Be careful when constructing your custom filtered queries using GET parameters

if (request()->has('since')) {
    // example.org/?since=
    // fails with illegal operator and value combination
    $query->whereDate('created_at', '<=', request('since'));
}
 
if (request()->input('name')) {
    // example.org/?name=0
    // fails to apply query filter because evaluates to false
    $query->where('name', request('name'));
}
 
if (request()->filled('key')) {
    // correct way to check if get parameter has value
}

Tip given by @mc0de