The Laravel Boost guidelines are specifically curated by Laravel maintainers for this application. These guidelines should be followed closely to ensure the best experience when building Laravel applications.
This application is a Laravel application and its main Laravel ecosystems package & versions are below. You are an expert with them all. Ensure you abide by these specific packages & versions.
- php - 8.4
- inertiajs/inertia-laravel (INERTIA_LARAVEL) - v2
- laravel/fortify (FORTIFY) - v1
- laravel/framework (LARAVEL) - v13
- laravel/prompts (PROMPTS) - v0
- laravel/wayfinder (WAYFINDER) - v0
- laravel/boost (BOOST) - v2
- laravel/mcp (MCP) - v0
- laravel/pail (PAIL) - v1
- laravel/pint (PINT) - v1
- laravel/sail (SAIL) - v1
- pestphp/pest (PEST) - v4
- phpunit/phpunit (PHPUNIT) - v12
This project has domain-specific skills available. You MUST activate the relevant skill whenever you work in that domain—don't wait until you're stuck.
wayfinder-development— Activates whenever referencing backend routes in frontend components. Use when importing from @/actions or @/routes, calling Laravel routes from TypeScript, or working with Wayfinder route functions.pest-testing— Use this skill for Pest PHP testing in Laravel projects only. Trigger whenever any test is being written, edited, fixed, or refactored — including fixing tests that broke after a code change, adding assertions, converting PHPUnit to Pest, adding datasets, and TDD workflows. Always activate when the user asks how to write something in Pest, mentions test files or directories (tests/Feature, tests/Unit, tests/Browser), or needs browser testing, smoke testing multiple pages for JS errors, or architecture tests. Covers: it()/expect() syntax, datasets, mocking, browser testing (visit/click/fill), smoke testing, arch(), Livewire component tests, RefreshDatabase, and all Pest 4 features. Do not use for factories, seeders, migrations, controllers, models, or non-test PHP code.
- You must follow all existing code conventions used in this application. When creating or editing a file, check sibling files for the correct structure, approach, and naming.
- Use descriptive names for variables and methods. For example,
isRegisteredForDiscounts, notdiscount(). - Check for existing components to reuse before writing a new one.
- Do not create verification scripts or tinker when tests cover that functionality and prove they work. Unit and feature tests are more important.
- Stick to existing directory structure; don't create new base folders without approval.
- Do not change the application's dependencies without approval.
- If the user doesn't see a frontend change reflected in the UI, it could mean they need to run
npm run build,npm run dev, orcomposer run dev. Ask them.
- You must only create documentation files if explicitly requested by the user.
- Be concise in your explanations - focus on what's important rather than explaining obvious details.
=== boost rules ===
- Laravel Boost is an MCP server that comes with powerful tools designed specifically for this application. Use them.
- Run Artisan commands directly via the command line (e.g.,
php artisan route:list,php artisan tinker --execute "..."). - Use
php artisan listto discover available commands andphp artisan [command] --helpto check parameters.
- Whenever you share a project URL with the user, you should use the
get-absolute-urltool to ensure you're using the correct scheme, domain/IP, and port.
- Use the
database-querytool when you only need to read from the database. - Use the
database-schematool to inspect table structure before writing migrations or models. - To execute PHP code for debugging, run
php artisan tinker --execute "your code here"directly. - To read configuration values, read the config files directly or run
php artisan config:show [key]. - To inspect routes, run
php artisan route:listdirectly. - To check environment variables, read the
.envfile directly.
- You can read browser logs, errors, and exceptions using the
browser-logstool from Boost. - Only recent browser logs will be useful - ignore old logs.
- Boost comes with a powerful
search-docstool you should use before trying other approaches when working with Laravel or Laravel ecosystem packages. This tool automatically passes a list of installed packages and their versions to the remote Boost API, so it returns only version-specific documentation for the user's circumstance. You should pass an array of packages to filter on if you know you need docs for particular packages. - Search the documentation before making code changes to ensure we are taking the correct approach.
- Use multiple, broad, simple, topic-based queries at once. For example:
['rate limiting', 'routing rate limiting', 'routing']. The most relevant results will be returned first. - Do not add package names to queries; package information is already shared. For example, use
test resource table, notfilament 4 test resource table.
- Simple Word Searches with auto-stemming - query=authentication - finds 'authenticate' and 'auth'.
- Multiple Words (AND Logic) - query=rate limit - finds knowledge containing both "rate" AND "limit".
- Quoted Phrases (Exact Position) - query="infinite scroll" - words must be adjacent and in that order.
- Mixed Queries - query=middleware "rate limit" - "middleware" AND exact phrase "rate limit".
- Multiple Queries - queries=["authentication", "middleware"] - ANY of these terms.
=== php rules ===
- Always use curly braces for control structures, even for single-line bodies.
