Laravel Eloquent Development

When to Apply

Activate this skill when:

• Creating or modifying Eloquent models
• Defining model relationships
• Writing query scopes (local or global)
• Optimizing queries or fixing N+1 problems
• Working with accessors, mutators, or casts
• Implementing model events or observers

Documentation

Use search-docs for detailed Eloquent patterns and documentation.

Basic Usage

Creating Models

Use Artisan to create models with related files:

php artisan make:model Post --migration --factory --seeder

Relationships

Always use explicit return types on relationship methods:

public function posts(): HasMany { return $this->hasMany(Post::class); }

public function author(): BelongsTo { return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'author_id'); }

Eager Loading

Prevent N+1 queries by eager loading relationships:

// Bad - causes N+1 queries $posts = Post::all(); foreach ($posts as $post) { echo $post->author->name; // Query per post }

Constraining Eager Loads

Local Scopes

public function scopePublished(Builder $query): Builder { return $query->where('published_at', '<=', now()); }

public function scopeByAuthor(Builder $query, User $author): Builder { return $query->where('author_id', $author->id); }

// Usage Post::published()->byAuthor($user)->get();

Casts

Define casts in the casts() method (Laravel 11+):

Accessors and Mutators

Use attribute casting for simple transformations:

protected function fullName(): Attribute { return Attribute::make( get: fn () => "{$this->first_name} {$this->last_name}", ); }

protected function email(): Attribute { return Attribute::make( set: fn (string $value) => strtolower($value), ); }

Query Building

Prefer Model::query() over DB:: facade:

// Avoid $posts = DB::table('posts')->where(...)->get();

Model Events and Observers

public function deleted(Post $post): void
{
    Storage::delete($post->featured_image);
}

}

Common Pitfalls

• Not using eager loading, causing N+1 queries
• Using DB:: instead of Eloquent models
• Missing return types on relationship methods
• Forgetting to create factories and seeders with new models
• Using $casts property instead of casts() method in Laravel 11+
• Not constraining eager loads when only subset of data is needed