Structuring a Laravel Project for the Long Run

When a Laravel project is small, almost any structure works. The real test comes months later, when features pile up and you have to change code you wrote long ago. Here's the approach that has kept my projects calm under pressure.

Keep controllers thin

A controller's job is to take a request, hand the work to something that knows how to do it, and return a response. Validation lives in FormRequest classes, business logic lives in dedicated action or service classes, and queries live in the model via scopes.

If a controller method is longer than the screen, it's usually doing someone else's job.

Let the model own its queries

Query scopes turn repeated where() chains into readable, reusable intent:

public function scopePublished($query)
{
    return $query->where('is_published', true);
}

Name things for the reader

Future-you is the most important reviewer. Clear names beat clever ones every time.