerts: Alert when error rate exceeds threshold

8. Customize Known Packages:

To customize the list of detected error tracking packages, publish the config:

bash
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=shieldci-config

Then in config/shieldci.php:

php
'analyzers' => [
    'best-practices' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        
        'missing-error-tracking' => [
            'known_packages' => [
                // Add your custom error tracking packages:
                'your-company/internal-error-tracker',
                'custom-vendor/monitoring-package',
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

ShieldCI Configuration ​

This analyzer is automatically skipped in CI environments ($runInCI = false) and only runs in production and staging environments.

Why skip in CI and development?

  • Developers don't need error tracking during local development
  • Test suites don't need error tracking services
  • Prevents unnecessary warnings in CI pipelines
  • Focuses the check on environments where error tracking provides value

Environment Detection: The analyzer checks your Laravel APP_ENV setting and only runs when it maps to production or staging. Custom environment names can be mapped in config/shieldci.php:

php
// config/shieldci.php
'environment_mapping' => [
    'production-us' => 'production',
    'production-blue' => 'production',
    'staging-preview' => 'staging',
],

Examples:

  • APP_ENV=production → Runs (no mapping needed)
  • APP_ENV=production-us → Maps to production → Runs
  • APP_ENV=local → Skipped (not production/staging)

References ​

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