Laravel Starter

Introduction

Rather than having a template repository for new Laravel Projects, I'm going after a step-by-step script that outlines the changes that I typically make and why. I feel this approach will be easier to maintain and will provide more value to guests.

And let's be honest... we're replacing this repo with AI instructions before much longer, right?

Context

This repository customizes a new Laravel 12 application. Instructions are accurate as of October 2025.

Resources

• Essentials — Essentials is a package created by Nuno Maduro that provides better defaults for your Laravel applications.

Create New Application

In 2024, the Laravel Team launched starter kits that enable you to get a new Laravel application up and running quickly with the stack of your choice. I prefer the Inertia.js + React + Pest stack.

laravel new --react --pest <name>

This starter repo is specific to that stack.

Application Configuration

I try really hard to embrace the framework defaults. However, I do make a few modifications that include:

• APP_NAME — Apply a custom value
• APP_URL — Apply a custom value
• CACHE_STORE — Set to redis. I use this locally and in production.
• DB_CONNECTION — Set to mysql
• DB_NAME — Apply a custom value
• QUEUE_CONNECTION — Set to sync. In production, I use redis and Laravel Horizon.
• SESSION_DRIVER — Set to redis

Execute the following command to download the custom .env.example:

curl -o .env.example https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.env.example

The Laravel Installer generates an APP_KEY value for you automatically. You can run the following from the root of the repo to refresh your .env and create a new APP_KEY before applying your custom values.

cp .env.example .env && php artisan key:generate

IDE Configuration

I currently use Cursor as my IDE. This repository contains a .vscode folder that contains my preferred settings and extensions.

To replicate this setup within your project:

mkdir -p .vscode && \
curl -o .vscode/extensions.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.vscode/extensions.json && \
curl -o .vscode/settings.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.vscode/settings.json

Code Quality

A new Laravel application comes with Prettier, ESLint, and Laravel Pint to maximize code quality by analyzing your code to detect issues. It also contains a set of settings for EditorConfig.

This repository contains my preferred configuration files for each tool. You can download these files into your repository via the following commands:

curl -o .editorconfig https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.editorconfig && \
curl -o .prettierrc https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.prettierrc && \
curl -o eslint.config.js https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/eslint.config.js && \
curl -o pint.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/pint.json

Larastan

Larastan is a PHPStan extension and code analysis tool for Laravel. It focuses on finding errors in your code before you even write any tests.

composer require --dev "larastan/larastan:^3.0"

Larastan requires a phpstan.neon configuration file. You can review the PHPStan documenation to create a custom config, or you can download my default.

curl -o phpstan.neon https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/phpstan.neon

Husky

The Laravel starter kits use GitHub Actions to lint and test the code. While I still run tests in the CI/CD space, I prefer to use Husky to run ESlint, Prettier, Laravel Pint, and Larastan.

I use pre-commit to run ESLint and Prettier and pre-push for Laravel Pint and Larastan.

First, install Husky and lint-staged. Then, issue the following commands from the root of the repo:

npm install --save-dev husky lint-staged && \
npx husky init

You can download the relevant files into your repository via the following commands:

curl -o .lintstagedrc.js https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.lintstagedrc.js && \
curl -o .husky/pre-commit https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.husky/pre-commit && \
curl -o .husky/pre-push https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/.husky/pre-push

After setting up Husky, you no longer need the lint workflow.

rm .github/workflows/lint.yml

Composer Packages

First-Party

I always install the following first-party packages:

• Laravel Boost
• Laravel Horizon
• Laravel Pulse
• Laravel Telescope

# Laravel Boost
composer require laravel/boost --dev
php artisan boost:install

# Laravel Horizon
composer require laravel/horizon
php artisan horizon:install

# Laravel Pulse
composer require laravel/pulse
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Pulse\PulseServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

# Laravel Telescope
composer require laravel/telescope
php artisan telescope:install
php artisan migrate

Third-Party

I always install the following third-party packages:

• spatie/laravel-backup
• spatie/laravel-data
• spatie/laravel-ray
• spatie/laravel-view-models
• predis/predis
• pestphp/pest-plugin-faker

composer require spatie/laravel-backup spatie/laravel-data spatie/laravel-ray spatie/laravel-view-models predis/predis

composer require --dev pestphp/pest-plugin-faker

Laravel Nova

Laravel Nova is the simplest and fastest way to build production-ready administration panels using Laravel.

Since Nova is a paid package, installation is a little more in-depth than a simple composer require command. First, add the repository to your composer.json:

composer config repositories.nova '{"type": "composer", "url": "https://nova.laravel.com"}' --file composer.json

Ensure you have a valid auth.json configured for installation, and then add laravel/nova to your list of required packages in your composer.json file:

composer require laravel/nova

User Model

I have a few preferences that require modifications to the User model that comes out-of-the-box with a new Laravel application.

First and Last

The default User model in Laravel comes with a single name field. I prefer to split that into first and last fields. This is a non-trivial change that results in updates to several files:

• database/migrations/0001_01_01_000000_create_users_table.php
• app/Models/User.php
• database/factories/UserFactory.php
• database/seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php
• resources/js/types/index.d.ts
• app/Http/Controllers/RegisteredUserController.php
• app/Http/Requests/Settings/ProfileUpdateRequest.php
• tests/Feature/Auth/RegistrationTest.php
• tests/Feature/Settings/ProfileUpdateTest.php
• resources/js/pages/auth/register.tsx
• resources/js/components/user-info.tsx
• resources/js/pages/settings/profile.tsx

Timestamps

By default, Laravel expects created_at and updated_at columns to exist on a model's corresponding database table. I prefer to use last_updated and date_created field names for a model's timestamps.

I have updated the users table and User model accordingly.

Guarded vs. Fillable

I prefer to use the $guarded model attribute as opposed to $fillable to manage mass assignment protection. As a result, I have updated the User model accordingly.

    protected $guarded = [
        'id',
        'date_created',
        'last_updated',
    ];

File Download

Execute the following ridiculous series of commands to download these customizations into your project.

curl -o app/Models/User.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/app/Models/User.php && \
curl -o database/factories/UserFactory.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/database/factories/UserFactory.php && \
curl -o database/migrations/0001_01_01_000000_create_users_table.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/database/migrations/0001_01_01_000000_create_users_table.php && \
curl -o database/seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/database/seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php && \
curl -o resources/js/types/index.d.ts https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/resources/js/types/index.d.ts && \
curl -o app/Http/Controllers/Auth/RegisteredUserController.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/app/Http/Controllers/Auth/RegisteredUserController.php && \
curl -o app/Http/Requests/Settings/ProfileUpdateRequest.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/app/Http/Requests/Settings/ProfileUpdateRequest.php && \
curl -o tests/Feature/Auth/RegistrationTest.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/tests/Feature/Auth/RegistrationTest.php && \
curl -o tests/Feature/Settings/ProfileUpdateTest.php https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/tests/Feature/Settings/ProfileUpdateTest.php && \
curl -o resources/js/pages/auth/register.tsx https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/resources/js/pages/auth/register.tsx && \
curl -o resources/js/components/user-info.tsx https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/resources/js/components/user-info.tsx && \
curl -o resources/js/pages/settings/profile.tsx https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dascentral/laravel-starter/refs/heads/main/resources/js/pages/settings/profile.tsx

Composer Scripts

I will manually add the following scripts to the composer.json:

"analyze": [
  "./vendor/bin/phpstan analyse --ansi --memory-limit 512M"
],
"analyze:baseline": [
  "./vendor/bin/phpstan analyse --generate-baseline"
],
"format": [
  "./vendor/bin/pint"
],