How to Alias Middleware in Laravel 11

Pretty much everything you'd usually do within the Kernel class has now been moved over to bootstrap/app.php. It's not so obvious now, but it leaves your app feeling lighter with less boilerplate code.

How to alias middleware¶

Opening up bootstrap/app.php, you'll notice a withMiddleware method call. Here's what it looks like by default:

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    //       
})

Inside the withMiddleware callback, call the alias method on the Middleware object that's passed in.

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->alias([
        'subscribed' => RedirectIfNotSubscribed::class
    ]);
})

Since this is an array, you can add as many aliases as required.

Use the alias¶

You can now use the alias anywhere in your routes or controllers.

Route::get('/protected', ProtectedController::class)
    ->middleware(['auth', 'subscribed'])
    ->name('protected');

Nice and easy. Although the change from Kernel may initially feel strange, I'm sure you appreciate how much cleaner it is to register aliases for your middleware now.