The Root Directory

The App Directory

The app directory contains the core code of your application. We'll explore this directory in more detail soon; however, almost all of the classes in your application will be in this directory.

The bootstrap directory contains the app.php file which bootstraps the framework. This directory also houses a cache directory which contains framework generated files for performance optimization such as the route and services cache files.

The Config Directory

The config directory, as the name implies, contains all of your application's configuration files. It's a great idea to read through all of these files and familiarize yourself with all of the options available to you.

The Database Directory

The database directory contains your database migrations, model factories, and seeds. If you wish, you may also use this directory to hold an SQLite database.

The Public Directory

The public directory contains the index.php file, which is the entry point for all requests entering your application and configures autoloading. This directory also houses your assets such as images, JavaScript, and CSS.

The Resources Directory

The resources directory contains your views as well as your raw, un-compiled assets such as LESS, SASS, or JavaScript. This directory also houses all of your language files.

The Routes Directory

The routes directory contains all of the route definitions for your application. By default, several route files are included with Laravel: web.php, api.php, console.php and channels.php.

The web.php file contains routes that the RouteServiceProvider places in the web middleware group, which provides session state, CSRF protection, and cookie encryption. If your application does not offer a stateless, RESTful API, all of your routes will most likely be defined in the web.php file.

The api.php file contains routes that the RouteServiceProvider places in the api middleware group, which provides rate limiting. These routes are intended to be stateless, so requests entering the application through these routes are intended to be authenticated via tokens and will not have access to session state.

The console.php file is where you may define all of your Closure based console commands. Each Closure is bound to a command instance allowing a simple approach to interacting with each command's IO methods. Even though this file does not define HTTP routes, it defines console based entry points (routes) into your application.

The channels.php file is where you may register all of the event broadcasting channels that your application supports.