jouwdriedee/.agents/skills/laravel-best-practices/rules/style.md

Convention and style best practices

Follow project naming conventions

Prefer Laravel's conventions in new code, but preserve an established project convention unless a coordinated rename is worthwhile.

Element	Convention	Example
Controller	Singular resource name	ArticleController
Model	Singular StudlyCase	User
Table	Plural snake_case	article_comments
Pivot table	Singular model names in alphabetical order, in snake_case	article_user
Column	snake_case	meta_title
Conventional foreign key	Singular model name plus _id, in snake_case	article_id
Resource URI	Plural resource	articles/1
Route name	Dotted segments, with snake_case within a segment when needed	users.show_active
Method	camelCase	getAll
Variable	camelCase	$articlesWithAuthor
Collection	Descriptive and plural	$activeUsers
Object	Descriptive and singular	$activeUser
View	kebab-case	show-filtered.blade.php
Configuration file	snake_case	google_calendar.php
Enumeration	Singular StudlyCase	UserType

Prefer clear, idiomatic syntax

Use Laravel helpers and query methods when they communicate intent more directly. Do not shorten code when the result is ambiguous or loses useful type information.

More verbose	Idiomatic alternative
Session::get('cart')	session('cart')
$request->session()->get('cart')	session('cart')
return Redirect::back()	return back()
Carbon::now()	now()
->where('column', '=', 1)	->where('column', 1)
->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')	->latest()
->orderBy('created_at', 'asc')	->oldest()
->first()?->name	->value('name') when only that value is needed

Use typed request accessors such as $request->string(), $request->integer(), and $request->boolean() when their coercion matches the operation.

Use utilities when they clarify intent

Laravel's Str, Arr, Number, and Uri utilities provide expressive operations and framework-consistent behavior. Prefer them when they are clearer or safer than an equivalent PHP operation, not as a replacement for every built-in function.

$slug = Str::slug($title);
$short = Str::limit($text, 100);
$class = class_basename(User::class);
$result = Str::of($input)->trim()->replace('_', '-')->lower();

Use Arr for dot notation and common transformations:

$name = Arr::get($array, 'user.name', 'default');
$public = Arr::only($attributes, ['name', 'email']);

Use Number for localized display formatting, not for values you store or calculate:

Number::format(1000000);
Number::currency(1500, 'USD');
Number::fileSize(1024 * 1024);

Use Uri when a structured API helps you build or transform a uniform resource identifier (URI):

$uri = Uri::of('https://example.com/search')
    ->withQuery(['q' => 'laravel', 'page' => 1]);

Before using newer utility classes or methods, check the documentation for the project's Laravel version.

Keep presentation code maintainable

Prefer the project's asset pipeline, components, and existing conventions for substantial JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Small page-specific scripts or styles can be reasonable in Blade layouts or stacks. Avoid mixing large behavior and style blocks into templates.

Pass server data with an encoding that fits its context. For example, Blade's Js::from() safely formats data for JavaScript:

<script>
    const article = {{ Js::from($article) }};
</script>

Data attributes are useful for small scalar values, but serializing a large model into an attribute can expose unnecessary fields and complicate escaping.

Write comments that explain why

Prefer clear names and small units of code over comments that restate an operation. Add concise comments for non-obvious constraints, tradeoffs, workarounds, regular expressions, or external behavior that the code cannot express by itself. Keep comments accurate when behavior changes.

Unhelpful:

// Check whether the query has joins.
if (count((array) $builder->getQuery()->joins) > 0) {
    // ...
}

Clearer:

if ($this->hasJoins()) {
    // ...
}