Authorization
- Introduction
- Gates
- Creating Policies
- Writing Policies
- Authorizing Actions Using Policies
- Authorization & Inertia
Introduction
In addition to providing built-in authentication services, Laravel also provides a simple way to authorize user actions against a given resource. For example, even though a user is authenticated, they may not be authorized to update or delete certain Eloquent models or database records managed by your application. Laravel's authorization features provide an easy, organized way of managing these types of authorization checks.
Laravel provides two primary ways of authorizing actions: gates and policies. Think of gates and policies like routes and controllers. Gates provide a simple, closure-based approach to authorization while policies, like controllers, group logic around a particular model or resource. In this documentation, we'll explore gates first and then examine policies.
You do not need to choose between exclusively using gates or exclusively using policies when building an application. Most applications will most likely contain some mixture of gates and policies, and that is perfectly fine! Gates are most applicable to actions that are not related to any model or resource, such as viewing an administrator dashboard. In contrast, policies should be used when you wish to authorize an action for a particular model or resource.
Gates
Writing Gates
Gates are a great way to learn the basics of Laravel's authorization features; however, when building robust Laravel applications you should consider using policies to organize your authorization rules.
Gates are simply closures that determine if a user is authorized to perform a given action. Typically, gates are defined within the boot
method of the App\Providers\AppServiceProvider
class using the Gate
facade. Gates always receive a user instance as their first argument and may optionally receive additional arguments such as a relevant Eloquent model.
In this example, we'll define a gate to determine if a user can update a given App\Models\Post
model. The gate will accomplish this by comparing the user's id
against the user_id
of the user that created the post:
use App\Models\Post;use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; /** * Bootstrap any application services. */public function boot(): void{ Gate::define('update-post', function (User $user, Post $post) { return $user->id === $post->user_id; });}
Like controllers, gates may also be defined using a class callback array:
use App\Policies\PostPolicy;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; /** * Bootstrap any application services. */public function boot(): void{ Gate::define('update-post', [PostPolicy::class, 'update']);}
Authorizing Actions
To authorize an action using gates, you should use the allows
or denies
methods provided by the Gate
facade. Note that you are not required to pass the currently authenticated user to these methods. Laravel will automatically take care of passing the user into the gate closure. It is typical to call the gate authorization methods within your application's controllers before performing an action that requires authorization:
<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers; use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;use App\Models\Post;use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;use Illuminate\Http\Request;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; class PostController extends Controller{ /** * Update the given post. */ public function update(Request $request, Post $post): RedirectResponse { if (! Gate::allows('update-post', $post)) { abort(403); } // Update the post... return redirect('/posts'); }}
If you would like to determine if a user other than the currently authenticated user is authorized to perform an action, you may use the forUser
method on the Gate
facade:
if (Gate::forUser($user)->allows('update-post', $post)) { // The user can update the post...} if (Gate::forUser($user)->denies('update-post', $post)) { // The user can't update the post...}
You may authorize multiple actions at a time using the any
or none
methods:
if (Gate::any(['update-post', 'delete-post'], $post)) { // The user can update or delete the post...} if (Gate::none(['update-post', 'delete-post'], $post)) { // The user can't update or delete the post...}
Authorizing or Throwing Exceptions
If you would like to attempt to authorize an action and automatically throw an Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException
if the user is not allowed to perform the given action, you may use the Gate
facade's authorize
method. Instances of AuthorizationException
are automatically converted to a 403 HTTP response by Laravel:
Gate::authorize('update-post', $post); // The action is authorized...
