Middleware

Middleware sits between an incoming request and your application, acting as a filter that can inspect, modify, or reject a request before it reaches a controller (or modify the response on the way out). Common built-in examples include auth, throttle, and verified.

Generate a custom middleware with:

php artisan make:middleware EnsureUserIsSubscribed

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class EnsureUserIsSubscribed
{
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
    {
        if (! $request->user()?->subscribed()) {
            return redirect('/subscribe');
        }
        return $next($request);
    }
}

Since Laravel 11, middleware is registered centrally in bootstrap/app.php rather than a Kernel.php file:

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->alias([
        'subscribed' => \App\Http\Middleware\EnsureUserIsSubscribed::class,
    ]);
})

Apply it to a route with ->middleware('subscribed'), or to a whole group as shown in the routing chapter. Middleware can run before the request (validation, auth checks) or after it (modifying the response, logging), depending on where $next($request) is called relative to your logic.