laravel-best-practices

name laravel-best-practices description Apply this skill whenever writing, reviewing, or refactoring Laravel PHP code. This includes creating or modifying controllers, models, migrations, form requests, policies, jobs, scheduled commands, service classes, and Eloquent queries. Triggers for N+1 and query performance issues, caching strategies, authorization and security patterns, validation, error handling, queue and job configuration, route definitions, and architectural decisions. Also use for Laravel code reviews and refactoring existing Laravel code to follow best practices. Covers any task involving Laravel backend PHP code patterns. license MIT metadata {"author":"laravel"} Laravel Best Practices Best practices for Laravel, prioritized by impact. Each rule teaches what to do and why. For exact API syntax, verify with search-docs . Consistency First Before applying any rule, check what the application already does. Laravel offers multiple valid approaches — the best choice is the one the codebase already uses, even if another pattern would be theoretically better. Inconsistency is worse than a suboptimal pattern. Check sibling files, related controllers, models, or tests for established patterns. If one exists, follow it — don't introduce a second way. These rules are defaults for when no pattern exists yet, not overrides. Quick Reference 1. Database Performance → rules/db-performance.md Eager load with with() to prevent N+1 queries Enable Model::preventLazyLoading() in development Select only needed columns, avoid SELECT * chunk() / chunkById() for large datasets Index columns used in WHERE , ORDER BY , JOIN withCount() instead of loading relations to count cursor() for memory-efficient read-only iteration Never query in Blade templates 2. Advanced Query Patterns → rules/advanced-queries.md addSelect() subqueries over eager-loading entire has-many for a single value Dynamic relationships via subquery FK + belongsTo Conditional aggregates ( CASE WHEN in selectRaw ) over multiple count queries setRelation() to prevent circular N+1 queries whereIn + pluck() over whereHas for better index usage Two simple queries can beat one complex query Compound indexes matching orderBy column order Correlated subqueries in orderBy for has-many sorting (avoid joins) 3. Security → rules/security.md Define $fillable or $guarded on every model, authorize every action via policies or gates No raw SQL with user input — use Eloquent or query builder {{ }} for output escaping, @csrf on all POST/PUT/DELETE forms, throttle on auth and API routes Validate MIME type, extension, and size for file uploads Never commit .env , use config() for secrets, encrypted cast for sensitive DB fields 4. Caching → rules/caching.md Cache::remember() over manual get/put Cache::flexible() for stale-while-revalidate on high-traffic data Cache::memo() to avoid redundant cache hits within a request Cache tags to invalidate related groups Cache::add() for atomic conditional writes once() to memoize per-request or per-object lifetime Cache::lock() / lockForUpdate() for race conditions Failover cache stores in production 5. Eloquent Patterns → rules/eloquent.md Correct relationship types with return type hints Local scopes for reusable query constraints Global scopes sparingly — document their existence Attribute casts in the casts() method Cast date columns, use Carbon instances in templates whereBelongsTo($model) for cleaner queries Never hardcode table names — use (new Model)->getTable() or Eloquent queries 6. Validation & Forms → rules/validation.md Form Request classes, not inline validation Array notation ['required', 'email'] for new code; follow existing convention $request->validated() only — never $request->all() Rule::when() for conditional validation after() instead of withValidator() 7. Configuration → rules/config.md env() only inside config files App::environment() or app()->isProduction() Config, lang files, and constants over hardcoded text 8. Testing Patterns → rules/testing.md LazilyRefreshDatabase over RefreshDatabase for speed assertModelExists() over raw assertDatabaseHas() Factory states and sequences over manual overrides Use fakes ( Event::fake() , Exceptions::fake() , etc.) — but always after factory setup, not before recycle() to share relationship instances across factories 9. Queue & Job Patterns → rules/queue-jobs.md retry_after must exceed job timeout ; use exponential backoff [1, 5, 10] ShouldBeUnique to prevent duplicates; ShouldBeUniqueUntilProcessing for early lock release Always implement failed() ; with retryUntil() , set $tries = 0 RateLimited middleware for external API calls; Bus::batch() for related jobs Horizon for complex multi-queue scenarios 10. Routing & Controllers → rules/routing.md Implicit route model binding Scoped bindings for nested resources Route::resource() or apiResource() Methods under 10 lines — extract to actions/services Type-hint Form Requests for auto-validation 11. HTTP Client → rules/http-client.md Explicit timeout and connectTimeout on every request retry() with exponential backoff for external APIs Check response status or use throw() Http::pool() for concurrent independent requests Http::fake() and preventStrayRequests() in tests 12. Events, Notifications & Mail → rules/events-notifications.md , rules/mail.md Event discovery over manual registration; event:cache in production ShouldDispatchAfterCommit / afterCommit() inside transactions Queue notifications and mailables with ShouldQueue On-demand notifications for non-user recipients HasLocalePreference on notifiable models assertQueued() not assertSent() for queued mailables Markdown mailables for transactional emails 13. Error Handling → rules/error-handling.md report() / render() on exception classes or in bootstrap/app.php — follow existing pattern ShouldntReport for exceptions that should never log Throttle high-volume exceptions to protect log sinks dontReportDuplicates() for multi-catch scenarios Force JSON rendering for API routes Structured context via context() on exception classes 14. Task Scheduling → rules/scheduling.md withoutOverlapping() on variable-duration tasks onOneServer() on multi-server deployments runInBackground() for concurrent long tasks environments() to restrict to appropriate environments takeUntilTimeout() for time-bounded processing Schedule groups for shared configuration 15. Architecture → rules/architecture.md Single-purpose Action classes; dependency injection over app() helper Prefer official Laravel packages and follow conventions, don't override defaults Default to ORDER BY id DESC or created_at DESC ; mb_* for UTF-8 safety defer() for post-response work; Context for request-scoped data; Concurrency::run() for parallel execution 16. Migrations → rules/migrations.md Generate migrations with php artisan make:migration constrained() for foreign keys Never modify migrations that have run in production Add indexes in the migration, not as an afterthought Mirror column defaults in model $attributes Reversible down() by default; forward-fix migrations for intentionally irreversible changes One concern per migration — never mix DDL and DML 17. Collections → rules/collections.md Higher-order messages for simple collection operations cursor() vs. lazy() — choose based on relationship needs lazyById() when updating records while iterating toQuery() for bulk operations on collections 18. Blade & Views → rules/blade-views.md $attributes->merge() in component templates Blade components over @include ; @pushOnce for per-component scripts View Composers for shared view data @aware for deeply nested component props 19. Conventions & Style → rules/style.md Follow Laravel naming conventions for all entities Prefer Laravel helpers ( Str , Arr , Number , Uri , Str::of() , $request->string() ) over raw PHP functions No JS/CSS in Blade, no HTML in PHP classes Code should be readable; comments only for config files How to Apply Always use a sub-agent to read rule files and explore this skill's content. Identify the file type and select relevant sections (e.g., migration → §16, controller → §1, §3, §5, §6, §10) Check sibling files for existing patterns — follow those first per Consistency First Verify API syntax with search-docs for the installed Laravel version