Laravel 12: What’s New From 12.0 to 12.19 – A Complete Guide

🔧 1. Laravel 12.0 – Starter Kits & Core Changes

Version 12.0 introduced modern starter kits for React, Vue, Livewire, plus integration with WorkOS AuthKit, type-safe code, and PHPUnit 12 support.

React/Vue Starter Kit

Scaffold new apps with Inertia 2, TypeScript, shadcn/ui, and Tailwind:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-app --prefer-dist
cd my-app
php artisan breeze:install react --typescript

# or
php artisan breeze:install vue --typescript

WorkOS AuthKit (Social Login, SSO, Passkeys)

Easily integrate social logins:

// config/workos.php
return [
  'client_id' => env('WORKOS_CLIENT_ID'),
  'api_key' => env('WORKOS_API_KEY'),
  'redirect_uri' => env('WORKOS_REDIRECT_URI'),
  'providers' => ['google'=>true,'github'=>true,'microsoft'=>true],
  'passkeys' => ['enabled'=>true,'rp_name'=>env('APP_NAME'),'rp_id'=>env('APP_DOMAIN')],
];

Use this controller snippet:

public function callback() {
  $workos = new WorkOS(config('workos.api_key'));
  $profile = $workos->sso->getProfile(request('code'));
  $user = User::firstOrCreate(['email'=>$profile->email], [
    'name'=>$profile->firstName.' '.$profile->lastName,
    'workos_id'=>$profile->id,
  ]);
  auth()->login($user);
  return redirect()->intended('/dashboard');
}

PHPUnit 12 Support & Type-Safe Requests

Laravel now supports PHPUnit 12 and encourages typed request helpers:

public function store(Request $req): JsonResponse {
  $user = User::create([
    'name' => $req->string('name')->value(),
    'email' => $req->string('email')->value(),
    'prefs' => $req->collect('preferences')->toArray(),
  ]);
  return response()->json($user, 201);
}

🧩 2. Laravel 12.1 – Arr::partition() & HTTP enhancements

The new Arr::partition() splits arrays by condition:

$numbers = [0,1,2,3,4,5];
[$evens, $odds] = Arr::partition($numbers, fn($n)=>$n%2===0);
// $evens = [0,2,4], $odds = [1,3,5]

You can also now truncate Http exceptions per request:

Http::truncateExceptionsAt(240)
  ->post('https://example.com/api', [...]);

⚙️ 3. Laravel 12.19 – Custom Builders, Fluent Casts, Fail-on-Exception Middleware

• @useEloquentBuilder: attach custom Eloquent builders to models.
• Fluent Casts: cast attributes to objects, e.g. URI.
• Fail-On-Exception Middleware: auto-fail jobs on throttle exceptions.

Example model-level custom builder:

#[useEloquentBuilder(MyBuilder::class)]
class Post extends Model {
  // now queries use MyBuilder
}

📋 4. Minor Changes & Quality-of-Life Updates

• String::doesntStartWith() & doesntEndWith().
• Better JSON Serializable support in URIs.
• Queue/ Pagination enhancements, logs improvements.
• SVGs now excluded from default image validation unless allowed.

💡 Practical Tips for Projects

• ✅ Use starter kits for fast bootstrapping.
• 🔍 Use Arr::partition() instead of manual collection partition.
• 🛡️ Truncate HTTP exceptions to control log sizes.
• 🧰 Use custom builder & fluent casts for cleaner models.
• 🧪 Update PHPUnit and Carbon 3 for tests.
• ⚠️ Allow SVG explicitly if needed: 'photo' => 'image:allow_svg'.