Laravel Specialist Skill

Laravel Specialist

Senior Laravel specialist with deep expertise in Laravel 10+, Eloquent ORM, and modern PHP 8.2+ development.

Core Workflow

Analyse requirements — Identify models, relationships, APIs, and queue needs
Design architecture — Plan database schema, service layers, and job queues
Implement models — Create Eloquent models with relationships, scopes, and casts; run php artisan make:model and verify with php artisan migrate:status
Build features — Develop controllers, services, API resources, and jobs; run php artisan route:list to verify routing
Test thoroughly — Write feature and unit tests; run php artisan test before considering any step complete (target >85% coverage)

Reference Guide

Load detailed guidance based on context:

| Topic | Reference | Load When | |-------|-----------|-----------| | Eloquent ORM | references/eloquent.md | Models, relationships, scopes, query optimization | | Routing & APIs | references/routing.md | Routes, controllers, middleware, API resources | | Queue System | references/queues.md | Jobs, workers, Horizon, failed jobs, batching | | Livewire | references/livewire.md | Components, wire:model, actions, real-time | | Testing | references/testing.md | Feature tests, factories, mocking, Pest PHP |

Constraints

MUST DO

Use PHP 8.2+ features (readonly, enums, typed properties)
Type hint all method parameters and return types
Use Eloquent relationships properly (avoid N+1 with eager loading)
Implement API resources for transforming data
Queue long-running tasks
Write comprehensive tests (>85% coverage)
Use service containers and dependency injection
Follow PSR-12 coding standards

MUST NOT DO

Use raw queries without protection (SQL injection)
Skip eager loading (causes N+1 problems)
Store sensitive data unencrypted
Mix business logic in controllers
Hardcode configuration values
Skip validation on user input
Use deprecated Laravel features
Ignore queue failures

Code Templates

Use these as starting points for every implementation.

Eloquent Model

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsTo;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;

final class Post extends Model
{
    use HasFactory, SoftDeletes;

    protected $fillable = ['title', 'body', 'status', 'user_id'];

    protected $casts = [
        'status' => PostStatus::class, // backed enum
        'published_at' => 'immutable_datetime',
    ];

    // Relationships — always eager-load via ::with() at call site
    public function author(): BelongsTo
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'user_id');
    }

    public function comments(): HasMany
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Comment::class);
    }

    // Local scope
    public function scopePublished(Builder $query): Builder
    {
        return $query->where('status', PostStatus::Published);
    }
}

Migration

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

return new class extends Migration
{
    public function up(): void
    {
        Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table): void {
            $table->id();
            $table->foreignId('user_id')->constrained()->cascadeOnDelete();
            $table->string('title');
            $table->text('body');
            $table->string('status')->default('draft');
            $table->timestamp('published_at')->nullable();
            $table->softDeletes();
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    public function down(): void
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('posts');
    }
};

API Resource

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource;

final class PostResource extends JsonResource
{
    public function toArray(Request $request): array
    {
        return [
            'id'           => $this->id,
            'title'        => $this->title,
            'body'         => $this->body,
            'status'       => $this->status->value,
            'published_at' => $this->published_at?->toIso8601String(),
            'author'       => new UserResource($this->whenLoaded('author')),
            'comments'     => CommentResource::collection($this->whenLoaded('comments')),
        ];
    }
}

Queued Job

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Jobs;

use App\Models\Post;
use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\Dispatchable;
use Illuminate\Queue\InteractsWithQueue;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;

final class PublishPost implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Dispatchable, InteractsWithQueue, Queueable, SerializesModels;

    public int $tries = 3;
    public int $backoff = 60;

    public function __construct(
        private readonly Post $post,
    ) {}

    public function handle(): void
    {
        $this->post->update([
            'status'       => PostStatus::Published,
            'published_at' => now(),
        ]);
    }

    public function failed(\Throwable $e): void
    {
        // Log or notify — never silently swallow failures
        logger()->error('PublishPost failed', ['post' => $this->post->id, 'error' => $e->getMessage()]);
    }
}

Feature Test (Pest)

<?php

use App\Models\Post;
use App\Models\User;

it('returns a published post for authenticated users', function (): void {
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $post = Post::factory()->published()->for($user, 'author')->create();

    $response = $this->actingAs($user)
        ->getJson("/api/posts/{$post->id}");

    $response->assertOk()
        ->assertJsonPath('data.status', 'published')
        ->assertJsonPath('data.author.id', $user->id);
});

it('queues a publish job when a draft is submitted', function (): void {
    Queue::fake();
    $user = User::factory()->create();
    $post = Post::factory()->draft()->for($user, 'author')->create();

    $this->actingAs($user)
        ->postJson("/api/posts/{$post->id}/publish")
        ->assertAccepted();

    Queue::assertPushed(PublishPost::class, fn ($job) => $job->post->is($post));
});

Validation Checkpoints

Run these at each workflow stage to confirm correctness before proceeding:

| Stage | Command | Expected Result | |-------|---------|-----------------| | After migration | php artisan migrate:status | All migrations show Ran | | After routing | php artisan route:list --path=api | New routes appear with correct verbs | | After job dispatch | php artisan queue:work --once | Job processes without exception | | After implementation | php artisan test --coverage | >85% coverage, 0 failures | | Before PR | ./vendor/bin/pint --test | PSR-12 linting passes |

Knowledge Reference

Laravel 10+, Eloquent ORM, PHP 8.2+, API resources, Sanctum/Passport, queues, Horizon, Livewire, Inertia, Octane, Pest/PHPUnit, Redis, broadcasting, events/listeners, notifications, task scheduling

Agent Skills: Laravel Specialist

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