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Use a Dedicated Audit Database

Isolate the Chronicle ledger from your main application database so audit data cannot be accidentally wiped, migrated over, or affected by application schema changes.

1. Add the connection to config/database.php​

'connections' => [
    // your existing connections...

    'audit' => [
        'driver'   => 'mysql',
        'host'     => env('AUDIT_DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
        'port'     => env('AUDIT_DB_PORT', '3306'),
        'database' => env('AUDIT_DB_DATABASE', 'chronicle_audit'),
        'username' => env('AUDIT_DB_USERNAME'),
        'password' => env('AUDIT_DB_PASSWORD'),
        'charset'  => 'utf8mb4',
        'collation'=> 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
    ],
],

2. Point Chronicle at the connection​

In .env:

CHRONICLE_DB_CONNECTION=audit

3. Run Chronicle migrations against the audit connection​

php artisan migrate --database=audit --path=database/migrations/chronicle

Or, if you used chronicle:install:

php artisan migrate --database=audit

Chronicle reads CHRONICLE_DB_CONNECTION at runtime and directs all reads and writes to that connection.

4. Keep the connection out of your main migration history (optional)​

If you prefer the audit migrations never appear in your default migrations table, run them with --pretend first to review, then execute against the audit connection as above.

Verify it worked​

php artisan chronicle:stats

The command uses the configured connection - if it shows 0 entries after recording some, the connection is pointing at the wrong database.

You can also confirm directly:

php artisan tinker
>>> DB::connection('audit')->table('chronicle_entries')->count();

See also​