laravel-prompts

When to Use This Skill

This skill should be triggered when:

• Building Laravel Artisan commands with interactive prompts
• Creating user-friendly CLI applications in PHP
• Implementing form validation in command-line tools
• Adding text input, select menus, or confirmation dialogs to console commands
• Working with progress bars, loading spinners, or tables in CLI applications
• Testing Laravel console commands with prompts
• Converting simple console input to modern, validated, interactive prompts

Reference Files

This skill includes comprehensive documentation in references/:

• other.md - Complete Laravel Prompts documentation including:
  • All prompt types (text, password, select, search, etc.)
  • Validation strategies and examples
  • Form API for multi-step input
  • Progress bars and loading indicators
  • Informational messages (info, warning, error, alert)
  • Tables for displaying data
  • Testing strategies for console commands
  • Fallback configuration for unsupported environments

Use view to read the reference file when detailed information is needed.

Testing

Test commands with prompts using Laravel's built-in assertions:

use function Pest\Laravel\artisan;

test('user creation command', function () {
    artisan('users:create')
        ->expectsQuestion('What is your name?', 'Taylor Otwell')
        ->expectsQuestion('What is your email?', '[email protected]')
        ->expectsConfirmation('Create this user?', 'yes')
        ->expectsPromptsInfo('User created successfully!')
        ->assertExitCode(0);
});

test('displays warnings and errors', function () {
    artisan('report:generate')
        ->expectsPromptsWarning('This action cannot be undone')
        ->expectsPromptsError('Something went wrong')
        ->expectsPromptsTable(
            headers: ['Name', 'Email'],
            rows: [
                ['Taylor Otwell', '[email protected]'],
                ['Jason Beggs', '[email protected]'],
            ]
        )
        ->assertExitCode(0);
});

Best Practices

Design Guidelines

• Keep labels concise (under 74 characters for 80-column terminals)
• Use hint parameter for additional context
• Set appropriate default values when sensible
• Configure scroll for lists with many options (default: 5)

Validation Strategy

• Use required: true for mandatory fields
• Apply Laravel validation rules for standard checks (email, min/max, etc.)
• Use closures for complex business logic validation
• Provide clear, actionable error messages

User Experience

• Add placeholders to show expected input format
• Use pause() before destructive operations
• Show progress bars for operations taking >2 seconds
• Display informational messages after actions complete
• Group related prompts in forms for better flow

Performance

• Use search() callbacks with length checks to avoid expensive queries:

  options: fn (string $value) => strlen($value) > 0
      ? User::where('name', 'like', "%{$value}%")->pluck('name', 'id')->all()
      : []
  

• Limit database results with pagination or top-N queries
• Cache frequently-accessed option lists
• Use spin() for HTTP requests and long operations

Common Patterns

User Registration Flow

$responses = form()
    ->text('Name', required: true, name: 'name')
    ->text('Email', validate: ['email' => 'required|email|unique:users'], name: 'email')
    ->password('Password', validate: ['password' => 'required|min:8'], name: 'password')
    ->submit();

Confirmation Before Destructive Action

$confirmed = confirm(
    label: 'Are you sure you want to delete all users?',
    default: false,
    hint: 'This action cannot be undone.'
);

if (! $confirmed) {
    $this->info('Operation cancelled.');
    return;
}

Dynamic Multi-step Form

$responses = form()
    ->select('User type', options: ['Regular', 'Admin'], name: 'type')
    ->add(function ($responses) {
        if ($responses['type'] === 'Admin') {
            return password('Admin password', required: true);
        }
    }, name: 'admin_password')
    ->submit();

Batch Processing with Progress

$items = Item::all();

$results = progress(
    label: 'Processing items',
    steps: $items,
    callback: function ($item, $progress) {
        $progress->hint("Processing: {$item->name}");
        return $this->process($item);
    }
);

Resources

Official Documentation

• Laravel Prompts Documentation: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/prompts
• Laravel Console Testing: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/console-tests

Platform Support

• Supported: macOS, Linux, Windows with WSL
• Fallback: Configure fallback behavior for unsupported environments

Notes

• Laravel Prompts is pre-installed in Laravel framework
• Supports Laravel validation rules for easy integration
• Uses terminal control codes for interactive UI
• All prompts return values that can be used immediately
• Forms support revisiting previous prompts with CTRL + U
• Validation runs on every input change for immediate feedback
• Progress bars can be manually controlled or automated

Updating

This skill was generated from the official Laravel Prompts documentation. To refresh with updated information, re-scrape the Laravel documentation site.

References

Quick Reference: read .claude/skills/laravel-prompts/references/quick-reference.md Key Concepts: read .claude/skills/laravel-prompts/references/key-concepts.md Working with This Skill: read .claude/skills/laravel-prompts/references/working-with-this-skill.md