- Use PHP 8 constructor property promotion in
__construct().public function __construct(public GitHub $github) { }
- Do not allow empty
__construct()methods with zero parameters unless the constructor is private.
- Always use explicit return type declarations for methods and functions.
- Use appropriate PHP type hints for method parameters.
protected function isAccessible(User $user, ?string $path = null): bool
{
...
}- Typically, keys in an Enum should be TitleCase. For example:
FavoritePerson,BestLake,Monthly.
- Prefer PHPDoc blocks over inline comments. Never use comments within the code itself unless the logic is exceptionally complex.
- Add useful array shape type definitions when appropriate.
=== tests rules ===
- Every change must be programmatically tested. Write a new test or update an existing test, then run the affected tests to make sure they pass.
- Run the minimum number of tests needed to ensure code quality and speed. Use
php artisan test --compactwith a specific filename or filter.
=== inertia-laravel/core rules ===
- Inertia creates fully client-side rendered SPAs without modern SPA complexity, leveraging existing server-side patterns.
- Components live in
resources/js/pages(unless specified invite.config.js). UseInertia::render()for server-side routing instead of Blade views. - ALWAYS use
search-docstool for version-specific Inertia documentation and updated code examples.
- Use all Inertia features from v1 and v2. Check the documentation before making changes to ensure the correct approach.
- New features: deferred props, infinite scroll, merging props, polling, prefetching, once props, flash data.
- When using deferred props, add an empty state with a pulsing or animated skeleton.
=== laravel/core rules ===
- Use
php artisan make:commands to create new files (i.e. migrations, controllers, models, etc.). You can list available Artisan commands usingphp artisan listand check their parameters withphp artisan [command] --help. - If you're creating a generic PHP class, use
php artisan make:class. - Pass
--no-interactionto all Artisan commands to ensure they work without user input. You should also pass the correct--optionsto ensure correct behavior.
- Always use proper Eloquent relationship methods with return type hints. Prefer relationship methods over raw queries or manual joins.
- Use Eloquent models and relationships before suggesting raw database queries.
- Avoid
DB::; preferModel::query(). Generate code that leverages Laravel's ORM capabilities rather than bypassing them. - Generate code that prevents N+1 query problems by using eager loading.
- Use Laravel's query builder for very complex database operations.
- When creating new models, create useful factories and seeders for them too. Ask the user if they need any other things, using
php artisan make:model --helpto check the available options.
- For APIs, default to using Eloquent API Resources and API versioning unless existing API routes do not, then you should follow existing application convention.
- Always create Form Request classes for validation rather than inline validation in controllers. Include both validation rules and custom error messages.
- Check sibling Form Requests to see if the application uses array or string based validation rules.
- Use Laravel's built-in authentication and authorization features (gates, policies, Sanctum, etc.).
- When generating links to other pages, prefer named routes and the
route()function.
- Use queued jobs for time-consuming operations with the
ShouldQueueinterface.
- Use environment variables only in configuration files - never use the
env()function directly outside of config files. Always useconfig('app.name'), notenv('APP_NAME').
- When creating models for tests, use the factories for the models. Check if the factory has custom states that can be used before manually setting up the model.
- Faker: Use methods such as
$this->faker->word()orfake()->randomDigit(). Follow existing conventions whether to use$this->fakerorfake(). - When creating tests, make use of
php artisan make:test [options] {name}to create a feature test, and pass--unitto create a unit test. Most tests should be feature tests.
- If you receive an "Illuminate\Foundation\ViteException: Unable to locate file in Vite manifest" error, you can run
npm run buildor ask the user to runnpm run devorcomposer run dev.
=== wayfinder/core rules ===
Wayfinder generates TypeScript functions for Laravel routes. Import from @/actions/ (controllers) or @/routes/ (named routes).
- IMPORTANT: Activate
wayfinder-developmentskill whenever referencing backend routes in frontend components. - Invokable Controllers:
import StorePost from '@/actions/.../StorePostController'; StorePost(). - Parameter Binding: Detects route keys (
{post:slug}) —show({ slug: "my-post" }). - Query Merging:
show(1, { mergeQuery: { page: 2, sort: null } })merges with current URL,nullremoves params. - Inertia: Use
.form()with<Form>component orform.submit(store())with useForm.
=== pint/core rules ===
- If you have modified any PHP files, you must run
vendor/bin/pint --dirty --format agentbefore finalizing changes to ensure your code matches the project's expected style. - Do not run
vendor/bin/pint --test --format agent, simply runvendor/bin/pint --format agentto fix any formatting issues.
=== pest/core rules ===
- This project uses Pest for testing. Create tests:
php artisan make:test --pest {name}. - Run tests:
php artisan test --compactor filter:php artisan test --compact --filter=testName. - Do NOT delete tests without approval.