Routes

Active contributors: Taylor Otwell

Purpose

Route registration. The skeleton ships two route files — one for HTTP, one for Artisan commands. Both are loaded by bootstrap/app.php's withRouting() call.

Directory layout

routes/
├── console.php   # Artisan command definitions
└── web.php       # HTTP routes (web middleware group)

There is no routes/api.php or routes/channels.php by default. Add them yourself and reference them from bootstrap/app.php if needed.

routes/web.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});

That's it — three lines and a single closure-based route. GET / renders resources/views/welcome.blade.php.

Two implicit behaviours:

• Web middleware. Routes registered here are wrapped in the framework's "web" middleware group automatically: cookies, sessions, CSRF, view sharing, etc. The exact list lives inside Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware.
• CSRF. Because the web group is applied, any POST route here would expect a _token field or X-CSRF-TOKEN header.

bootstrap/app.php also registers GET /up via withRouting(health: '/up'). This one isn't visible in web.php — it's wired by the framework.

routes/console.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Inspiring;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Artisan;

Artisan::command('inspire', function () {
    $this->comment(Inspiring::quote());
})->purpose('Display an inspiring quote');

The single command (php artisan inspire) prints a randomly chosen inspirational quote from Illuminate\Foundation\Inspiring::quote(). The ->purpose(...) chained call sets the description shown in php artisan list.

This is the modern Laravel pattern: trivial commands declared as closures right in routes/console.php. Larger commands still go in dedicated classes under app/Console/Commands/ and are auto-registered via Artisan's discovery — but the skeleton has no such classes.

Adding routes

You want to…	Edit…	Example
Add a controller-backed route	routes/web.php	Route::get('/profile', [ProfileController::class, 'show']);
Add an Artisan command	routes/console.php	Artisan::command('queue:rotate', fn() => /* ... */)->purpose('Rotate queue keys');
Add API routes	Create routes/api.php	Then add api: __DIR__.'/../routes/api.php' to withRouting() in bootstrap/app.php
Schedule a recurring task	routes/console.php	Schedule::command('inspire')->hourly(); — Schedule facade is auto-imported by Artisan
Group routes under a prefix	Inside routes/web.php	Route::prefix('admin')->group(function () { /* ... */ });

How routes hook into the framework

graph LR
    BootstrapApp[bootstrap/app.php] -->|withRouting web| WebRoutes[routes/web.php]
    BootstrapApp -->|withRouting commands| ConsoleRoutes[routes/console.php]
    BootstrapApp -->|withRouting health| HealthRoute[GET /up]
    WebRoutes --> Router[Illuminate\Routing\Router]
    ConsoleRoutes --> Schedule[Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule]
    HealthRoute --> Router
    Router --> Dispatch[Dispatch incoming HTTP request]
    Schedule --> ArtisanList[php artisan list/run]

Integration points

• bootstrap/app.php — the withRouting() call is the only thing that loads these files.
• resources/views/welcome.blade.php — referenced by the single web route.
• Illuminate\Foundation\Inspiring (framework code) — provides the quotes for the inspire command.

Entry points for modification

Almost every change to routing happens here. Adding routes, adding command closures, defining route groups — all in routes/web.php or routes/console.php. Middleware groups and aliases are configured in bootstrap/app.php rather than per-route, but middleware can still be applied per-route with the standard ->middleware(['auth', 'verified']) chain.

Key source files

File	Purpose
routes/web.php	Web route registration — one route to render the welcome page
routes/console.php	Artisan command definitions — one closure for inspire

See Bootstrap for the withRouting() call that wires both files in, and Resources for the welcome view rendered by the only web route.