Laravel 13, released in March 2026, requires PHP 8.3 or newer and adds first-party JSON:API resources, enhanced request-forgery protection, central queue routing by job class, broader PHP attribute support, and Cache::touch for extending an existing cache item’s TTL.

The release also expands Laravel’s AI and semantic-search capabilities, including vector-query support and embedding-oriented workflows. Important examples of the new attribute support include controller middleware and authorization attributes plus job controls such as tries, backoff, timeout, and fail-on-timeout. Interview answers should frame these as tools to evaluate for a project, not mandatory replacements for existing working patterns.