Laravel 11 WS only event handling and listeners

I am trying to build a multiplayer game using only WebSockets for the chat and the game moves.

My version is laravel 11, I started this before v12 came out. I am also using Laravel Reverb for the WebSocket handling.

A side note: this is not monolithic; the Laravel is an api, and I have a nuxt frontend app.

I created an event called MessageSent

class MessageSent implements ShouldBroadcastNow
{
    use InteractsWithSockets, SerializesModels;

    public function __construct(protected Game $game, protected string $message)
    { }

    public function broadcastOn(): array
    {
        return [
            new PrivateChannel("game.{$this->game->id}.chat"),
        ];
    }

    public function broadcastAs(): string
    {
        return 'message.sent';
    }

    public function broadcastWith(): array
    {
        Log::info('Broadcasting message', [
            'game' => $this->game->id,
            'user' => auth()->user()->name,
            'message' => $this->message,
        ]);

        return [
            'game' => $this->game->id,
            'user' => auth()->user()->name,
            'message' => $this->message,
        ];
    }
}

Then created the listener HandleChatMessages

class HandleChatMessages
{
    public function handle($event): void
    {
        Log::info('HandleChatMessages listener triggered', ['event' => $event]);

        if (!isset($event->data)) {
            Log::error('Event data is not set', ['event' => $event]);
            return;
        }

        $data = $event->data;

        if (!is_array($data)) {
            Log::error('Event data is not an array', ['data' => $data]);
            return;
        }

        $game = Game::find($data['gameId']);
        $message = $data['message'];

        if (!$game) {
            Log::warning('Game not found', ['gameId' => $data['gameId']]);
            return;
        }

        Log::info('Broadcasting message', ['gameId' => $game->id, 'message' => $message]);
        broadcast(new MessageSent($game, $message));
    }
}

I created a new provider called EventServiceProvider:

class EventServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function register()
    {
        //
    }

    public function boot()
    {
        Event::listen('client-message.sent', HandleChatMessages::class);
        Event::listen('client-message.sent', function ($event) {
            \Log::info('Event received in EventServiceProvider', ['event' => $event]);
        });
    }
}

I then added this to the AppServiceProvider:

public function register(): void
    {
        $this->app->register(EventServiceProvider::class);
    }

I then make sure the default broadcasting is reverb in the broadcasting.php:

'default' => env('BROADCAST_CONNECTION', 'reverb'),

In the reverb config file I then make sure the event is being mapped:

'events' => [
        'client-message.sent' => 'client-message.sent',
    ],

I removed the channels.php from the withRouting in the bootstrap app and added:

->withBroadcasting(
        __DIR__.'/../routes/channels.php',
        ['prefix' => 'api/v1', 'middleware' => ['api', 'auth:sanctum']],
    )

The reason for this is because the docks state if we are usingprivate channels with sanctum It is needed to put is withBroadcasting().

Finally setup the channel.php, I have not done any logic, I just want it to work at the moment.

Broadcast::channel('game.{gameId}.chat', function ($user, $gameId) {
    return true; 
});

When I run the:

php artisan reverb:start --debug

Send a message from the nuxt app I get this in the terminal:

Message Received .... 323444322.234444442  

   1▕ {
   2▕     "event": "client-message.sent",
   3▕     "data": {
   4▕         "gameId": "2",
   5▕         "message": "This is a test"
   6▕     },
   7▕     "channel": "private-game.2.chat"
   8▕ }


  Message Handled ........ 23423433.342344444

So the nuxt app is connecting and sending a message. But the event is not being triggered to broadcast back.

I know this because I am getting no logging within the laravel.log file. Also, I am not getting a broadcast out to the nuxt app.

I am new to WebSockets on Laravel. Can anyone shed some light on what I am doing incorrectly?