NEW Laravel 13: Main Things You Need to Know

[00:00] Hello guys. So Laravel 13 is officially

[00:02] released as every year they release a

[00:05] new major version every March. So what's

[00:08] inside? In this video I will show you

[00:10] not that many new features to be honest

[00:12] but we will try it out in action. So

[00:15] first when you run Laravel new you will

[00:17] not see much different things except for

[00:21] downloading Laravel version 13.0 zero

[00:25] and maybe a few versions of underlying

[00:27] packages are upgraded. All the other

[00:30] installation is pretty much as it was

[00:34] except for one thing, the ordering of

[00:37] Laravel boost. Do you see when it was

[00:40] triggered? So boost was upgraded to be

[00:43] triggered after the npm commands. So

[00:46] this is a change not in Laravel 13 but

[00:48] very recent yesterday. This is a new

[00:50] version of Laravel installer which you

[00:53] should upgrade anyway and keep upgrading

[00:55] to receive those new features. But this

[00:58] thing move boost install after

[01:00] installation of node packages because

[01:03] then boost can detect those packages

[01:06] after they are npm installed. So now

[01:09] Laravel boost will see more things for

[01:12] you. It's not actually visually seen.

[01:15] But just so you know, boost guidelines

[01:17] are no better if it's after npm install.

[01:19] And now on my homepage, I can refresh

[01:22] and you can see the animation for

[01:24] Laravel 13 version. So that's the

[01:27] installation. Now what features are

[01:29] inside and what you need to know for

[01:31] that? There's a page called release

[01:33] notes. Let me zoom that in and let's

[01:36] scroll through that because scrolling is

[01:39] enough in this case. There are not that

[01:41] many new features, no breaking changes,

[01:45] which reminded me of a video on Laravel

[01:47] 12 I shot a year ago, no new features,

[01:50] and I called it the boring version. And

[01:53] this thumbnail was I was in Egypt at

[01:56] that time. So, I shot this picture to

[01:58] specifically express that it's a boring

[02:00] version, but in a good way. So Laravel

[02:04] 13 continues that tradition of being

[02:06] stable which is also very good for AI

[02:09] agents which are trained on Laravel

[02:12] versions before Laravel 13. So new

[02:15] version will not add much for AI agentic

[02:18] changes. But if we scroll through that

[02:20] release notes what do we see? First

[02:23] important thing is minimum PHP version

[02:26] 8.3 now. So for Laravel 12 it was 8.2 2.

[02:30] Now it's bumped to 8.3 which you should

[02:33] upgrade anyway again because of life

[02:35] cycle of PHP language. And also another

[02:39] important thing that Laravel 11 doesn't

[02:42] get security fixes anymore. So if you

[02:44] care about security fixes and you're

[02:46] still on Laravel 11, you probably should

[02:48] upgrade especially since the upgrade

[02:51] isn't that big at all. In fact, now

[02:53] let's try to upgrade. So in the official

[02:56] tweet there's this new thing. So I will

[02:59] open Laravel 12 project and run upgrade

[03:01] from Laravel boost and let's see what

[03:03] happens. So here's a project I installed

[03:05] earlier today this morning on Laravel

[03:08] framework 12 at the time for AI related

[03:11] video and this is basically just the

[03:12] starter kit and let's open cloud code

[03:15] and let's try upgrade. Well no the

[03:18] default upgrade seems to be related to

[03:20] cloud code not that one. Laravel boost

[03:24] upgrade seems to be only for LiveWire 4.

[03:28] Maybe I need to upgrade Laravel boost as

[03:30] well. So let's do composer update on

[03:32] that project and let's see if Boost new

[03:35] version comes up. And yeah, as expected,

[03:38] Boost 2.3.4,

[03:40] which was released 50 minutes ago and

[03:43] unrelated, but here's the one 2.3.2. I

[03:48] think that's the one. Add upgrade

[03:49] Laravel prompt. Actually, let's read

[03:52] what's inside. Right. So, it's following

[03:54] live wire upgrade prompts. Let's try

[03:57] again. So, I will launch cloud code

[03:59] fresh and then let's see upgrade. Yep,

[04:03] now we have it. Laravel boost upgrade

[04:05] Laravel version 13. What is happening?

