expressive-development

name: expressive-development description: > Integrate and use wendelladriel/laravel-expressive in Laravel applications. Use this when installing Expressive, configuring class lookup, creating typed Expressive objects, converting Eloquent models or collections, generating or syncing Expressive classes, serializing objects, or persisting Expressive objects back through Eloquent. license: MIT metadata: author: Wendell Adriel

Expressive Development

Use this skill when a Laravel application needs Typed Objects for Eloquent using Expressive.

Primary Goal

• apply Expressive through its public Laravel integration points only
• keep Eloquent responsible for querying, relationship semantics, model events, mass assignment, and database writes
• prefer the smallest class, config, command, or mapping change that gives the application typed public properties

Workflow

1. Inspect the Laravel app context

• confirm the app is a Laravel project and identify its Laravel/PHP versions before recommending installation
• inspect the target Eloquent model, casts, accessors, relationships, $fillable/$guarded, $hidden, and $visible
• check whether the application already uses DTOs, resources, actions, or domain objects so Expressive fits the existing boundary instead of replacing unrelated patterns
• decide whether the Expressive class should mirror the model shape, expose a smaller application boundary, or be generated and then edited

2. Install and configure only what is needed

• install with composer require wendelladriel/laravel-expressive; Laravel auto-discovers the service provider
• publish with php artisan vendor:publish --tag="expressive" only when the app needs config/expressive.php or stubs/expressive.stub
• publish only config with php artisan vendor:publish --tag="expressive-config" when changing namespace, suffix, strict mode, diagnostics, serialization casing, or generator defaults
• publish only the generator stub with php artisan vendor:publish --tag="expressive-stubs" when generated class formatting must be customized
• set expressive.namespace and expressive.suffix before relying on implicit lookup or running make:expressive
• set expressive.strict to true when Expressive objects should convert back to Eloquent models but never write database state through save()
• set expressive.diagnostics.throw_on_unfillable to true during adoption when ignored unfillable properties should fail fast
• set expressive.serialization.case to snake only when serialized keys should be snake case globally

3. Define mappings deliberately

• add WendellAdriel\Expressive\Concerns\IsExpressive only to Eloquent models that should expose $model->expressive()
• create Expressive classes under the configured namespace, or run php artisan make:expressive User --model="App\Models\User"
• Expressive classes must extend WendellAdriel\Expressive\Expressive and expose mapped data as public typed properties
• use #[Model(User::class)] on an Expressive class when the model cannot be inferred from namespace and suffix
• use #[Expressive(UserData::class)] on a model when it should resolve a specific Expressive class
• use #[Map('remember_token')] when a property maps to a non-default Eloquent key; unmapped non-relationship properties default to snake-case keys
• use #[Relationship] only for relationship properties, and #[Virtual] only for accessor/appended values
• keep relationship and virtual properties nullable because unloaded relationships and unrequested virtual accessors map to null
• type single relationships as ?RelatedExpressive; type many relationships as ?Illuminate\Support\Collection with @var Collection<int, RelatedExpressive>|null
• do not put mapping attributes on private or protected properties; Expressive only maps public non-static properties

4. Convert from Eloquent at explicit boundaries

• use $model->expressive(relationships: [...], attributes: [...]) for a single opted-in model
• use $eloquentCollection->expressive(relationships: [...], attributes: [...]) to convert an Eloquent collection without mutating the original collection
• use $builder->expressive(relationships: [...], attributes: [...]) when it is acceptable to execute get() immediately and return an in-memory Illuminate\Support\Collection
• use $builder->expressiveChunk($count, $callback, relationships: [...], attributes: [...]) for large result sets that can be processed with Laravel chunk(); the count must be at least 1
• pass relationship names to relationships instead of relying on lazy loading; Expressive uses loadMissing() and leaves unloaded relationships as null
• pass accessor keys to attributes for virtual properties; Expressive calls Eloquent append() and leaves unrequested virtual values as null
• use API resources or transformers when the response contract differs from the Expressive object shape

5. Generate and sync classes safely

• use php artisan make:expressive User --model="App\Models\User" to generate a starting class from model columns, casts, relationships, and detected accessors
• use --namespace, --suffix, --attributes, --without-attributes, --relationships, --without-relationships, --include-hidden, --exclude-hidden, --hint-morph-map, --dry-run, and --force only for the current generation need
• remember hidden attributes are generated by default, but serialization still respects the mapped model's hidden and visible rules
• use php artisan expressive:sync User --model="App\Models\User" to detect drift; --model is required
• add --write only for generated classes that are safe to rewrite; if the class has custom methods or intentional shape changes, update it manually
• treat sync output as review input because missing, stale, or type differences may be intentional application design

6. Serialize or persist intentionally

• use $expressive->toArray(), $expressive->toJson(), or json_encode($expressive) for direct serialization of initialized public properties
• expect nested Expressive objects and collections to serialize recursively
• expect uninitialized typed properties to be skipped; nullable properties with default null are initialized and may appear unless hidden or invisible
• use $expressive->model() to create an unsaved Eloquent model filled only with mapped, fillable, non-virtual, non-relationship properties
• use $expressive->save() to save the root model and supported direct relationships when expressive.strict is false: BelongsTo, HasOne, MorphOne, HasMany, and MorphMany
• keep BelongsToMany, morph-to-many, through relationships, pivot semantics, and deletion in explicit Eloquent application code

Rules, References, and Templates

Read before executing:

• official documentation: https://laravel-expressive.wendelladriel.com
• installed package config after publishing: config/expressive.php
• installed package stub after publishing: stubs/expressive.stub
• target application models under app/Models/
• target application Expressive classes under the configured expressive.namespace
• Artisan help in the consuming app: php artisan help make:expressive and php artisan help expressive:sync

Examples

• For a read boundary, add IsExpressive to App\Models\User, run php artisan make:expressive User --model="App\Models\User", keep #[Relationship] public ?Collection $posts = null;, then return User::query()->where('active', true)->expressive(relationships: ['posts']) from an application service.
• For a custom boundary, create App\Data\PublicUser extends Expressive, add #[Model(App\Models\User::class)], include only public properties the service needs, and call $user->expressive(attributes: ['display_name']) when a nullable #[Virtual] property should be populated.
• For write input, hydrate an Expressive object from validated data, call $object->model() when application code should decide how to save or strict mode is enabled, or call $object->save() only when root fillable attributes and supported direct relationships should be persisted immediately.
• For CI drift checks, run php artisan expressive:sync User --model="App\Models\User" and review differences before choosing either a manual class edit or a safe --write rewrite.

Anti-patterns

• do not use Expressive as a replacement for Eloquent querying, resources, validation, authorization, model events, or relationship APIs
• do not make relationship or virtual properties non-nullable
• do not rely on lazy loading during conversion; request relationships explicitly
• do not expect virtual accessors to populate unless passed through attributes
• do not expect model() to save records or persist relationships
• do not call save() when expressive.strict is enabled; convert with model() and persist through Eloquent explicitly
• do not expect save() to handle many-to-many, morph-to-many, through relationships, pivot sync, detach, attach, or deletion
• do not use make:expressive --force or expressive:sync --write over custom classes without reviewing intentional user edits
• do not document private package classes as application-facing APIs