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Reusable behaviour shared across multiple unrelated classes. Traits provide shared Eloquent scopes, accessors, lifecycle hooks, and small stateless helper methods.

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Name: Traits Description: Reusable behaviour shared across multiple unrelated classes. Traits provide shared Eloquent scopes, accessors, lifecycle hooks, and small stateless helper methods. Compatible Agents: general-purpose, backend Tags: app/Traits/**/*.php, laravel, php, backend, trait, reusable, eloquent

Rules

  • Trait classes live in app/Traits/
  • Each trait should have a single, clearly defined responsibility
  • Use descriptive names that reflect the behaviour they provide, not the classes that use them
  • Suffix with able when the trait grants a capability: Archivable, Taggable, Sluggable
  • Use a noun phrase when grouping related accessors/scopes: HasTimestamps, HasAddress
  • Use a trait only when the same behaviour is needed across multiple unrelated classes
  • Use bootTraitName() to hook into the model lifecycle without overriding boot() in the model
  • Use initializeTraitName() to set default property values on instantiation
  • Never put complex business logic in a trait — use an Action or Service

Examples

namespace App\Traits;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;

trait Archivable
{
    public function archive(): void
    {
        $this->update(['archived_at' => now()]);
    }

    public function unarchive(): void
    {
        $this->update(['archived_at' => null]);
    }

    public function isArchived(): bool
    {
        return ! is_null($this->archived_at);
    }

    public function scopeArchived(Builder $query): Builder
    {
        return $query->whereNotNull('archived_at');
    }

    public function scopeNotArchived(Builder $query): Builder
    {
        return $query->whereNull('archived_at');
    }
}

trait Sluggable
{
    public static function bootSluggable(): void
    {
        static::creating(function ($model) {
            $model->slug = str($model->name)->slug();
        });
    }

    public function scopeBySlug(Builder $query, string $slug): Builder
    {
        return $query->where('slug', $slug);
    }
}

// Usage across unrelated models
class Post extends Model { use Archivable; }
class Supplier extends Model { use Archivable; }

$post->archive();
Post::archived()->get();

Anti-Patterns

  • Creating a trait for logic that only exists in one class (keep it inline)
  • Putting complex business rules in a trait (use an Action or Service)
  • Putting external service dependencies in a trait (use a Service class)
  • Using a trait to avoid inheritance instead of reconsidering the architecture
  • Creating catch-all traits that bundle unrelated behaviour

References