Laravel Idioms

Laravel Idioms and Patterns

Laravel rewards convention, Eloquent, and expressive syntax. Idiomatic Laravel = DRY, service-oriented, well-tested.

Scope: Laravel-specific patterns. For PHP: @.gemini/skills/php-idioms/SKILL.md.

Eloquent

1. Scopes for reusable queries:

   class Task extends Model {
       public function scopeActive(Builder $query): Builder {
           return $query->where('status', 'active');
       }
   }
   // Usage: Task::active()->paginate(25);
   

2. Eager loading to avoid N+1: Task::with('user', 'tags')->get().

3. Accessors/Mutators with Attribute cast (Laravel 9+).

Service Layer

1. Services for business logic — controllers stay thin:

   class TaskService {
       public function __construct(
           private readonly TaskRepository $repository,
       ) {}
   
       public function create(CreateTaskRequest $request): Task { ... }
   }
   

Validation

1. Form Requests for validation — never validate in controllers:

   class CreateTaskRequest extends FormRequest {
       public function rules(): array {
           return [
               'title' => ['required', 'string', 'max:200'],
               'priority' => ['required', Rule::enum(Priority::class)],
           ];
       }
   }
   

Testing

1. Pest (preferred) or PHPUnit:

   test('creating a task returns 201', function () {
       $response = $this->postJson('/api/tasks', ['title' => 'Test', 'priority' => 'high']);
       $response->assertCreated();
       $this->assertDatabaseHas('tasks', ['title' => 'Test']);
   });
   

2. Factories for test data. RefreshDatabase trait for isolation.

Formatting and Static Analysis

Related

• PHP Idioms @.gemini/skills/php-idioms/SKILL.md
• Database Design Principles @.gemini/skills/database-design-principles/SKILL.md