Supplying Additional Context
The gate methods for authorizing abilities (allows
, denies
, check
, any
, none
, authorize
, can
, cannot
) and the authorization Blade directives (@can
, @cannot
, @canany
) can receive an array as their second argument. These array elements are passed as parameters to the gate closure, and can be used for additional context when making authorization decisions:
use App\Models\Category;use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::define('create-post', function (User $user, Category $category, bool $pinned) { if (! $user->canPublishToGroup($category->group)) { return false; } elseif ($pinned && ! $user->canPinPosts()) { return false; } return true;}); if (Gate::check('create-post', [$category, $pinned])) { // The user can create the post...}
Gate Responses
So far, we have only examined gates that return simple boolean values. However, sometimes you may wish to return a more detailed response, including an error message. To do so, you may return an Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response
from your gate:
use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::define('edit-settings', function (User $user) { return $user->isAdmin ? Response::allow() : Response::deny('You must be an administrator.');});
Even when you return an authorization response from your gate, the Gate::allows
method will still return a simple boolean value; however, you may use the Gate::inspect
method to get the full authorization response returned by the gate:
$response = Gate::inspect('edit-settings'); if ($response->allowed()) { // The action is authorized...} else { echo $response->message();}
When using the Gate::authorize
method, which throws an AuthorizationException
if the action is not authorized, the error message provided by the authorization response will be propagated to the HTTP response:
Gate::authorize('edit-settings'); // The action is authorized...
Customizing The HTTP Response Status
When an action is denied via a Gate, a 403
HTTP response is returned; however, it can sometimes be useful to return an alternative HTTP status code. You may customize the HTTP status code returned for a failed authorization check using the denyWithStatus
static constructor on the Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response
class:
use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::define('edit-settings', function (User $user) { return $user->isAdmin ? Response::allow() : Response::denyWithStatus(404);});
Because hiding resources via a 404
response is such a common pattern for web applications, the denyAsNotFound
method is offered for convenience:
use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::define('edit-settings', function (User $user) { return $user->isAdmin ? Response::allow() : Response::denyAsNotFound();});
Intercepting Gate Checks
Sometimes, you may wish to grant all abilities to a specific user. You may use the before
method to define a closure that is run before all other authorization checks:
use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::before(function (User $user, string $ability) { if ($user->isAdministrator()) { return true; }});
If the before
closure returns a non-null result that result will be considered the result of the authorization check.
You may use the after
method to define a closure to be executed after all other authorization checks:
use App\Models\User; Gate::after(function (User $user, string $ability, bool|null $result, mixed $arguments) { if ($user->isAdministrator()) { return true; }});
Similar to the before
method, if the after
closure returns a non-null result that result will be considered the result of the authorization check.
Inline Authorization
Occasionally, you may wish to determine if the currently authenticated user is authorized to perform a given action without writing a dedicated gate that corresponds to the action. Laravel allows you to perform these types of "inline" authorization checks via the Gate::allowIf
and Gate::denyIf
methods. Inline authorization does not execute any defined "before" or "after" authorization hooks:
use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::allowIf(fn (User $user) => $user->isAdministrator()); Gate::denyIf(fn (User $user) => $user->banned());
If the action is not authorized or if no user is currently authenticated, Laravel will automatically throw an Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException
exception. Instances of AuthorizationException
are automatically converted to a 403 HTTP response by Laravel's exception handler.
Creating Policies
Generating Policies
Policies are classes that organize authorization logic around a particular model or resource. For example, if your application is a blog, you may have an App\Models\Post
model and a corresponding App\Policies\PostPolicy
to authorize user actions such as creating or updating posts.
You may generate a policy using the make:policy
Artisan command. The generated policy will be placed in the app/Policies
directory. If this directory does not exist in your application, Laravel will create it for you:
php artisan make:policy PostPolicy
The make:policy
command will generate an empty policy class. If you would like to generate a class with example policy methods related to viewing, creating, updating, and deleting the resource, you may provide a --model
option when executing the command:
php artisan make:policy PostPolicy --model=Post
Registering Policies
Policy Discovery
By default, Laravel automatically discover policies as long as the model and policy follow standard Laravel naming conventions. Specifically, the policies must be in a Policies
directory at or above the directory that contains your models. So, for example, the models may be placed in the app/Models
directory while the policies may be placed in the app/Policies
directory. In this situation, Laravel will check for policies in app/Models/Policies
then app/Policies
. In addition, the policy name must match the model name and have a Policy
suffix. So, a User
model would correspond to a UserPolicy
policy class.
