Laravel's Invalid Route Action Error Explained

Invalid route action¶

If you're seeing an Invalid route action error when defining routes in Laravel, it means that the Controller you're using doesn't have a callable method or you haven't specified one.

Here's an example of when you'd see the Invalid route action error:

Route::get('/', HomeController::class);

If you create an empty HomeController like this, Laravel can't find an action (method) to invoke:

class HomeController extends Controller
{
    //
}

The solution is to use an __invoke magic method, or define and specify the method you want to call.

Here's how we'd do that with an invokable controller:

Route::get('/', HomeController::class);

And the controller:

class HomeController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke()
    {
        // Do something
    }
}

Another way to avoid seeing an Invalid route action error in Laravel is to use a controller method and specify it within the route:

Route::get('/', [HomeController::class, 'index']);

And here's the controller with the added index method:

class HomeController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        // Do something
    }
}

Target class does not exist¶

Another similar error you might see when defining routes and controllers in Laravel is the Target class [ControllerName] does not exist. error.

The solution to this is pretty simple. Either the controller doesn't exist, or you still need to import the namespace.

Let's take a look at our web.php route file in full:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', [HomeController::class, 'index']);

Even if the HomeController had a valid method, we'd see the Target class [HomeController] does not exist error because the namespace hasn't been imported (assuming it exists).

To fix this, just make sure you import the namespace correctly:

<?php

use App\Http\Controllers\HomeController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', [HomeController::class, 'index']);

So, those are two reasons why you might be seeing exceptions thrown when defining routes in your Laravel apps. I hope this helps!