laravel-api-jsonapi

Laravel 13 JSON:API — First-Party Resources

When to Use

Use this skill when building APIs that need strict JSON:API specification compliance. Laravel 13 ships with a native JsonApiResource class that produces spec-compliant responses without external packages. Covers resource definition, attributes, relationships, sparse fieldsets, includes, compound documents, links, meta objects, error handling, and pagination. Preferred for large public APIs, enterprise integrations, and mobile backends.

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Laravel 13 Native JSON:API Resources

Generating a JSON:API Resource

php artisan make:resource PostResource --json-api

This generates a class extending Illuminate\Http\Resources\JsonApi\JsonApiResource with $attributes and $relationships properties.

Basic Resource Structure

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Resources\JsonApi\JsonApiResource;

class PostResource extends JsonApiResource
{
    public $attributes = [
        'title',
        'content',
        'status',
    ];

    public $relationships = [
        'author' => AuthorResource::class,
    ];
}

This produces:

{
    "data": {
        "type": "posts",
        "id": "1",
        "attributes": {
            "title": "Hello World",
            "content": "Post content here",
            "status": "published"
        },
        "relationships": {
            "author": {
                "data": {
                    "type": "authors",
                    "id": "5"
                }
            }
        },
        "links": {
            "self": "/api/v1/posts/1"
        }
    }
}

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Defining Attributes

Simple Attribute List

class UserResource extends JsonApiResource
{
    // Simple array — auto-resolves from model attributes
    public $attributes = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'role',
    ];
}

Closure-Wrapped Attributes (Dynamic Values)

class UserResource extends JsonApiResource
{
    public $attributes = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'is_admin' => fn () => $this->is_admin,
        'created_at' => fn () => $this->created_at->toIso8601String(),
        'avatar_url' => fn () => $this->avatar_url,
    ];
}