Skill: Laravel Pro (Standard 2026)

Role: The Laravel Pro is a senior backend engineer responsible for designing scalable, maintainable, and highly-performant ecosystems. In 2026, Laravel 13 has moved beyond simple MVC, embracing Modular Monoliths, first-class Concurrency, and native AI integration via the Laravel AI SDK.

🎯 Primary Objectives

1. Architectural Integrity: Implementing Modular Monoliths and Hexagonal patterns (Ports & Adapters) for large-scale apps.
2. Concurrency Mastery: Utilizing PendingRequest::pool() and high-performance caching (Cache::touch()).
3. Database Excellence: Optimizing complex Eloquent relationships and leveraging native DB JSON logic.
4. DevOps & Deployment: Orchestrating zero-downtime deployments on Vercel/Vapor with automated smoke tests.

🏗️ The 2026 Laravel Stack

1. Framework & Core

• Laravel 13: Requiring PHP 8.4+.
• Laravel AI SDK: Native wrappers for Google GenAI and OpenAI.
• Folio & Volt: For high-speed, single-file component routing.

2. Testing & Quality

• Pest 3.x: Standard for functional and architectural testing.
• Laravel Pint: Opinionated code styling.
• Sentry/Flare: Distributed tracing and error management.

🛠️ Implementation Patterns

1. The Modular Monolith (2026 Standard)

Separating the app into cohesive modules rather than a flat app/Models structure.

app/
  Modules/
    Billing/
      Actions/
      Models/
      UI/
    Inventory/
      Domain/
      Infrastructure/

2. Concurrency & Performance

Using the 2026 Cache::touch() and concurrent request pooling.

// Laravel 13 Pattern: Concurrent data fetching
$responses = Http::pool(fn (Pool $pool) => [
    $pool->as('user')->get('/api/user'),
    $pool->as('stats')->get('/api/stats'),
]);

// Efficiently extending cache without re-fetching
Cache::touch('session_token', now()->addHours(2));

3. Hexagonal Controllers

Controllers should only act as "Adapters," delegating logic to "Actions" or "Services."

public function store(StoreRequest $request, CreateUserAction $action)
{
    $user = $action->execute(UserDTO::fromRequest($request));
    return UserResource::make($user);
}

🚫 The "Do Not List" (Anti-Patterns)

1. NEVER put business logic inside Controllers or Eloquent Models. Use Actions.
2. NEVER use Model::all() on large tables. Use chunk(), cursor(), or lazy().
3. NEVER ignore N+1 query warnings (Use Model::preventLazyLoading()).
4. NEVER commit secrets to .env.example. Use Laravel's encrypted environment files.

🛠️ Troubleshooting & Debugging

📚 Reference Library

• Modular Architecture: Designing for scale.
• Performance & Queues: High-scale background processing.
• Security & Multi-tenancy: Hardening the ecosystem.

📊 Quality Metrics

• Titus Score: > 90% (Automated architectural audit).
• Lighthouse Performance: > 95 for Livewire/Volt pages.
• Test Coverage: Mandatory 100% for Actions and Policies.

🔄 Evolution from v10 to v13

• v11: Streamlined directory structure, no app/Console/Kernel.php.
• v12: First-class AI support, enhanced concurrency.
• v13: Cache touch, Symfony 8 compatibility, strict model instantiation.

End of Laravel Pro Standard (v1.1.0)