If you would like to define your own policy discovery logic, you may register a custom policy discovery callback using the Gate::guessPolicyNamesUsing
method. Typically, this method should be called from the boot
method of your application's AppServiceProvider
:
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; Gate::guessPolicyNamesUsing(function (string $modelClass) { // Return the name of the policy class for the given model...});
Manually Registering Policies
Using the Gate
facade, you may manually register policies and their corresponding models within the boot
method of your application's AppServiceProvider
:
use App\Models\Order;use App\Policies\OrderPolicy;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; /** * Bootstrap any application services. */public function boot(): void{ Gate::policy(Order::class, OrderPolicy::class);}
Writing Policies
Policy Methods
Once the policy class has been registered, you may add methods for each action it authorizes. For example, let's define an update
method on our PostPolicy
which determines if a given App\Models\User
can update a given App\Models\Post
instance.
The update
method will receive a User
and a Post
instance as its arguments, and should return true
or false
indicating whether the user is authorized to update the given Post
. So, in this example, we will verify that the user's id
matches the user_id
on the post:
<?php namespace App\Policies; use App\Models\Post;use App\Models\User; class PostPolicy{ /** * Determine if the given post can be updated by the user. */ public function update(User $user, Post $post): bool { return $user->id === $post->user_id; }}
You may continue to define additional methods on the policy as needed for the various actions it authorizes. For example, you might define view
or delete
methods to authorize various Post
related actions, but remember you are free to give your policy methods any name you like.
If you used the --model
option when generating your policy via the Artisan console, it will already contain methods for the viewAny
, view
, create
, update
, delete
, restore
, and forceDelete
actions.
All policies are resolved via the Laravel service container, allowing you to type-hint any needed dependencies in the policy's constructor to have them automatically injected.
Policy Responses
So far, we have only examined policy methods that return simple boolean values. However, sometimes you may wish to return a more detailed response, including an error message. To do so, you may return an Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response
instance from your policy method:
use App\Models\Post;use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response; /** * Determine if the given post can be updated by the user. */public function update(User $user, Post $post): Response{ return $user->id === $post->user_id ? Response::allow() : Response::deny('You do not own this post.');}
When returning an authorization response from your policy, the Gate::allows
method will still return a simple boolean value; however, you may use the Gate::inspect
method to get the full authorization response returned by the gate:
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; $response = Gate::inspect('update', $post); if ($response->allowed()) { // The action is authorized...} else { echo $response->message();}
When using the Gate::authorize
method, which throws an AuthorizationException
if the action is not authorized, the error message provided by the authorization response will be propagated to the HTTP response:
Gate::authorize('update', $post); // The action is authorized...
Customizing the HTTP Response Status
When an action is denied via a policy method, a 403
HTTP response is returned; however, it can sometimes be useful to return an alternative HTTP status code. You may customize the HTTP status code returned for a failed authorization check using the denyWithStatus
static constructor on the Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response
class:
use App\Models\Post;use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response; /** * Determine if the given post can be updated by the user. */public function update(User $user, Post $post): Response{ return $user->id === $post->user_id ? Response::allow() : Response::denyWithStatus(404);}
Because hiding resources via a 404
response is such a common pattern for web applications, the denyAsNotFound
method is offered for convenience:
use App\Models\Post;use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Auth\Access\Response; /** * Determine if the given post can be updated by the user. */public function update(User $user, Post $post): Response{ return $user->id === $post->user_id ? Response::allow() : Response::denyAsNotFound();}
Methods Without Models
Some policy methods only receive an instance of the currently authenticated user. This situation is most common when authorizing create
actions. For example, if you are creating a blog, you may wish to determine if a user is authorized to create any posts at all. In these situations, your policy method should only expect to receive a user instance:
/** * Determine if the given user can create posts. */public function create(User $user): bool{ return $user->role == 'writer';}
Guest Users
By default, all gates and policies automatically return false
if the incoming HTTP request was not initiated by an authenticated user. However, you may allow these authorization checks to pass through to your gates and policies by declaring an "optional" type-hint or supplying a null
default value for the user argument definition:
<?php namespace App\Policies; use App\Models\Post;use App\Models\User; class PostPolicy{ /** * Determine if the given post can be updated by the user. */ public function update(?User $user, Post $post): bool { return $user?->id === $post->user_id; }}
Policy Filters
For certain users, you may wish to authorize all actions within a given policy. To accomplish this, define a before
method on the policy. The before
method will be executed before any other methods on the policy, giving you an opportunity to authorize the action before the intended policy method is actually called. This feature is most commonly used for authorizing application administrators to perform any action:
use App\Models\User; /** * Perform pre-authorization checks. */public function before(User $user, string $ability): bool|null{ if ($user->isAdministrator()) { return true; } return null;}
If you would like to deny all authorization checks for a particular type of user then you may return false
from the before
method. If null
is returned, the authorization check will fall through to the policy method.
