0065-laravel-policies-and-authorization

To centralize Laravel authorization, you group model-specific permissions into Policy classes and application-wide rules into Gates. This enforces consistent access control by preventing scattered authorization checks throughout your controllers and routes.

The best way to protect a Laravel resource controller is using the authorizeResource method alongside consistent policy method names. This pattern automatically maps standard CRUD actions to your policy checks, keeping controllers clean and maintainable.

Use Laravel Policies for per-model permissions like viewing or updating specific records, and use Gates for cross-cutting authorization rules that don’t naturally belong to a single model. This separation keeps your access control logic organized.

For ad-hoc cross-cutting authorization decisions during request handling, you can use the can middleware on routes or call Gate::allows directly. This allows you to perform one-off permission checks without relying on a full resource controller pattern.

Yes, you can leverage Laravel policies and gates for authorization checks during testing. By centralizing access control, you ensure that your tests consistently validate per-model permissions and cross-cutting rules across request handling flows.

Standardizing controller authorization reduces the risk of inconsistent or forgotten access checks by centralizing the logic. By requiring policy methods for standard actions, you ensure every CRUD operation is explicitly protected.