---
title: 'NEW Laravel 13: Main Things You Need to Know'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=KSowC1CsqmQ'
video_id: 'KSowC1CsqmQ'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 525
---

# NEW Laravel 13: Main Things You Need to Know

> Source: [NEW Laravel 13: Main Things You Need to Know](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KSowC1CsqmQ)

## Summary

Laravel 13 has been officially released with minimal new features and no breaking changes, continuing the tradition of being a stable, 'boring' version. Key updates include a minimum PHP 8.3 requirement, official stabilization of Laravel AI SDK and JSON API resources, expanded PHP attributes, and semantic vector search. The upgrade process is straightforward, especially with Laravel Boost's new upgrade command.

### Key Points

- **Release Overview** [0:00] — Laravel 13 is released as a new major version every March. It has few new features and no breaking changes, continuing the tradition of being a stable version.
- **Installation Changes** [0:15] — Running 'laravel new' downloads Laravel 13.0.0. The ordering of Laravel Boost has changed: Boost is now triggered after npm commands, allowing it to detect more packages.
- **Release Notes Highlights** [1:33] — Minimum PHP version is now 8.3 (up from 8.2). Laravel 11 no longer receives security fixes, so upgrading is recommended.
- **Upgrade via Laravel Boost** [2:53] — Laravel Boost's upgrade command can upgrade a Laravel 12 project to 13. It updates composer.json and handles minor changes like tinker version and serializable classes.
- **Stabilized Features** [5:21] — Laravel AI SDK becomes stable with Laravel 13. JSON API resources, previously released in version 12.45, are now officially part of the release.
- **Expanded PHP Attributes** [6:21] — PHP attributes are now used in more places, such as middleware and authorization, providing a more modern syntax.
- **Semantic Vector Search** [6:56] — Semantic vector search for PostgreSQL, previously available in Laravel 12, is now part of Laravel 13, enabling vector similarity queries.

### Conclusion

Laravel 13 is a stable, boring release with minimal changes, making it easy to upgrade from Laravel 12. The main highlights are PHP 8.3 requirement, stabilized AI SDK and JSON API resources, expanded PHP attributes, and semantic vector search.

