Project anatomy

As you might have noticed, Laravel's folder tree looks big the first week. Most days you live in five places.

The map (FE brain edition)

laravel-playground/
  app/                 # your PHP code (PSR-4 App\)
    Http/Controllers/
    Models/
    # … Providers, etc.
  bootstrap/app.php    # app wiring (routing, middleware, exceptions)
  config/              # PHP config arrays (cached in prod)
  database/
    migrations/
    seeders/
  public/              # web root - index.php lives here
  resources/
    views/             # Blade templates
    css/ js/           # Vite entrypoints
  routes/
    web.php            # browser routes
    console.php        # artisan commands schedule-ish
  storage/             # logs, uploads, cache (not in git much)
  tests/
  vendor/              # Composer - like node_modules
  .env                 # secrets + env-specific values
  artisan              # CLI entry
  composer.json
  package.json         # frontend deps
  vite.config.js

Compared to what you know

Front-end / PHP tutorial	Laravel
src/	app/
public/index.php	public/index.php
router file	routes/web.php
templates	resources/views
npm run dev	npm run dev (Vite)
.env	.env (vlucas/phpdotenv under the hood)
vendor/autoload.php	required by public/index.php for you

Where to look when debugging

1. URL weird? → php artisan route:list / routes/web.php
2. HTML weird? → resources/views/…
3. DB weird? → app/Models/… + database/migrations/
4. 500 / exception? → storage/logs/laravel.log
5. Config weird? → config/*.php then check .env overrides

Facades vs DI (don't panic)

You'll see:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

Route::get('/', …);
DB::table('users')->get();

Facades are static-looking proxies into the service container. Underneath there's still a real object. Controllers can also type-hint dependencies in the constructor - same DI story from the PHP tutorial's "before frameworks" chapter.

Use Facades in routes/controllers when it's idiomatic; inject when testing or when the dependency is yours.

bootstrap/app.php (modern Laravel)

This is where the app declares routes, middleware defaults, exception handling - the "kernel config" got slimmer and moved here across recent versions. Peek at it once so it's not mysterious; you won't edit it every day.

Next up: what happens when a request hits public/index.php.

Best,

-- ł.