Welcome to the Prisma ORM Workshop. Here's how to get the most out of this course.

What You'll Build

By the end of this course, you'll have a production-grade Laravel API using Prisma ORM with:

• Clean API resource transformations

• Proper authorization via Laravel Policies

• Optimized database queries with Prisma's query engine

• Full test coverage and CI/CD pipeline

Before You Start

Prerequisites:

• PHP 8.1+ and Composer installed

• Node.js 18+ (Prisma runs on Node)

• A PostgreSQL database (local or cloud — I recommend Neon for free hosted Postgres)

• Basic Laravel knowledge (routes, controllers, models)

Recommended Setup:

• VS Code with the Prisma extension

• Laravel Herd or Valet for local development

• TablePlus or pgAdmin for database inspection

How the Course Works

The course has 6 modules with 13 lessons, designed to be completed in order. Each lesson includes:

• Concept explanation with real-world context

• Code examples you can copy and run

• Exercises to cement your understanding

Estimated completion time: 2-3 weeks at 1 hour/day.

Get Help

Drop questions in the Community Chat — I respond daily. Tag your posts with the module number so I can give targeted help.

Let's build something production-grade. Start with Module 1 → Lesson 1.

Laravel's Eloquent is great for simple CRUD. But once your API hits real complexity — nested eager loading, polymorphic relations, multi-tenant scoping — you start fighting the ORM instead of building features.

Here's a concrete example of where Prisma pulls ahead.

The Problem: Nested API Resource with Authorization

You need an endpoint that returns a user's orders with line items, product details, and shipping status — but only orders the authenticated user is authorized to see.

Eloquent approach:

// You end up with N+1 problems or overly complex eager loading
$orders = Order::with(['lineItems.product', 'shipping'])
    ->where('user_id', auth()->id())
    ->get();

// Then in your Resource class, you're still manually checking policies:
return new OrderCollection($orders);
// But what about product-level visibility? Shipping address privacy?
// You end up with logic scattered across Resources, Policies, and Scopes.

Prisma approach:

const orders = await prisma.order.findMany({
  where: { userId: authenticatedUser.id },
  include: {
    lineItems: {
      include: {
        product: { select: { id: true, name: true, price: true } }
      }
    },
    shipping: { select: { status: true, estimatedDelivery: true } }
  }
});

Prisma's select and include give you field-level control at the query layer. You're not fetching full models and then hiding fields in a Resource class — you're only pulling what the consumer should see from the database.

The Real Win: Type Safety Across Your API

When you change your Prisma schema, prisma generate updates the TypeScript types. Your IDE immediately flags every broken query, every missing field, every invalid relation.

With Eloquent, you rename a column and pray your Resource classes, Policy methods, and Form Requests all get updated. There's no compile-time safety net.

When to Use This Stack

This isn't about replacing Laravel entirely. The sweet spot:

• Laravel handles routing, middleware, authentication, validation

• Prisma handles data access, schema management, migrations

• Laravel API Resources handle response transformation

• Laravel Policies handle authorization logic

You get Laravel's mature ecosystem with Prisma's developer experience.

I teach this exact stack in my course — 6 modules, 13 lessons, all hands-on with real code. If you've been frustrated by Eloquent at scale, this is the alternative.