Laravel Factory Scaffold Skill

Use this skill when defining test data generators for Models.

Conventions

1. Sensible Faker Data

• Use $this->faker methods that match the column type contextually.
• Email: safeEmail() (never real emails).
• Text: paragraph() or sentence() depending on length.
• Enums: fake()->randomElement(Enum::cases()).

2. State Methods

• Create state methods for every boolean flag or status enum in the model.
• This makes tests readable: User::factory()->active()->admin()->create().

public function admin(): static
{
    return $this->state(fn (array $attributes) => [
        'role' => UserRole::Admin,
    ]);
}

public function suspended(): static
{
    return $this->state(fn (array $attributes) => [
        'suspended_at' => now(),
    ]);
}

3. Relationships

• For “BelongsTo” relationships, create the parent factory by default in the definition.

'user_id' => User::factory(),