Building Token-Based Authentication in Laravel with Sanctum
How Laravel Sanctum works and how to use it to protect your APIs with personal access tokens
🛡️ How the API is Authenticate Using Sanctum
🧱 Installation & Setup
Step 1: Install Sanctum
composer require laravel/sanctum Step 2: Publish Sanctum config and migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sanctum\SanctumServiceProvider" php artisan migrate 👤 Authenticating via Token
1. Add HasApiTokens trait to your User model
2. Create API token for user
3. Use token in API requests
Send as Bearer Token in header:
🔒 Protecting Routes
Add auth:sanctum middleware to your routes:
🛑 Revoking Tokens
🧵 Wrapping Up
Laravel Sanctum provides a clean, simple, and secure way to handle API authentication without the complexity of OAuth. Whether you’re building an SPA, mobile app, or traditional API, Sanctum gives you the flexibility to authenticate users effectively. With token abilities, route protection, and easy token management, Sanctum should be part of your Laravel developer toolkit.
I hope you found this guide helpful and informative.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this article, feel free to share it and follow me for more practical, developer-friendly content like this.