laravel-verification

Laravel Verification Loop

A gated pipeline, not a checklist to run in full regardless of outcome. Each phase exists to catch a class of failure cheaply before a later, more expensive phase wastes time on a codebase that was already broken. Stop at the first failing gate, report it, and do not proceed to later phases — running php artisan test against code that fails composer validate only produces confusing secondary failures.

Phase 1: Environment and Composer

php -v
composer --version
php artisan --version
composer validate
composer dump-autoload -o

Confirm .env exists, required keys are present, APP_ENV matches the target (production, staging), and APP_DEBUG=false outside local/dev. Using Sail: prefix commands with ./vendor/bin/sail.

Why first: a broken autoloader or missing env key makes every later phase fail for an unrelated reason. Stop here on any failure.

Phase 2: Lint and Static Analysis

vendor/bin/pint --test
vendor/bin/phpstan analyse   # or: vendor/bin/psalm

Why before tests: static analysis catches type and null-safety errors tests may not exercise, and it's near-instant compared to the full suite — fail fast on the cheap check.

Phase 3: Tests and Coverage

php artisan test
XDEBUG_MODE=coverage php artisan test --coverage   # CI only, see Gotchas

Phase 4: Security and Dependency Audit

composer audit

Run after tests, not before: a vulnerable dependency doesn't block verifying application behavior, but it does block release.

Phase 5: Database and Migrations

php artisan migrate --pretend
php artisan migrate:status

Check migration filenames follow Y_m_d_His_*, that every migration with an up() has a working down(), and that destructive migrations (dropped columns, dropped tables) have an explicit backup plan — --pretend will not catch a missing or broken rollback path (see Gotchas).

Phase 6: Build and Deploy Readiness

php artisan optimize:clear
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache