Laravel Routes: Split into Separate Files - 2 Ways

As your application grows, route files can become large and hard to maintain. We can split them into separate smaller files. Let's see how to do it.

Option 1: Require/Include Files in routes/web.php

Let's say we have such Controller.

app/Http/Controllers/Account/AccountController.php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\Account;
 
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
 
class AccountController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return 'account overview';
    }
}

Then we can create separate route file for managing user accounts. We can group all routes to encapsulate them with prefixes and middleware.

routes/user/account.php

use App\Http\Controllers\Account\AccountController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
 
Route::group([
    'prefix'     => 'account',
    'as'         => 'account.',
    'middleware' => 'auth',
], function () {
    Route::get('overview', [AccountController::class, 'index'])
        ->name('overview');
});

And include it in the main web.php routes file.

routes/web.php

// ... other routes
 
require __DIR__ . '/user/account.php';

You should see the "account overview" text after visiting the /account/overview path. Laravel Breeze uses this method.

Option 2:

If you need to add only one route file, it can be done in the bootstrap/app.php file within the withRouting() methods then parameter.

bootstrap/app.php:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
 
->withRouting(
    web: __DIR__.'/../routes/web.php',
    commands: __DIR__.'/../routes/console.php',
    health: '/up',
    then: function () {
        Route::middleware('web')
            ->group(base_path('routes/admin/panel.php'));
    },
)

You can also control the whole route registration in the using parameter.

bootstrap/app.php:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
 
->withRouting(
    commands: __DIR__.'/../routes/console.php',
    using: function () {
        Route::middleware('web')
            ->group(base_path('routes/web.php'));
 
        Route::middleware('web')
            ->group(base_path('routes/user/account.php'));
 
        Route::middleware('web')
            ->group(base_path('routes/admin/panel.php'));
    },
)

Option 2.1: Load Routes in RouteServiceProvider

NOTICE: This option is for Laravel 10 and below.

Another option is to load them in the RouteServiceProvider. Let's make a simple Controller real quick.

app/Http/Controllers/Admin/PanelController.php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\Admin;
 
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
 
class PanelController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return 'panel dashboard';
    }
}

And define the route in the new file. Note the are no groups.

routes/admin/panel.php

use App\Http\Controllers\Admin\PanelController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
 
Route::get('/', [PanelController::class, 'index']);

It is up to you where you want to apply prefixes and middleware to routes. This time we will do it in the RouteServiceProvider.

app/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php

public function boot(): void
{
    // ...
 
    $this->routes(function () {
        Route::middleware('api')
            ->prefix('api')
            ->group(base_path('routes/api.php'));
 
        Route::middleware('web')
            ->group(base_path('routes/web.php'));
 
        Route::middleware(['web', 'auth'])
            ->prefix('admin')
            ->group(base_path('routes/admin/panel.php'));
    });
}

As you can see, we're just repeating the same way as default web.php and api.php route files are registered.