Laravel API Response Helpers

A Laravel package for standardized API responses with helpful exceptions.

Installation

Install the package via composer:

composer require nurbekjummayev/laravel-api-response-helpers

Usage

Helper Functions

The package provides convenient helper functions for common HTTP responses:

Success Responses

// List with pagination
public function index(Request $request)
{
    $query = Product::query();
    $data = $query->paginate($request->get('per_page', 10));

    return okWithPaginateResponse($data);
}

// Show single resource
public function show(int $id)
{
    $model = Product::findOrFail($id);

    return okResponse($model);
}

// Create resource
public function store(Request $request)
{
    $model = Product::create($request->all());

    return createdResponse($model);
}

// Update resource
public function update(Request $request, int $id)
{
    $model = Product::findOrFail($id);
    $model->update($request->all());

    return okResponse($model);
}

// Delete resource
public function destroy(int $id)
{
    $model = Product::findOrFail($id);
    $model->delete();

    return okResponse($model);
}

Error Responses

// Validation error (422)
$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), $rules);
if ($validator->fails()) {
    return invalidData('Validation failed', ['errors' => $validator->errors()]);
}

// Not found (404)
$model = Product::find($id);
if (!$model) {
    return notFoundRequestResponse('Product not found');
}

// Unauthorized (401)
if (!auth()->check()) {
    return unauthorizedRequestResponse();
}

// Forbidden (403)
if (!auth()->user()->can('update', $model)) {
    return forbiddenRequestResponse('Access denied');
}

// Bad request (400)
if (!$request->has('required_field')) {
    return badRequestResponse('Missing required field');
}

// Method not allowed (405)
return methodNotAllowedRequestResponse();

// Payload too large (413)
return postTooLargeResponse();

// Too many requests (429)
return tooManyRequestsResponse();

// Server error (500)
try {
    // Some operation
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    return serverErrorResponse('Something went wrong');
}

// Any custom status
return errorResponse('Custom error', httpStatus: 418, errorMsg: 'TEAPOT');

Custom Response

return apiResponse(
    msg: 'Custom message',
    data: ['key' => 'value'],
    success: true,
    httpStatus: 200,
    errorMsg: null,
    extraData: ['meta' => ['version' => '1.0']]
);

Exceptions

The package provides exception classes that automatically render as JSON responses:

use NurbekJummayev\ApiResponseHelper\Exceptions\NotFoundException;
use NurbekJummayev\ApiResponseHelper\Exceptions\ForbiddenException;
use NurbekJummayev\ApiResponseHelper\Exceptions\ValidationException;

// Not Found Exception
public function show(int $id)
{
    $model = Product::find($id);

    if (!$model) {
        throw new NotFoundException('Product not found', ['product_id' => $id]);
    }

    return okResponse($model);
}

// Validation Exception
public function store(Request $request)
{
    $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), $rules);

    if ($validator->fails()) {
        throw new ValidationException(
            message: 'Validation failed',
            data: ['errors' => $validator->errors()]
        );
    }

    $model = Product::create($request->all());
    return createdResponse($model);
}

// Forbidden Exception
public function update(Request $request, int $id)
{
    $model = Product::findOrFail($id);

    if (!auth()->user()->can('update', $model)) {
        throw new ForbiddenException('You cannot update this product');
    }

    $model->update($request->all());
    return okResponse($model);
}

Available Exceptions

• ApiResponseException - Base exception class
• BadRequestException - 400
• UnauthorizedException - 401
• ForbiddenException - 403
• NotFoundException - 404
• MethodNotAllowedException - 405
• PostTooLargeException - 413
• ValidationException - 422
• TooManyRequestsException - 429
• ServerErrorException - 500

Note: ValidationException shares its short name with Laravel's own Illuminate\Validation\ValidationException. If you need both in the same file, import this package's class with an alias:

use NurbekJummayev\ApiResponseHelper\Exceptions\ValidationException as ApiValidationException;

Response Format

All responses follow a consistent structure:

Standard Response:

{
  "msg": "Success message",
  "error": null,
  "success": true,
  "data": {}
}

Paginated Response:

{
  "msg": "OK",
  "error": null,
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "Product 1"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "name": "Product 2"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "current_page": 1,
    "from": 1,
    "last_page": 5,
    "per_page": 15,
    "to": 15,
    "total": 75
  }
}

okWithPaginateResponse() supports all three Laravel paginators:

• paginate() — full meta as shown above.
• simplePaginate() — meta with current_page, from, per_page, to, has_more (no total/last_page).
• cursorPaginate() — meta with per_page, next_cursor, prev_cursor.

With Extra Data:

{
  "msg": "Success",
  "error": null,
  "success": true,
  "data": {},
  "custom_key": "custom_value"
}

AI Support (Laravel Boost)

This package ships first-class AI support for Laravel Boost. When a project that uses Boost installs this package, the guidelines and an agent skill are discovered automatically.

What's included:

• Guideline — resources/boost/guidelines/core.blade.php: a short, always-loaded overview of the response envelope and helpers.
• Skill — resources/boost/skills/api-response-helper/SKILL.md: the full api-response-helper skill, loaded on demand when an agent works on API responses.

In a consuming project that already has Boost installed:

composer require nurbekjummayev/laravel-api-response-helpers

# Discover and publish this package's guidelines + skill
php artisan boost:install
# or, for an existing Boost setup:
php artisan boost:update --discover

Boost then teaches the coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.) to use okResponse(), okWithPaginateResponse(), the error helpers, and the renderable exceptions correctly. No configuration is required — discovery is based on the resources/boost/ directory.

Testing

composer test

Code Quality

# Format code
composer format

# Test coverage
composer test-coverage

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.