Introduction
The default Laravel application structure is intended to provide a great starting point for both large and small applications. But you are free to organize your application however you like. Laravel imposes almost no restrictions on where any given class is located - as long as Composer can autoload the class.
Note:
New to Laravel? Check out the Laravel Bootcamp for a hands-on tour of the framework while we walk you through building your first Laravel application.
The Root Directory
The App Directory
The app directory contains the core code of
your application. We'll explore this directory in more
detail soon; however, almost all of the classes in your
application will be in this directory.
The Bootstrap Directory
The bootstrap directory contains the
app.php file which bootstraps the
framework. This directory also houses a
cache directory which contains framework
generated files for performance optimization such as the
route and services cache files.
The Config Directory
The config directory, as the name implies,
contains all of your application's configuration files.
It's a great idea to read through all of these files and
familiarize yourself with all of the options available
to you.
The Database Directory
The database directory contains your
database migrations, model factories, and seeds. If you
wish, you may also use this directory to hold an SQLite
database.
The Public Directory
The public directory contains the
index.php file, which is the entry point
for all requests entering your application and
configures autoloading. This directory also houses your
assets such as images, JavaScript, and CSS.
The Resources Directory
The resources directory contains your views as well as your raw,
un-compiled assets such as CSS or JavaScript.
The Routes Directory
The routes directory contains all of the
route definitions for your application. By default, two
route files are included with Laravel:
web.php and console.php.
The web.php file contains routes that
Laravel places in the web middleware group,
which provides session state, CSRF protection, and
cookie encryption. If your application does not offer a
stateless, RESTful API then all your routes will most
likely be defined in the web.php file.
The console.php file is where you may define
all of your closure based console commands. Each closure
is bound to a command instance allowing a simple
approach to interacting with each command's IO methods.
Even though this file does not define HTTP routes, it
defines console based entry points (routes) into your
application. You may also schedule tasks in the
console.php file.
Optionally, you may install additional route files for
API routes (api.php) and broadcasting
channels (channels.php), via the
install:api and
install:broadcasting Artisan commands.
The api.php file contains routes that are
intended to be stateless, so requests entering the
application through these routes are intended to be
authenticated via tokens and
will not have access to session state.
The channels.php file is where you may
register all of the event
broadcasting channels that your application
supports.
The Storage Directory
The storage directory contains your logs,
compiled Blade templates, file based sessions, file
caches, and other files generated by the framework. This
directory is segregated into app,
framework, and logs
directories. The app directory may be used
to store any files generated by your application. The
framework directory is used to store
framework generated files and caches. Finally, the
logs directory contains your application's
log files.
The storage/app/public directory may be used
to store user-generated files, such as profile avatars,
that should be publicly accessible. You should create a
symbolic link at public/storage which
points to this directory. You may create the link using
the php artisan storage:link Artisan
command.
The Tests Directory
The tests directory contains your automated
tests. Example Pest or
PHPUnit unit tests and
feature tests are provided out of the box. Each test
class should be suffixed with the word
Test. You may run your tests using the
/vendor/bin/pest or
/vendor/bin/phpunit commands. Or, if you
would like a more detailed and beautiful representation
of your test results, you may run your tests using the
php artisan test Artisan command.
The Vendor Directory
The vendor directory contains your Composer
dependencies.
The App Directory
The majority of your application is housed in the
app directory. By default, this directory
is namespaced under App and is autoloaded
by Composer using the PSR-4
autoloading standard.
By default, the app directory contains the
Http, Models, and
Providers directories. However, over time,
a variety of other directories will be generated inside
the app directory as you use the make Artisan commands
to generate classes. For example, the
app/Console directory will not exist until
you execute the make:command Artisan
command to generate a command class.
Both the Console and Http
directories are further explained in their respective
sections below, but think of the Console
and Http directories as providing an API
into the core of your application. The HTTP protocol and
CLI are both mechanisms to interact with your
application, but do not actually contain application
logic. In other words, they are two ways of issuing
commands to your application. The Console
directory contains all of your Artisan commands, while
the Http directory contains your
controllers, middleware, and requests.
Note:
Many of the classes in theappdirectory can be generated by Artisan via commands. To review the available commands, run thephp artisan list makecommand in your terminal.
The Broadcasting Directory
The Broadcasting directory contains all of
the broadcast channel classes for your application.
These classes are generated using the
make:channel command. This directory does
not exist by default, but will be created for you when
you create your first channel. To learn more about
channels, check out the documentation on event broadcasting.
The Console Directory
The Console directory contains all of the
custom Artisan commands for your application. These
commands may be generated using the
make:command command.
The Events Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you by the event:generate and
make:event Artisan commands. The
Events directory houses event classes. Events may be
used to alert other parts of your application that a
given action has occurred, providing a great deal of
flexibility and decoupling.
The Exceptions Directory
The Exceptions directory contains all of the
custom exceptions for your application. These exceptions
may be generated using the make:exception
command.
The Http Directory
The Http directory contains your
controllers, middleware, and form requests. Almost all
of the logic to handle requests entering your
application will be placed in this directory.
The Jobs Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you if you execute the make:job
Artisan command. The Jobs directory houses
the queueable jobs for your
application. Jobs may be queued by your application or
run synchronously within the current request lifecycle.
Jobs that run synchronously during the current request
are sometimes referred to as "commands" since
they are an implementation of the command
pattern.
The Listeners Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you if you execute the
event:generate or
make:listener Artisan commands. The
Listeners directory contains the classes
that handle your events. Event
listeners receive an event instance and perform logic in
response to the event being fired. For example, a
UserRegistered event might be handled by a
SendWelcomeEmail listener.
The Mail Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you if you execute the
make:mail Artisan command. The
Mail directory contains all of your classes that represent emails
sent by your application. Mail objects allow you to
encapsulate all of the logic of building an email in a
single, simple class that may be sent using the
Mail::send method.
The Models Directory
The Models directory contains all of your Eloquent model classes. The
Eloquent ORM included with Laravel provides a beautiful,
simple ActiveRecord implementation for working with your
database. Each database table has a corresponding
"Model" which is used to interact with that
table. Models allow you to query for data in your
tables, as well as insert new records into the
table.
The Notifications Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you if you execute the
make:notification Artisan command. The
Notifications directory contains all of the
"transactional" notifications that are
sent by your application, such as simple notifications
about events that happen within your application.
Laravel's notification feature abstracts sending
notifications over a variety of drivers such as email,
Slack, SMS, or stored in a database.
The Policies Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you if you execute the
make:policy Artisan command. The
Policies directory contains the authorization policy
classes for your application. Policies are used
to determine if a user can perform a given action
against a resource.
The Providers Directory
The Providers directory contains all of the
service providers for your
application. Service providers bootstrap your
application by binding services in the service
container, registering events, or performing any other
tasks to prepare your application for incoming
requests.
In a fresh Laravel application, this directory will
already contain the AppServiceProvider. You
are free to add your own providers to this directory as
needed.
The Rules Directory
This directory does not exist by default, but will be
created for you if you execute the
make:rule Artisan command. The
Rules directory contains the custom
validation rule objects for your application. Rules are
used to encapsulate complicated validation logic in a
simple object. For more information, check out the validation
documentation.