This Week in Laravel: Passkeys, Linux Dev Tools, and Database Upserts

This Week in Laravel: Key Updates and Community Highlights

This week in the Laravel ecosystem brings exciting developments, from enhanced security features in starter kits to new tools for developers and performance optimizations for database operations. Here's a roundup of notable news and resources for the week of May 21, 2026.

Passkeys Integrated into Laravel Starter Kits

Laravel's commitment to modern security practices is evident with the recent integration of Passkeys into its starter kits and Fortify. This move aims to provide developers with a more secure and user-friendly authentication method, moving away from traditional passwords towards more robust biometric and hardware-based authentication.

"Herd" for Linux: A New Local Development Environment

For developers working on Linux, a new local PHP development environment called "Herd" has emerged. This open-source tool aims to simplify the setup and management of local PHP projects. It leverages technologies like Nginx and PHP within rootless Podman, offering automatic .test domains, HTTPS support, and a built-in web UI. Herd is designed for broad compatibility, with first-class support for Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Debian, and also runs on macOS via Homebrew.

Optimizing Database Upserts: Handling 1 Million Rows

Performance is always a critical concern, and a recent premium tutorial delves into efficient methods for performing UPSERT operations on large datasets. The guide compares five different approaches for upserting 1 million records into an existing database table across MySQL, SQLite, and PostgreSQL. It also benchmarks performance differences between a local MacBook Pro and a budget-friendly Laravel Forge server, providing valuable insights for optimizing database interactions.

Community and Package Updates

Several other community highlights and package updates are worth noting:

• Laravel Cloud Enhancements: Taylor Otwell announced significant updates coming to Laravel Cloud, including a new $5/month plan to increase accessibility and the introduction of spend caps for better cost management.
• Inertia.js Polling Features: Pascal updated Inertia.js with new polling features, including a usePoll() hook that offers more control over request behavior.
• Starter Kit Upgrade Tool: A new skill for Laravel Agent helps developers safely upgrade starter kits while preserving custom modifications.
• AI and Real-Time Features: A tutorial on Laravel News demonstrates how to build a real-time streaming chat UI with Livewire and Alpine.js, integrating AI-generated responses that stream word-by-word.
• PHP GitHub Action: The shivammathur/setup-php GitHub Action has been updated to v2.37.1, including crucial security fixes for input handling and Composer GitHub authentication.
• Livewire Honeypot Insights: An article shares findings from a Livewire honeypot, detailing its catches within the first 60 hours, including an encounter with the Livepyre tool.
• spatie/piper Utility Library: Freek Van der Herten released spatie/piper, a new utility library for PHP that brings Laravel's array helpers as standalone functions, designed for use with PHP 8.5's pipe operator.
• spatie/laravel-login-link Package: This free package allows for one-click login as any user type, simplifying testing and user role simulation.
• AI Skill Utilization: A guide explores how to use AI skills in client projects to accelerate development tasks, from generating Saloon request classes to Livewire components.
• Address and Location Package: A developer highlighted a Laravel package that simplifies working with addresses, locations, and proximity features.
• Interactive Installer Hooks: A pull request for the laravel/installer introduces post-create-project hooks for starter kits, allowing for interactive setup commands.
• custom-fresh Package: This package allows specifying tables to exclude during database refreshes.
• jkudish/plume: A Laravel client for the X (Twitter) API v2, offering typed DTOs and test fakes.

These updates reflect the continuous innovation and community-driven growth within the Laravel ecosystem, providing developers with more tools, better security, and improved performance.