| 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 countcursor() 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 querieswhereIn + 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 $guarded on every model, authorize every action via policies or gates
- No raw SQL with user input — use Eloquent or query builder
{{ }} for output escaping, @csrf on all POST/PUT/DELETE forms, throttle on auth and API routes- Validate MIME type, extension, and size for file uploads
- Never commit
.env, use config() for secrets, encrypted cast for sensitive DB fields
4. Caching → rules/caching.md
Cache::remember() over manual get/putCache::flexible() for stale-while-revalidate on high-traffic dataCache::memo() to avoid redundant cache hits within a request- Cache tags to invalidate related groups
Cache::add() for atomic conditional writesonce() to memoize per-request or per-object lifetimeCache::lock() / lockForUpdate() for race conditions- Failover cache stores in production
5. Eloquent Patterns → rules/eloquent.md
- Correct relationship types with return type hints
- Local scopes for reusable query constraints
- Global scopes sparingly — document their existence
- Attribute casts in the
casts() method
- Cast date columns, use Carbon instances in templates
whereBelongsTo($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 validationafter() instead of withValidator()
7. Configuration → rules/config.md
env() only inside config filesApp::environment() or app()->isProduction()- Config, lang files, and constants over hardcoded text
8. Testing Patterns → rules/testing.md
LazilyRefreshDatabase over RefreshDatabase for speedassertModelExists() 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 requestsHttp::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 modelsassertQueued() 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 patternShouldntReport 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 tasksonOneServer() on multi-server deploymentsrunInBackground() for concurrent long tasksenvironments() to restrict to appropriate environmentstakeUntilTimeout() 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 needslazyById() when updating records while iteratingtoQuery() 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
