Laravel 12, released in February 2025, marks a deliberate shift in how the framework approaches the first few minutes of a new project. Rather than packing the core with flashy new features, the Laravel team invested heavily in the onboarding experience, delivering redesigned starter kits that give developers a production-ready foundation from the very first composer create-project command.
A Fresh Take on Starter Kits
The headline change is a complete overhaul of the official starter kits. Previous iterations relied on Blade with Alpine.js or Livewire for interactivity. Laravel 12 introduces first-party React and Vue starter kits built on Inertia v2, each with full TypeScript support, Tailwind CSS v4 styling, and shadcn/ui component libraries pre-configured out of the box. The result is a polished, modern frontend that feels nothing like the generic scaffolding of years past.
WorkOS AuthKit integration is another notable addition. The new starter kits offer an optional authentication flow powered by WorkOS, giving teams enterprise-grade SSO, social login, and multi-factor authentication without writing a single line of auth logic. For teams that prefer to keep things simple, the classic Fortify-based authentication stack remains available and fully supported.
Continuing the Streamlined Structure
Laravel 12 carries forward the simplified application structure introduced in Laravel 11. The bootstrap/app.php file remains the single place to register middleware, exception handlers, and routing configuration. There is no app/Http/Kernel.php, no app/Console/Kernel.php, and no app/Exceptions/Handler.php unless you create them yourself. This flatter architecture reduces the number of files new developers need to understand and makes it easier to trace the flow of a request through the framework.
Under the hood, the release includes dozens of quality-of-life improvements: better Eloquent casting ergonomics, more flexible rate limiting configuration, and continued performance work on the routing layer. The migration system now supports more expressive column modification syntax, and the testing tools have been tightened to reduce boilerplate in feature tests.
What This Means for Teams
For agencies and product teams evaluating their stack, Laravel 12 sends a clear message: the framework is doubling down on the full-stack developer experience. The days of needing to stitch together a frontend toolchain from scratch are over. Whether you prefer React with Inertia, Vue with Inertia, or a traditional Blade and Livewire approach, there is now an official, well-maintained starting point that reflects how modern applications are actually built.
