charlesmasinde/api-scaffolder

Generate full API modules (Controller, Requests, Resource, Policy, Routes) from Eloquent models.

v1.2.3 2026-04-05 17:18 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.2
• laravel/framework: ^11.0|^12.0|^13.0

MIT

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-04-05 17:19 UTC

README

Generate complete, production-ready API modules from your Eloquent models in seconds.

One command creates a versioned controller (with CRUD + bulk store), form requests with auto-detected validation rules, a resource with smart relationship mapping, a policy, and wired-up routes.

Installation

composer require charlesmasinde/api-scaffolder --dev

The service provider is auto-discovered. No manual registration needed.

Quick Start

# Ensure the table exists first
php artisan migrate

# Scaffold the full API module (interactive prompt)
php artisan make:api-module Tag

This generates:

• app/Http/Controllers/Api/V1/TagController.php — index, show, store, update, destroy, bulkStore
• app/Http/Requests/StoreTagRequest.php — rules generated from the model and live database schema
• app/Http/Requests/UpdateTagRequest.php — all fields sometimes
• app/Http/Resources/TagResource.php — columns + parent names + child collections
• app/Policies/TagPolicy.php — standard policy scaffold
• routes/api.php — bulk and apiResource routes appended

Usage

Generate everything (no prompts)

php artisan make:api-module Tag --all

Generate specific components only

# Only controller and resource
php artisan make:api-module Tag --only=controller,resource

# Only requests
php artisan make:api-module Tag --only=request

# Multiple --only flags work too
php artisan make:api-module Tag --only=controller --only=request

Valid component names: controller, request, resource, policy, routes

Interactive mode (default)

When you run the command without --all or --only, you get a multi-choice menu:

Which components would you like to generate? (comma-separated numbers, or "all")
  [0] All components
  [1] Controller (CRUD + bulk store)
  [2] Form Requests (Store + Update)
  [3] API Resource
  [4] Policy
  [5] Routes (api.php)

Handling existing files

If a file already exists, you'll be prompted:

TagController already exists. What would you like to do?
  [0] Overwrite
  [1] Skip

To skip all prompts and overwrite everything:

php artisan make:api-module Tag --all --force

Specify API version

php artisan make:api-module Tag V2

Generate a missing model

If App\Models\Tag does not exist, the scaffolder derives the table name (tags) and runs Reliese for that table:

php artisan code:models --table=tags

The generated model is loaded and scaffolding continues in the same command. Generation stops if Reliese fails, the model file is missing, or the generated file does not define the expected model class.

The database table must exist before running the scaffolder.

Request Rule Generation

Request fields are limited to the model's $fillable attributes that also exist in the model's current database table. The scaffolder reads the live database schema instead of parsing migration files.

Generated validation rules use:

• Model casts and database column types for validation types.
• Database nullability and defaults for required, sometimes, and nullable.
• Single-column unique indexes for unique rules.
• Foreign keys for exists rules.

Fillable attributes that are not database columns are skipped with a warning. Composite unique indexes require explicit request validation.

Configuration

Publish the config to customize defaults:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=api-scaffolder-config

This creates config/api-scaffolder.php where you can change:

• middleware — route middleware (default: auth:sanctum)
• default_per_page — pagination size (default: 100)
• skip_columns — columns excluded from resources (default: timestamps)
• auto_assign_user_id — auto-set user_id from auth (default: true)
• unique_columns — columns that get unique rules on store
• request_skip_columns — columns excluded from validation rules

Custom Stubs

Publish stubs to stubs/api-scaffolder/ and modify them:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=api-scaffolder-stubs

The scaffolder will use your custom stubs over the defaults.

Smart Relationship Detection

The resource generator uses return type hints to detect relationships:

// In your model — type hints are required
public function user(): BelongsTo      // → 'user_name' => $this->user?->name
public function transactions(): HasMany // → 'transactions' => $this->whenLoaded('transactions')

The controller automatically eager-loads all detected relationships.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2+
• Laravel 11, 12, or 13
• Reliese Laravel 1.4+ (installed automatically with this package)
• Models must have return type hints on relationship methods

License

MIT