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Laravel 12: New Features, Improvements, and Breaking Changes – A Complete Overview


Today we’re diving deep into Laravel 12 — the latest and greatest release from the Laravel team. Whether you’re building web applications or APIs, Laravel 12 introduces exciting new tools and enhancements designed to supercharge your development workflow.

This post gives you a quick but complete overview of what’s new in Laravel 12 – from starter kits to API upgrades and some important deprecations you should know about.

🚀 Laravel 12 Highlights — At a Glance

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • New Starter Kits
  • Query Builder Enhancements
  • AI-Powered Debugging Assistant
  • Asynchronous Caching
  • Improved Job & Queue Management
  • Security Upgrades
  • Frontend & Dev Tool Enhancements
  • API Development Boosts
  • Deprecations & Breaking Changes
  • How to Upgrade to Laravel 12

Let’s dive in!

🎒 1. New Starter Kits

Laravel 12 introduces brand-new starter kits for React, Vue, and Livewire – all with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS (via ShadCN UI), and Inertia 2 support baked in.

Whether you’re a fan of Livewire or love crafting modern UIs, these starter kits help you hit the ground running. The setup is smoother, and the integration is more seamless than ever before.

🧠 2. AI-Powered Debugging Assistant

Say goodbye to endless dump() and dd() calls!

Laravel 12 now comes with an AI-powered debugging assistant that provides real-time suggestions as you debug code. You can use the new debug() method to get immediate insights and even actionable fixes — right inside your development environment.

🧱 3. Query Builder Enhancements

Writing complex queries? Laravel 12 has your back with the new nestedWhere() function, allowing for much cleaner and more readable queries.

🔍 Example:

Before:

User::where('role', 'admin')
    ->where(function($query) {
        $query->where('status', 'active')
              ->orWhere('verified', true);
    })->get();

Now:

User::where('role', 'admin')
    ->nestedWhere(fn($q) => 
        $q->where('status', 'active')
          ->orWhere('verified', true')
    )->get();

⚡ 4. Asynchronous Caching

Laravel 12 introduces asynchronous caching, making data retrieval and storage much faster — especially helpful for high-traffic apps.

Instead of:

$cachedData = Cache::get('key');

You can now use:

$cachedData = Cache::asyncGet('key');

This offloads cache tasks, improving performance and user experience.

📦 5. Improved Job & Queue Management

Queue-heavy applications will love this update!

Laravel 12 brings:

  • Dynamic prioritization
  • Delayed job retries
  • Smarter failure handling
laravel-12-new-features

These make managing background jobs more reliable and customizable than ever before. (A dedicated video is coming soon!)

🔐 6. Security Upgrades

Security remains a top priority in Laravel 12. New features include:

  • secureValidate(): A stricter validation method for sensitive inputs.
  • Improved hashing using bcrypt and Argon2.

You get more robust protection against common web vulnerabilities — straight out of the box.

🧑‍💻 7. Frontend & Dev Tools Enhancements

Laravel 12 modernizes frontend development with:

  • Vite & Tailwind CSS (pre-configured)
  • A new command:
php artisan frontend:install

This command makes setting up your frontend stack as easy as pie — whether you’re using Vue, React, or Livewire.

🔗 8. API Development Enhancements

API dev just got a huge boost in Laravel 12:

✅ Highlights:

  • Built-in API versioning
    Define versioned routes easily using the new apiVersion() method.
  • Out-of-the-box GraphQL support
    Fetch only the data you need with efficient GraphQL queries.
  • Advanced Rate Limiting
    Set different rate limits by user role or endpoint.

📌 Example: Rate Limiting

Route::middleware(['throttle:60,1'])->group(function () {
    Route::get('/profile', [UserController::class, 'profile']);
});

📌 Example: GraphQL Query

{
  user(id: 1) {
    name
    email
    posts {
      title
      content
    }
  }
}

🧹 9. Deprecations & Breaking Changes

Like every major update, Laravel 12 removes some older features:

  • ❌ restore() method in global scopes is removed.
    You’ll need to refactor your soft delete logic.
  • ⚠️ Named arguments might break in future if function signatures change. Laravel advises caution when using them.
  • 🔧 PHP 8.2+ is now required.

Make sure your server is compatible before upgrading!

⬆️ How to Upgrade to Laravel 12

Follow these steps:

  1. ✅ Check system requirements (PHP 8.2+)
  2. 🔄 Update composer.json: "require": { "laravel/framework": "^12.0" }
  3. 🧩 Run: composer update
  4. ✅ Test everything thoroughly in a staging environment before pushing to production.

🎯 Final Thoughts

That’s your complete overview of Laravel 12! We explored:

  • 🔧 Starter Kits
  • 🧠 AI Debugging
  • 🗃 Query Builder
  • 🚀 Async Caching
  • 📦 Job & Queue Tools
  • 🔐 Security Updates
  • 🎨 Frontend Setup
  • 🔗 API & GraphQL Support
  • ❗ Deprecations & Upgrade Guide

But this is just the beginning — stay tuned for deep dives on each feature in upcoming posts and videos!

👉 Which Laravel 12 feature are you most excited about?
Drop your thoughts in the comments — I’d love to hear what you’re building!

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