Artisan Commands

artisan-commands

When to use

Use when creating or modifying Laravel Artisan commands — maintenance scripts, imports/exports, batch processing, repair/cleanup, scheduled tasks, developer utilities.

Do NOT use when:

• Writing queue jobs (use jobs-events skill)
• Writing scheduled task config (use laravel-scheduling skill)

Procedure: Create an Artisan command

Step 0: Inspect

1. Check existing commands — match naming, signature style, output format.
2. Determine audience: developer, support, operations, cron, or scheduler.
3. Determine if interactive or automated.
4. Identify related services — commands orchestrate, not own business logic.

Step 1: Scaffold

1. Create command class in app/Console/Commands/ or module App/Commands/.
2. Name: {domain}:{action} — e.g. users:cleanup, orders:sync.
3. Define arguments (required) and options (toggles/filters) explicitly.

Step 2: Implement handle()

1. Validate preconditions (environment, input, dependencies).
2. Call service/action for business logic.
3. Report progress and results via console output.
4. Return appropriate exit code.

Step 3: Safety checks

• Destructive? → Add --force flag + confirmation.
• Scheduled? → Ensure non-interactive, idempotent, loud failures.
• Long-running? → Use chunking/cursors, progress bar.
• Production? → Add environment check if needed.

Step 4: Test

• Assert exit codes, console output, side effects, option behavior.
• Use $this->artisan() in Pest tests.

Conventions

→ See guideline php/artisan-commands.md for full conventions.

Output format

1. Artisan command class with signature, description, and handle method
2. Registration in service provider or auto-discovery
3. Example usage shown in a code comment

Gotcha

• $this->info() is suppressed in quiet mode — use $this->line() for critical info.
• Always add --force for destructive commands — never delete data without confirmation.
• Add environment checks for production commands.

Do NOT

• Do NOT run destructive operations without --force confirmation.
• Do NOT use $this->ask() for non-interactive commands (cron/queue).
• Do NOT put business logic in commands — delegate to services.

Auto-trigger keywords

• artisan command
• console command
• CLI command
• command signature