Laravel API Starter Kit

A production-ready, API-only starter built with Laravel 13 and PHP 8.4. Designed for scalable backends, mobile apps, SPAs, SaaS platforms, and microservices.

No frontend scaffolding. No Blade. Pure headless API.

Core Philosophy

• Thin controllers — business logic lives in Actions
• Typed DTOs hydrated from Form Requests via toDto()
• Strict typing throughout (declare(strict_types=1), final classes)
• JSON:API compliant responses
• Versioned APIs from day one

Features

• Token authentication via Laravel Sanctum
• Email verification with signed URLs
• Password reset via email
• Rate limiting (per IP and per user)
• API versioning (URI-based)
• Custom readonly DTOs (no external packages)
• JSON:API resource objects via JsonApiResource
• Centralized exception handling
• Pest with 100% coverage enforced
• Static analysis via Larastan
• Automated refactoring with Rector
• Code formatting via Laravel Pint

Requirements

• PHP 8.4+
• Composer 2.x
• MySQL / PostgreSQL / SQLite

Quick Start

Via the Laravel installer (recommended):

laravel new myapp --using=orebarranco/laravel-api-starter-kit

Via Composer:

composer create-project orebarranco/laravel-api-starter-kit myapp

Via Git:

git clone https://github.com/orebarranco/laravel-api-starter-kit.git myapp
cd myapp
composer setup

composer test

Authentication

Protected routes require:

Authorization: Bearer {token}

API Versioning

URI-based versioning. Each version is fully isolated:

app/Http/Controllers/Api/V1/
app/Http/Requests/Api/V1/
routes/api/v1.php

Response Format

All responses use Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json.

Success

{
  "data": {
    "id": "01kn38s0cv0edq25et3vyrxd7s",
    "type": "users",
    "attributes": { "name": "Carlos Méndez", "email": "carlos@example.com" }
  },
  "meta": { "request_id": "...", "version": "v1", "timestamp": "..." }
}

Error

{
  "errors": [{
    "status": "422",
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "title": "The given data was invalid.",
    "detail": "The email field is required.",
    "source": { "pointer": "/data/attributes/email" }
  }],
  "meta": { "request_id": "...", "version": "v1", "timestamp": "..." }
}

Project Structure

app/
├── Actions/                # Single-purpose use cases
├── DTOs/                   # Immutable readonly DTOs
├── Exceptions/             # Typed exceptions + centralized handler
├── Http/
│   ├── Controllers/Api/    # Versioned, single-action controllers
│   ├── Middleware/         # ForceJsonResponse, EnsureEmailIsVerified
│   ├── Requests/Api/       # Validation + toDto()
│   └── Resources/Api/      # JSON:API resources
├── Models/
├── Providers/              # AppServiceProvider (rate limiting, email verification, password reset)
└── Traits/                 # ApiResponse

routes/
├── api.php                 # Version grouping
└── api/v1.php

Action Pattern

Controllers delegate to single-purpose Action classes:

// Controller
public function __invoke(RegisterRequest $request, RegisterUserAction $action): JsonResponse
{
    $result = $action->execute($request->toDto());

    return $this->success(new UserResource($result['user']), Response::HTTP_CREATED, [
        'token' => $result['token'],
    ]);
}

// Action
public function execute(RegisterUserDTO $data): array
{
    $user = User::query()->create([...]);

    event(new Registered($user));

    return ['user' => $user, 'token' => $user->createToken('auth_token')->plainTextToken];
}

Rate Limiting

Email Verification

Sent automatically on registration via the Registered event.

GET  /auth/email/verify/{id}/{hash}   — no auth required (signed URL)
POST /auth/email/resend               — requires Bearer token

Password Reset

POST /auth/forgot-password   — sends reset link to email (no auth required)
POST /auth/reset-password    — resets password and invalidates all tokens (no auth required)

The reset link points to FRONTEND_URL/reset-password?token=...&email=.... Configure FRONTEND_URL in your .env.

Middleware

• force.json — enforces Accept: application/vnd.api+json
• api.version — sets X-API-Version response header
• verified — requires verified email → EMAIL_NOT_VERIFIED (403)

Testing

composer test          # lint + static analysis + coverage
composer test:unit     # unit tests only

Powered by Pest 4 with 100% coverage enforced. Feature and unit tests for all controllers, actions, middleware, and exception handling.

Code Quality

composer lint          # Rector + Pint

• PHPStan level max via Larastan
• Rector for automated refactoring
• Laravel Pint for code style

License

MIT License