Laravel 13: PHP Attributes, AI SDK, and Native pgvector Support

Laravel 13 arrived on March 17, 2026, raising the PHP floor to 8.3 and shipping what the team calls “the most developer-experience-forward release since Laravel 5.5”. The three flagship features — PHP Attributes on models, a first-party AI SDK, and native vector search — are fully opt-in and backward-compatible. Upgrading from Laravel 12 is described as the smoothest major version bump in the framework's history.

>PHP 8.3 minimum

⚠ BREAKINGPHP 8.2 is no longer supported. Update your server and CI pipeline to PHP 8.3 before upgrading to Laravel 13.

bash

# Verify before upgrading
php --version   # must be >= 8.3

# composer.json
"require": {
  "php": "^8.3",
  "laravel/framework": "^13.0"
}

>PHP Attributes — declarative model configuration

Laravel 13 introduces first-party PHP 8 Attributes as an alternative to array-based model properties. They are entirely opt-in — existing code keeps working unchanged.

php

<?php

use IlluminateDatabaseEloquentAttributes{
    Table, Fillable, Hidden, Cast, ObservedBy, ScopedBy
};

#[Table('users', key: 'user_id', keyType: 'string', incrementing: false)]
#[Fillable(['name', 'email', 'avatar'])]
#[Hidden(['password', 'remember_token'])]
#[Cast('preferences', 'array')]
#[Cast('email_verified_at', 'datetime')]
#[ObservedBy([UserObserver::class])]
class User extends Model
{
    // No more $table, $fillable, $hidden, $casts arrays
}

// Attributes also work on Jobs, Commands, Listeners, Mailables
use IlluminateQueueAttributes{Queue, Connection, WithoutOverlapping};

#[Queue('payments')]
#[Connection('redis')]
#[WithoutOverlapping(expiresAt: 300, releaseOnSignal: true)]
class ProcessPayment implements ShouldQueue
{
    public function handle(): void { /* ... */ }
}

>Laravel AI SDK (first-party)

laravel/ai is a stable first-party package shipping with Laravel 13 starter kits. It provides a unified fluent API over OpenAI and Anthropic, covering text generation, tool-calling agents, embeddings, audio transcription, image generation and vector stores.

bash

composer require laravel/ai

php

<?php

use LaravelAIFacadesAI;

// Text generation
$response = AI::text('Summarise this invoice: ' . $invoice->text);

// Streaming
AI::text('Write a product description for: ' . $product->name)
    ->stream(fn (string $chunk) => print($chunk));

// Tool-calling agent
$result = AI::agent()
    ->tools([new SearchInventoryTool, new PriceCalculatorTool])
    ->run('What is the total price for 3 units of SKU-42?');

// Embeddings → pgvector
$vector = AI::embed('Best wineries in Napa Valley');
$docs   = Document::whereVectorSimilarTo('embedding', $vector)->limit(5)->get();

// Switch provider per call
AI::using('anthropic')->text('Classify this support ticket: ' . $ticket->body);

NOTEProvider credentials live in .env: OPENAI_API_KEY and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. The default provider is configured in config/ai.php.

>Native pgvector — semantic search

Laravel 13 ships first-party pgvector support via the query builder and Eloquent, no external packages required.

bash

# Migration
php artisan make:migration add_embedding_to_documents_table

php

<?php

// Migration
Schema::table('documents', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->vector('embedding', dimensions: 1536); // OpenAI ada-002
});

// Model cast
class Document extends Model
{
    #[Cast('embedding', 'vector')]
    // or via array: protected $casts = ['embedding' => 'vector'];
}

// Storing an embedding
$doc->embedding = AI::embed($doc->content);
$doc->save();

// Semantic search — cosine similarity (default)
$results = Document::whereVectorSimilarTo('embedding', 'climate change solutions')
    ->limit(10)
    ->get();

// Euclidean distance
$results = Document::whereVectorSimilarTo(
    'embedding',
    'climate change solutions',
    distance: 'euclidean',
)->get();

>Cache::touch()

Extends a cache entry's TTL without fetching or re-storing the value — a single atomic database operation.

php

// Before — two round-trips
$value = Cache::get('report:123');
Cache::put('report:123', $value, now()->addHours(2));

// Laravel 13 — one round-trip, value unchanged
Cache::touch('report:123', now()->addHours(2));

>Centralised Queue routing

php

<?php
// AppServiceProvider::boot()

use IlluminateSupportFacadesQueue;

Queue::route(ProcessPayment::class, connection: 'redis',    queue: 'payments');
Queue::route(SendInvoice::class,    connection: 'database', queue: 'mail');
Queue::route(GenerateReport::class, connection: 'sqs',      queue: 'reports');

// Overrides #[Queue] and #[Connection] attributes
// One place for all routing decisions

>Upgrade from Laravel 12

bash

# 1. Update PHP to 8.3+
# 2. Update composer.json
composer require laravel/framework:^13.0 --no-update

# 3. Run
composer update

# Laravel Shift for automated migration
# https://laravelshift.com/laravel-12-to-13-upgrade-guide

php artisan about          # confirms version 13.x
php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear

NOTEThe upgrade guide lists zero code-breaking changes in application code for the 12→13 path. All new APIs are additive and opt-in.