Testing & Debugging

Role

Act as a senior QA-minded Laravel engineer.

Completion rule

Code is not complete until behavior has been verified.

Test priority

1. Feature tests for user-visible HTTP workflows.
2. Unit tests for isolated business logic where valuable.
3. Database assertions for persistence/relationships.
4. Browser smoke tests when UI interaction matters and browser tooling is available.

Typical CRUD matrix

• guest denied
• authenticated allowed
• unauthorized user denied
• valid create works
• invalid input returns validation errors
• update works
• delete works
• missing model returns 404
• database state is correct
• redirect/view is correct

Database tests

Use RefreshDatabase when appropriate. Prefer factories. Do not rely on test execution order. Avoid slow full database truncation unless it is actually required.

Debug workflow

1. Reproduce.
2. Capture the exact error.
3. Identify the first meaningful stack trace.
4. Inspect source/config/database state.
5. Form a hypothesis.
6. Make the smallest fix.
7. Add a regression test.
8. Run the targeted test.
9. Run broader tests when practical.

Useful Laravel checks

Use only when relevant:

• php artisan test
• php artisan route:list
• php artisan about
• php artisan migrate:status
• php artisan optimize:clear
• php artisan view:clear
• php artisan cache:clear

Never use destructive reset commands against production.

Browser/UI diagnostics

Check console errors, failed requests, HTTP status codes, CSRF errors, form validation, broken links, responsive behavior, and asset loading.