Getting Started

Install with composer require <vendor>/<package> and confirm the version resolves to ^1.0.
Check composer.json for Laravel auto-discovery. If the service provider is not auto-discovered, register it in bootstrap/providers.php (Laravel 11+) or config/app.php.
Look first at README.md, CHANGELOG.md, and src/ for the main contract or entry point. Publish any package config with php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Vendor\\Package\\PackageServiceProvider".
First use case: resolve the package’s primary contract from the container and perform one minimal operation in php artisan tinker or a feature test. For HTTP-oriented packages, this is usually constructing a request, sending it, and inspecting the response.
Run php artisan config:clear after publishing config, then write a small smoke test before integrating into application code.

Implementation Patterns

Inject the package’s interfaces/contracts via constructor injection rather than resolving facades or using app() inside domain code. This keeps tests replaceable and upgrades contained.
Wrap package calls in your own application service or action class. Expose only the methods your app needs; this limits the blast radius of future package upgrades.
Use Laravel’s container bindings to swap implementations in tests: $this->app->instance(Contract::class, $fake) or bind a mock in a service provider.
Configure timeouts, retries, and base URIs through config/ and environment variables, not hard-coded in call sites.
For queued or retryable operations, pair the package with Laravel jobs and idempotency keys where supported. Log request/response metadata at the boundaries.
If the package exposes a manager or client factory, resolve it once per request/job and reuse it. Avoid rebuilding clients in loops.
Integrate with Laravel’s event system or logging channels for observability; wrap calls with Log::debug() or use Telescope when debugging locally.

1.0.0 removed php-http/message from composer.json. If your app or another dependency relied on it transitively (for example, PSR-7 message factories or HTTPlug discovery), add php-http/message explicitly to your own composer.json. Run composer why php-http/message and watch for Class not found errors after upgrading.
Because this is the first stable major release, pin ^1.0 and read the package CHANGELOG before future minor/major updates. The dependency removal is a signal to audit transitive HTTP dependencies.
If the package uses PSR-18/PSR-17, confirm a PSR-18 client and PSR-17 factories are installed in your app. Removing php-http/message can affect HTTPlug discovery in older setups.
Auto-discovery can be disabled in some environments. Verify provider registration after deployment, especially if you use composer install --no-dev or optimized autoloading.
Config caching: after changing package config, run php artisan config:clear locally and php artisan config:cache in production. Stale config is a common source of “it works locally” bugs.
Debugging: enable package-specific debug logging via config/env, and inspect container bindings with php artisan about or a small tinker snippet if resolution fails.
Extension points: check the service provider for bindings you can override. Prefer rebinding contracts in a custom provider over editing vendor files.