Laravel best practices

Best practices for Laravel, organized as an index of rule files. Each rule file 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 several valid approaches. The best choice is the one the codebase already uses, even if another pattern would be better in theory. Inconsistency is worse than a suboptimal pattern.

Check sibling files and 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.

How to apply

1. Check the changed files, nearby code, project configuration, and relevant tests for established patterns. Deviate only for a correctness or security defect, and call the deviation out.
2. Map every affected concern to the rule index below. Read each mapped rule file before editing. Skip unrelated rule files.
3. Make the smallest coherent change. Keep the application's architecture and naming instead of introducing a second pattern for the same job.
4. Verify version-sensitive Laravel APIs for the installed version with search-docs, or inspect the installed framework when search-docs is unavailable.
5. Run the narrowest relevant tests first, then the project's formatting and static-analysis checks when the change warrants them.
6. Re-read the diff against every mapped rule before finishing.

Rule index

Cross-cutting changes often need more than one rule file.

Concern	Read
Query count, eager loading, indexes, large datasets	rules/db-performance.md
Subqueries, aggregates, complex ordering and query plans	rules/advanced-queries.md
Models, relationships, scopes, casts	rules/eloquent.md
Authentication, authorization, input safety, secrets, uploads	rules/security.md
Form Requests and validation rules	rules/validation.md
Controllers, route binding, resources, middleware	rules/routing.md
Schema changes, columns, foreign keys, indexes	rules/migrations.md
Jobs, retries, uniqueness, batches, Horizon	rules/queue-jobs.md
Cache lifetime, invalidation, locks, memoization	rules/caching.md
Outbound requests, retries, timeouts, fakes	rules/http-client.md
Exceptions, reporting, rendering, log context	rules/error-handling.md
Events and notifications	rules/events-notifications.md
Mailables and mail assertions	rules/mail.md
Scheduled tasks and overlap protection	rules/scheduling.md
Collections, lazy iteration, bulk operations	rules/collections.md
Blade components, attributes, composers	rules/blade-views.md
Environment values and application configuration	rules/config.md
Tests: coverage, factories, fakes, and assertions	the testing-best-practices skill
Naming, helpers, file boundaries, PHP style	rules/style.md
Actions, services, dependencies, application structure	rules/architecture.md

Decision rules

• Prefer framework features and existing application abstractions over new helpers or dependencies.
• Avoid speculative abstractions. Extract code when it creates a clear domain boundary, removes meaningful duplication, or makes behavior independently testable.
• Keep database access out of Blade views and prevent hidden N+1 queries across controllers, resources, jobs, and serialization.