[04:09] Is it just that agent will upgrade and I

[04:12] don't need to check anything else? So,

[04:15] did they actually kill Laravel shift in

[04:17] a way? Let's see. Actually, this is

[04:19] another topic for another video. I

[04:21] should probably compare this to Laravel

[04:24] shift update and see what happens. But

[04:26] for now, let's see if it actually works

[04:28] and what else we need to do. Code bases

[04:31] clean. So just composer JSON update here

[04:35] with tinker update to version three and

[04:38] something else was str snake session.

[04:43] This is kind of a small thing.

[04:44] Serializable classes and yeah that's it.

[04:48] Upgrade complete. Summary of changes

[04:50] since it was just starter kit as the

[04:53] agent says no application code changes

[04:56] were needed. Out of curiosity let's see

[04:58] what's inside. What is the prompt behind

[05:00] that? So here's the prompt. Laravel 12

[05:03] to13 upgrade specialist upgrade process.

[05:07] This is actually pretty big. So I will

[05:09] not read it in this video but you get

[05:11] the idea. You upgrade boost and then

[05:14] launch upgrade command with your AI

[05:17] agent. And if you try let me know in the

[05:19] comments. Did it work for you? And now

[05:21] finally let's finish reading the release

[05:22] notes of Laravel 13. Minimal breaking

[05:25] changes as I mentioned already. And

[05:28] actually I talked to Taylor Otwell at

[05:30] Laracon EU and India before about

[05:32] Laravel 13 and he just confirmed that

[05:35] Laravel 13 will be official release of

[05:38] some of the things that were even in

[05:40] Laravel 12. So for example, Laravel AI

[05:42] SDK becomes stable with Laravel 13. But

[05:46] I covered Laravel AI SDK previously on

[05:49] this channel and separately I have a

[05:51] course on Laravel daily AI SDK 6

[05:54] practical examples and I will probably

[05:56] upgrade it in 2026 later with more

[05:59] examples but that AI SDK isn't actually

[06:02] new. Also JSON API resources it's not

[06:06] also a new thing on my channel. I

[06:09] covered that they were released actually

[06:11] in version 12.45 45 a few months ago,

[06:14] but they were released pretty silently

[06:16] without fancy announcements. So now they

[06:18] are kind of officially out in the wild.

[06:21] Then a few small things, expanded PHP

[06:24] attributes. This is probably the most

[06:27] significant visual change. So in many

[06:30] more places you may see something like

[06:32] this. So middleware authorize and other

[06:36] PHP attributes. I probably will shoot a

[06:39] separate video about them in action. But

[06:41] in the documentation here, you may see

[06:43] just a few of examples and also I had a

[06:46] few more examples in my article after

[06:48] Laracon EU where Taylor showed PHP

[06:51] attributes. So I will link that article

[06:53] as well in the description below. Then

[06:56] if we scroll down the release notes,

[06:58] some minor things. Semantic vector

[07:01] search. This is also pretty big, but it

[07:03] was also released in Laravel 12 for

[07:06] posgrql. You can now use vector search

[07:09] which is powering AIS SDK. So now we can

[07:12] use something like where vector similar

[07:15] 2. And look at that, we're done here.

[07:18] Basically, there's nothing else that you

[07:21] need to know about Laravel 13. That's

[07:23] it. Boring version. stable version, good

[07:26] version. There are actually a few more

[07:28] things that Taylor promised related to

[07:31] starter kits with Laravel 13 about teams

[07:34] in starter kits and pass keys in starter

[07:36] kits, but those will be separate topics.

[07:38] For now, I don't see them released yet.

[07:41] So maybe they come out later and I will

[07:43] have separate videos on those as well as

[07:47] upgrade versus Laravel shift. I'm

[07:49] personally interested how it works now

[07:52] and if I see anything else comes up

[07:53] related to Laravel 13 or new starter

[07:56] kits or something like that of course as

[07:58] always I will cover that on this

[08:00] channel. So subscribe to not miss any

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[08:36] do you think about Laravel 13? Did I

[08:38] miss any details? We can discuss as

[08:40] always in the comments below. That's it

[08:42] for this time and see you guys in other