## Transcript

Hello guys. So Laravel 13 is officially
released as every year they release a
new major version every March. So what's
inside? In this video I will show you
not that many new features to be honest
but we will try it out in action. So
first when you run Laravel new you will
not see much different things except for
downloading Laravel version 13.0 zero
and maybe a few versions of underlying
packages are upgraded. All the other
installation is pretty much as it was
except for one thing, the ordering of
Laravel boost. Do you see when it was
triggered? So boost was upgraded to be
triggered after the npm commands. So
this is a change not in Laravel 13 but
very recent yesterday. This is a new
version of Laravel installer which you
should upgrade anyway and keep upgrading
to receive those new features. But this
thing move boost install after
installation of node packages because
then boost can detect those packages
after they are npm installed. So now
Laravel boost will see more things for
you. It's not actually visually seen.
But just so you know, boost guidelines
are no better if it's after npm install.
And now on my homepage, I can refresh
and you can see the animation for
Laravel 13 version. So that's the
installation. Now what features are
inside and what you need to know for
that? There's a page called release
notes. Let me zoom that in and let's
scroll through that because scrolling is
enough in this case. There are not that
many new features, no breaking changes,
which reminded me of a video on Laravel
12 I shot a year ago, no new features,
and I called it the boring version. And
this thumbnail was I was in Egypt at
that time. So, I shot this picture to
specifically express that it's a boring
version, but in a good way. So Laravel
13 continues that tradition of being
stable which is also very good for AI
agents which are trained on Laravel
versions before Laravel 13. So new
version will not add much for AI agentic
changes. But if we scroll through that
release notes what do we see? First
important thing is minimum PHP version
8.3 now. So for Laravel 12 it was 8.2 2.
Now it's bumped to 8.3 which you should
upgrade anyway again because of life
cycle of PHP language. And also another
important thing that Laravel 11 doesn't
get security fixes anymore. So if you
care about security fixes and you're
still on Laravel 11, you probably should
upgrade especially since the upgrade
isn't that big at all. In fact, now
let's try to upgrade. So in the official
tweet there's this new thing. So I will
open Laravel 12 project and run upgrade
from Laravel boost and let's see what
happens. So here's a project I installed
earlier today this morning on Laravel
framework 12 at the time for AI related
video and this is basically just the
starter kit and let's open cloud code
and let's try upgrade. Well no the
default upgrade seems to be related to
cloud code not that one. Laravel boost
upgrade seems to be only for LiveWire 4.
Maybe I need to upgrade Laravel boost as
well. So let's do composer update on
that project and let's see if Boost new
version comes up. And yeah, as expected,
Boost 2.3.4,
which was released 50 minutes ago and
unrelated, but here's the one 2.3.2. I
think that's the one. Add upgrade
Laravel prompt. Actually, let's read
what's inside. Right. So, it's following
live wire upgrade prompts. Let's try
again. So, I will launch cloud code
fresh and then let's see upgrade. Yep,
now we have it. Laravel boost upgrade
Laravel version 13. What is happening?
Is it just that agent will upgrade and I
don't need to check anything else? So,
did they actually kill Laravel shift in
a way? Let's see. Actually, this is
another topic for another video. I
should probably compare this to Laravel
shift update and see what happens. But
for now, let's see if it actually works
and what else we need to do. Code bases
clean. So just composer JSON update here
with tinker update to version three and
something else was str snake session.
This is kind of a small thing.
Serializable classes and yeah that's it.
Upgrade complete. Summary of changes
since it was just starter kit as the
agent says no application code changes
were needed. Out of curiosity let's see
what's inside. What is the prompt behind
that? So here's the prompt. Laravel 12
to13 upgrade specialist upgrade process.
This is actually pretty big. So I will
not read it in this video but you get
the idea. You upgrade boost and then
launch upgrade command with your AI
agent. And if you try let me know in the
comments. Did it work for you? And now
finally let's finish reading the release
notes of Laravel 13. Minimal breaking
changes as I mentioned already. And
actually I talked to Taylor Otwell at
Laracon EU and India before about
Laravel 13 and he just confirmed that
Laravel 13 will be official release of
some of the things that were even in
Laravel 12. So for example, Laravel AI
SDK becomes stable with Laravel 13. But
I covered Laravel AI SDK previously on
this channel and separately I have a
course on Laravel daily AI SDK 6
practical examples and I will probably
upgrade it in 2026 later with more
examples but that AI SDK isn't actually
new. Also JSON API resources it's not
also a new thing on my channel. I
covered that they were released actually
in version 12.45 45 a few months ago,
but they were released pretty silently
without fancy announcements. So now they
are kind of officially out in the wild.
Then a few small things, expanded PHP
attributes. This is probably the most
significant visual change. So in many
more places you may see something like
this. So middleware authorize and other
PHP attributes. I probably will shoot a
separate video about them in action. But
in the documentation here, you may see
just a few of examples and also I had a
few more examples in my article after
Laracon EU where Taylor showed PHP
attributes. So I will link that article
as well in the description below. Then
if we scroll down the release notes,
some minor things. Semantic vector
search. This is also pretty big, but it
was also released in Laravel 12 for
posgrql. You can now use vector search
which is powering AIS SDK. So now we can
use something like where vector similar
2. And look at that, we're done here.
Basically, there's nothing else that you
need to know about Laravel 13. That's
it. Boring version. stable version, good
version. There are actually a few more
things that Taylor promised related to
starter kits with Laravel 13 about teams
in starter kits and pass keys in starter
kits, but those will be separate topics.
For now, I don't see them released yet.
So maybe they come out later and I will
have separate videos on those as well as
upgrade versus Laravel shift. I'm
personally interested how it works now
and if I see anything else comes up
related to Laravel 13 or new starter
kits or something like that of course as
always I will cover that on this
channel. So subscribe to not miss any
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I've been sending for I don't know many
years now 10 12 I stopped counting so
basically every Thursday I summarize
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Then of course also subscribe to that
newsletter. Absolutely free, no
membership required. So yeah guys, what
do you think about Laravel 13? Did I
miss any details? We can discuss as
always in the comments below. That's it
for this time and see you guys in other