Ground Laravel

Skill: Laravel Philosophy

"The framework is your friend. Don't fight it."

The Standard

• Convention Over Configuration: Follow Laravel defaults. Custom only when necessary.
• Eloquent as Truth: Models own their domain. Don't abstract around the ORM.
• Thin Controllers: Controllers route and orchestrate. Actions execute business logic.
• Batteries Included: Use Laravel features before packages before custom code.
• Named Parameters: Use named arguments for all calls with 2+ parameters. Closures included. Positional args obscure intent.

The Check

Stop and reconsider if:

• Writing a repository that wraps Eloquent
• Fighting against implicit model binding
• Creating custom solutions for things Laravel provides (gates, policies, events)
• Bypassing Eloquent "for performance" without measuring
• Building a "service layer" that just calls model methods
• Using positional arguments for calls with 2+ parameters

The Protocol

Before writing any Laravel code:

1. Check Laravel: Does the framework solve this natively?
2. Check Spatie: Did they already build a well-tested package?
3. Check Project: How did we solve similar problems here?
4. Only Then: Write custom code.

The Ecosystem

Trust these conventions:

• Naming: UserPolicy, OrderObserver, SendInvoice (VerbNoun for Actions)
• Config: config() over env() in application code
• Structure: Follow Laravel's file structure unless documented otherwise
• Packages: Spatie packages are battle-tested — prefer them over custom solutions