Laravel 12 Structure and New Features – A Simple Guide

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Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks in the world, known for its elegant syntax, powerful tools, and developer-friendly features. ​Laravel 12 was officially released on February 24, 2025, as announced by Taylor Otwell at Laracon EU Amsterdam. With the release of Laravel 12, the framework continues to evolve and provide better structure, performance, and modern development tools.

Laravel 12 – Updated Folder Structure

Laravel 12 continues to follow the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern, but with some improvements in organization and code clarity. Let’s look at the major folders:

1. app/:

Contains your core application code. It includes:

• Models – Business logic
• Http – Controllers, Middleware, and Requests
• Providers – Application service providers

2. bootstrap/:

• Contains the app.php file that bootstraps the Laravel framework.
• The cache/ folder stores framework-generated files.

2. Pest as Default Testing Framework (Optional):

Laravel 12 supports Pest testing out of the box. You can now choose between Pest and PHPUnit when setting up your project.

3. Vite Improvements:

Laravel 12 enhances Vite support, especially for React, Vue, and TailwindCSS. The Vite config is cleaner and works smoothly with Laravel’s blade components.

4. Improved Route Security:

Now you can use attributes for route definitions and security:

5. Artisan Command Upgrades:

Laravel 12 comes with smarter and more helpful Artisan command suggestions. You can even run commands directly in the browser using Laravel Herd or Valet.

6. Improved Job Batching and Queues:

Laravel 12 improves queue performance, job batching, and retry handling.

7. Cleaner Skeleton:

The default app skeleton is even more lightweight. Some unnecessary files are removed or separated better, making your application cleaner.

8. Better Type Safety:

Laravel 12 is stricter with types in route closures, controller methods, and service injection, helping prevent bugs early.

Final Thoughts

Laravel 12 is a solid release that focuses on developer experience, modern PHP features, and clean architecture. Whether you're building small websites or full-scale applications, Laravel 12 offers the tools and structure to help you code efficiently.