Noticeable battery drain with php artisan dev (@laravel/multiplex) compared to the previous one

[Akhmami]

Hi everyone,
I recently noticed a significant increase in battery drain on my laptop (macOS) when running the new php artisan dev command compared to the older composer run dev setup that used concurrently.
Is anyone experiencing the same thing as me?

[meyshad]

Hi! There is a plausible implementation-level reason for the difference you are seeing.

On macOS, the current php artisan dev command launches Laravel Multiplex’s interactive Ink terminal UI, while the previous Composer script used concurrently. In the current Multiplex UI, an 80 ms interval remains active to check process animation state. That creates regular event-loop wakeups even when the child processes are otherwise quiet.

That timer alone does not prove the entire battery difference, but it gives you a direct low-overhead workaround:

php artisan dev --inline

The --inline mode runs the same registered development processes but bypasses the interactive Ink UI and prints labelled, interleaved output as it arrives. --stream is not the same mitigation because it still uses the TUI.

If --inline reduces the energy impact on the same project, it is a practical replacement while keeping the new Artisan command. Keeping the previous composer run dev / concurrently script is also completely reasonable if it remains lighter for your workflow.

[Akhmami]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I didn't realize the Ink UI timer had that kind of impact. I'll give php artisan dev --inline a try and see if it helps with the battery usage.