I decided to write a prompt so AI agent would research the market for useful Laravel/PHP packages suitable in a specific project, based on its existing codebase.
Here's the prompt:
Analyze this Laravel project code and suggest any third-party packages which would make this project better from these angles:
- Better UX and features that could be implemented in a better way for users
- Better developer experience with less manual/boilerplate/repeating code, using some package instead
- Better project maintainability for the future
Requirements for packages:
- Support current Laravel version of this project
- Actively maintained: at least one commit/PR/release in the last year
- Optional but preferred: minimum 100 GitHub stars
Use web search, social search, Reddit and elsewhere to get the recommendations.
Provide the list of package recommendations (max 10) with specific use cases, how those packages may be useful.
This is the result I got in one of my Laravel+Filament projects:
How You Can Improve This Prompt
Of course, every project is different, so here are a few ideas on customizing this prompt for your cases.
- Specify project domain/niche — "events/listings platform" gives much more targeted results than just "Laravel project". Add it explicitly.
- List what you already evaluated and rejected — prevents re-recommending packages you've already considered.
- Ask for alternatives — "suggest 2 options per category" surfaces trade-offs (e.g., artesaos/seotools vs ralphjsmit/laravel-seo).
- Ask for a "what to install first" priority order — forces ranking by impact rather than a flat list.
- Add a negative filter — "no Spatie-only suggestions" or "include packages beyond the Spatie ecosystem" ensures diversity.
And, of course, you can run the same prompt not only for Laravel/PHP projects: just change the language/framework and add some details about your tech-stack ecosystem and requirements.
