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
Quick Reference
1. Architecture & Structure (CRITICAL)
arch-service-classes- Extract business logic to servicesarch-action-classes- Single-purpose action classesarch-repository-pattern- When to use repositoriesarch-dto-pattern- Data transfer objectsarch-value-objects- Encapsulate domain conceptsarch-event-driven- Decouple with events and listenersarch-feature-folders- Organize by domain/featurearch-queue-routing- Centralized job queue routing (Laravel 13+)
2. Eloquent & Database (CRITICAL)
eloquent-eager-loading- Prevent N+1 querieseloquent-chunking- Process large datasetseloquent-query-scopes- Reusable query logiceloquent-model-events- Use observers for side effectseloquent-relationships- Define relationships properlyeloquent-casts- Automatic attribute castingeloquent-accessors-mutators- Transform attributeseloquent-soft-deletes- Safe deletion with recoveryeloquent-pruning- Automatic cleanup of old recordseloquent-vector-search- Semantic search with pgvector (Laravel 13+)
3. Controllers & Routing (HIGH)
controller-resource-controllers- Use resource controllerscontroller-single-action- Single action invokable controllerscontroller-resource-methods- RESTful resource methodscontroller-form-requests- Use form requestscontroller-api-resources- Transform API responsescontroller-middleware- Apply middleware properlycontroller-dependency-injection- Inject dependencies
4. Validation & Requests (HIGH)
validation-form-requests- Use form request classesvalidation-custom-rules- Create custom rulesvalidation-conditional-rules- Conditional validationvalidation-array-validation- Validate nested arraysvalidation-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