The before
method of a policy class will not be called if the class doesn't contain a method with a name matching the name of the ability being checked.
Authorizing Actions Using Policies
Via the User Model
The App\Models\User
model that is included with your Laravel application includes two helpful methods for authorizing actions: can
and cannot
. The can
and cannot
methods receive the name of the action you wish to authorize and the relevant model. For example, let's determine if a user is authorized to update a given App\Models\Post
model. Typically, this will be done within a controller method:
<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers; use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;use App\Models\Post;use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;use Illuminate\Http\Request; class PostController extends Controller{ /** * Update the given post. */ public function update(Request $request, Post $post): RedirectResponse { if ($request->user()->cannot('update', $post)) { abort(403); } // Update the post... return redirect('/posts'); }}
If a policy is registered for the given model, the can
method will automatically call the appropriate policy and return the boolean result. If no policy is registered for the model, the can
method will attempt to call the closure-based Gate matching the given action name.
Actions That Don't Require Models
Remember, some actions may correspond to policy methods like create
that do not require a model instance. In these situations, you may pass a class name to the can
method. The class name will be used to determine which policy to use when authorizing the action:
<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers; use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;use App\Models\Post;use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;use Illuminate\Http\Request; class PostController extends Controller{ /** * Create a post. */ public function store(Request $request): RedirectResponse { if ($request->user()->cannot('create', Post::class)) { abort(403); } // Create the post... return redirect('/posts'); }}
Via the Gate
Facade
In addition to helpful methods provided to the App\Models\User
model, you can always authorize actions via the Gate
facade's authorize
method.
Like the can
method, this method accepts the name of the action you wish to authorize and the relevant model. If the action is not authorized, the authorize
method will throw an Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException
exception which the Laravel exception handler will automatically convert to an HTTP response with a 403 status code:
<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers; use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;use App\Models\Post;use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;use Illuminate\Http\Request;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; class PostController extends Controller{ /** * Update the given blog post. * * @throws \Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException */ public function update(Request $request, Post $post): RedirectResponse { Gate::authorize('update', $post); // The current user can update the blog post... return redirect('/posts'); }}
Actions That Don't Require Models
As previously discussed, some policy methods like create
do not require a model instance. In these situations, you should pass a class name to the authorize
method. The class name will be used to determine which policy to use when authorizing the action:
use App\Models\Post;use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;use Illuminate\Http\Request;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate; /** * Create a new blog post. * * @throws \Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException */public function create(Request $request): RedirectResponse{ Gate::authorize('create', Post::class); // The current user can create blog posts... return redirect('/posts');}
Via Middleware
Laravel includes a middleware that can authorize actions before the incoming request even reaches your routes or controllers. By default, the Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\Authorize
middleware may be attached to a route using the can
middleware alias, which is automatically registered by Laravel. Let's explore an example of using the can
middleware to authorize that a user can update a post:
use App\Models\Post; Route::put('/post/{post}', function (Post $post) { // The current user may update the post...})->middleware('can:update,post');
In this example, we're passing the can
middleware two arguments. The first is the name of the action we wish to authorize and the second is the route parameter we wish to pass to the policy method. In this case, since we are using implicit model binding, an App\Models\Post
model will be passed to the policy method. If the user is not authorized to perform the given action, an HTTP response with a 403 status code will be returned by the middleware.
