#Essentials

Essentials provide better defaults for your Laravel applications including strict models, automatically eagerly loaded relationships, immutable dates, and more!

Requires PHP 8.3+, Laravel 11+.

Note: This package modifies the default behavior of Laravel. It is recommended to use it in new projects or when you are comfortable with the changes it introduces.

#Installation

⚡️ Get started by requiring the package using Composer:

composer require nunomaduro/essentials

#Features

All features are optional and configurable in config/essentials.php.

You may publish the configuration file with:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=essentials-config

#✅ Strict Models

Improves how Eloquent handles undefined attributes, lazy loading, and invalid assignments.

Accessing a missing attribute throws an error.
Lazy loading is blocked unless explicitly allowed.
Setting undefined attributes throws instead of failing silently.

Why: Avoids subtle bugs and makes model behavior easier to reason about.

#⚡️ Auto Eager Loading

Automatically eager loads relationships defined in the model's $with property.

Why: Reduces N+1 query issues and improves performance without needing with() everywhere.

#🔓 Optional Unguarded Models

Disables Laravel's mass assignment protection globally (opt-in).

Why: Useful in trusted or local environments where you want to skip defining $fillable.

#🕒 Immutable Dates

Uses CarbonImmutable instead of mutable date objects across your app.

Why: Prevents unexpected date mutations and improves predictability.

#🔒 Force HTTPS

Forces all generated URLs to use https://.

Why: Ensures all traffic uses secure connections by default.

#🛑 Safe Console

Blocks potentially destructive Artisan commands in production (e.g., migrate:fresh).

Why: Prevents accidental data loss and adds a safety net in sensitive environments.

#🚀 Asset Prefetching

Configures Laravel Vite to preload assets more aggressively.

Why: Improves front-end load times and user experience.

#🔄 Prevent Stray Requests

Configures Laravel Http Facade to prevent stray requests.

Why: Ensure every HTTP calls during tests have been explicitly faked.

#😴 Fake Sleep

Configures Laravel Sleep Facade to be faked.

Why: Avoid unexpected sleep during testing cases.

#🏗️ Artisan Commands

#`make:action`

Quickly generates action classes in your Laravel application:

php artisan make:action CreateUserAction

This creates a clean action class at app/Actions/CreateUserAction.php:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Actions;

final readonly class CreateUserAction
{
    /**
     * Execute the action.
     */
    public function handle(): void
    {
        DB::transaction(function (): void {
            //
        });
    }
}

Actions help organize business logic in dedicated classes, promoting single responsibility and cleaner controllers.

#`essentials:pint`

Laravel Pint is included by default in every Laravel project and is a great tool to keep your code clean and consistent. But it is configured very minimally by default. This command will publish a configuration file for Pint that includes the following:

"declare_strict_types" - Enforces strict types in all files.
"final_class" - Enforces final classes by default.
"ordered_class_elements" - Orders class elements by visibility and type.
"strict_comparison" - Enforces strict comparison in all files.
and more...

php artisan essentials:pint {--force} {--backup}

Options:

--force - Overwrites the existing configuration file without asking for confirmation.
--backup - Creates a backup of the existing configuration file.

#`essentials:rector`

Rector is a powerful tool for refactoring and improving your codebase. This command will publish a configuration file for Rector that includes the following:

"deadCode" - Removes dead code from your codebase.
"codeQuality" - Improves code quality by applying best practices.
"typeDeclarations" - Adds type declarations to your codebase.
"privatization" - Privatizes class properties and methods where possible.
"earlyReturn" - Enforces early return statements in your codebase.
"strictBooleans" - Enforces strict boolean checks in your codebase.

php artisan essentials:rector {--force} {--backup}