Laravel 13 conventions and best practices. Use when creating controllers, models, migrations, validation, services, or structuring Laravel applications. Triggers on tasks involving Laravel architecture, Eloquent, database, API development, or PHP patterns.

Laravel 13 Best Practices Comprehensive best practices guide for Laravel 13 applications. Contains 31 rules across 7 categories for building scalable, maintainable Laravel applications. When to Apply Reference these guidelines when: Creating controllers, models, and services Writing migrations and database queries Implementing validation and form requests Building APIs with Laravel Structuring Laravel applications Rule Categories by Priority Priority Category Impact Prefix 1 Architecture & Structure CRITICAL arch 2 Eloquent & Database CRITICAL eloquent 3 Controllers & Routing HIGH controller , ctrl 4 Validation & Requests HIGH validation , valid 5 Security HIGH sec 6 Performance MEDIUM perf 7 API Design MEDIUM api Quick Reference 1. Architecture & Structure (CRITICAL) arch service classes Extract business logic to services arch action classes Single purpose action classes arch repository pattern When to use repositories arch dto pattern Data transfer objects arch value objects Encapsulate domain concepts arch event driven Decouple with events and listeners arch feature folders Organize by domain/feature arch queue routing Centralized job queue routing (Laravel 13+) 2. Eloquent & Database (CRITICAL) eloquent eager loading Prevent N+1 queries eloquent chunking Process large datasets eloquent query scopes Reusable query logic eloquent model events Use observers for side effects eloquent relationships Define relationships properly eloquent casts Automatic attribute casting eloquent accessors mutators Transform attributes eloquent soft deletes Safe deletion with recovery eloquent pruning Automatic cleanup of old records eloquent vector search Semantic search with pgvector (Laravel 13+) 3. Controllers & Routing (HIGH) controller resource controllers Use resource controllers controller single action Single action invokable controllers controller resource methods RESTful resource methods controller form requests Use form requests controller api resources Transform API responses controller middleware Apply middleware properly controller dependency injection Inject dependencies 4. Validation & Requests (HIGH) validation form requests Use form request classes validation custom rules Create custom rules validation conditional rules Conditional validation validation array validation Validate nested arrays validation after hooks Complex validation logic 5. Security (HIGH) sec mass assignment Protect against mass assignment 6. Performance (MEDIUM) No rule files exist yet for this category. 7. API Design (MEDIUM) No rule files exist yet for this category. Essential Patterns Controller with Form Request Form Request Class Service Class Pattern Eloquent Model Migration Best Practices Eager Loading How to Use Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and code examples: Each rule file contains: YAML frontmatter with metadata (title, impact, tags) Brief explanation of why it matters Bad Example with explanation Good Example with explanation Laravel 13 and PHP 8.3 specific context and references Full Compiled Document For the complete guide with all rules expanded: AGENTS.md

laravel-best-practices