For convenience, you may also attach the can
middleware to your route using the can
method:
use App\Models\Post; Route::put('/post/{post}', function (Post $post) { // The current user may update the post...})->can('update', 'post');
Actions That Don't Require Models
Again, some policy methods like create
do not require a model instance. In these situations, you may pass a class name to the middleware. The class name will be used to determine which policy to use when authorizing the action:
Route::post('/post', function () { // The current user may create posts...})->middleware('can:create,App\Models\Post');
Specifying the entire class name within a string middleware definition can become cumbersome. For that reason, you may choose to attach the can
middleware to your route using the can
method:
use App\Models\Post; Route::post('/post', function () { // The current user may create posts...})->can('create', Post::class);
Via Blade Templates
When writing Blade templates, you may wish to display a portion of the page only if the user is authorized to perform a given action. For example, you may wish to show an update form for a blog post only if the user can actually update the post. In this situation, you may use the @can
and @cannot
directives:
@can('update', $post) <!-- The current user can update the post... -->@elsecan('create', App\Models\Post::class) <!-- The current user can create new posts... -->@else <!-- ... -->@endcan @cannot('update', $post) <!-- The current user cannot update the post... -->@elsecannot('create', App\Models\Post::class) <!-- The current user cannot create new posts... -->@endcannot
These directives are convenient shortcuts for writing @if
and @unless
statements. The @can
and @cannot
statements above are equivalent to the following statements:
@if (Auth::user()->can('update', $post)) <!-- The current user can update the post... -->@endif @unless (Auth::user()->can('update', $post)) <!-- The current user cannot update the post... -->@endunless
You may also determine if a user is authorized to perform any action from a given array of actions. To accomplish this, use the @canany
directive:
@canany(['update', 'view', 'delete'], $post) <!-- The current user can update, view, or delete the post... -->@elsecanany(['create'], \App\Models\Post::class) <!-- The current user can create a post... -->@endcanany
Actions That Don't Require Models
Like most of the other authorization methods, you may pass a class name to the @can
and @cannot
directives if the action does not require a model instance:
@can('create', App\Models\Post::class) <!-- The current user can create posts... -->@endcan @cannot('create', App\Models\Post::class) <!-- The current user can't create posts... -->@endcannot
Supplying Additional Context
When authorizing actions using policies, you may pass an array as the second argument to the various authorization functions and helpers. The first element in the array will be used to determine which policy should be invoked, while the rest of the array elements are passed as parameters to the policy method and can be used for additional context when making authorization decisions. For example, consider the following PostPolicy
method definition which contains an additional $category
parameter:
/** * Determine if the given post can be updated by the user. */public function update(User $user, Post $post, int $category): bool{ return $user->id === $post->user_id && $user->canUpdateCategory($category);}
When attempting to determine if the authenticated user can update a given post, we can invoke this policy method like so:
/** * Update the given blog post. * * @throws \Illuminate\Auth\Access\AuthorizationException */public function update(Request $request, Post $post): RedirectResponse{ Gate::authorize('update', [$post, $request->category]); // The current user can update the blog post... return redirect('/posts');}
Authorization & Inertia
Although authorization must always be handled on the server, it can often be convenient to provide your frontend application with authorization data in order to properly render your application's UI. Laravel does not define a required convention for exposing authorization information to an Inertia powered frontend.
However, if you are using one of Laravel's Inertia-based starter kits, your application already contains a HandleInertiaRequests
middleware. Within this middleware's share
method, you may return shared data that will be provided to all Inertia pages in your application. This shared data can serve as a convenient location to define authorization information for the user:
<?php namespace App\Http\Middleware; use App\Models\Post;use Illuminate\Http\Request;use Inertia\Middleware; class HandleInertiaRequests extends Middleware{ // ... /** * Define the props that are shared by default. * * @return array<string, mixed> */ public function share(Request $request) { return [ ...parent::share($request), 'auth' => [ 'user' => $request->user(), 'permissions' => [ 'post' => [ 'create' => $request->user()->can('create', Post::class), ], ], ], ]; }}