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.

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🏗️ 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.

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🛠️ 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);
}

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🚫 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.

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🛠️ Troubleshooting & Debugging

Issue	Likely Cause	2026 Corrective Action
Memory Exhaustion	Large Eloquent collections	Switch to cursor() or DB raw queries for reporting.
Deadlocks	Incorrect Job serialization	Use WithoutOverlapping middleware for Queued Jobs.
Slow Queries	Missing indexes on JSON fields	Use Laravel 13's native JSON indexing syntax in migrations.
Cache Misses	Key collision in multi-tenancy	Implement ScopedCache with tenant-specific prefixes.

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📚 Reference Library

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

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📊 Quality Metrics

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

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🔄 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.

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End of Laravel Pro Standard (v1.1.0)