laravel/php

Hi.

Is the list ok to post basic laravel questions? Or only straight php?

I'm doing some basic research on laravel, and other tech/stacks.

For laravel, assume I download a test app from github, and install it in:
 /var/www/html/asciisd

 I do a
  composer install

The "install/setup" says I should do a
 >>composer require asciisd/referrals-laravel
 as well.

Should this be done while within the " /var/www/html/asciisd" or in
the parent dir " /var/www/html"

 doing this from the inner dir, gets an err
    Root package 'asciisd/referrals-laravel' cannot require itself in
its composer.json

I'm currently looking over github code samples, as well as numerous vids..

thanks