DTO-driven domain persistence layer for Laravel

iadicola/domain is a Laravel-oriented library that introduces a DTO-first approach to data persistence, making Data Transfer Objects the single source of truth for create, update, and upsert operations on Eloquent models.

Initial version: 0.1.0

Public API may evolve

The project is covered by unit tests based on PHPUnit.

To run the full test suite, simply execute:

composer test

• Centralize persistence logic using DTOs
• Avoid raw arrays in repositories and services
• Make create / update / upsert flows explicit
• Reduce tight coupling between application code and Eloquent models
• Improve readability, predictability, and testability

• Not an ORM
• Not a replacement for Eloquent
• Not a full DDD or Hexagonal Architecture framework
• Not responsible for validation or business logic

This library focuses only on DTO-driven persistence.

DTOs represent persistable data, not Eloquent models.

They:

• Expose only writable attributes
• Define unique keys via unique()
• Filter attributes according to the model fillable
• Act as the single source of truth for persistence

All DTOs must implement IDTO and extend BaseDTO.

Repositories never accept raw arrays.

The data flow is always explicit: DTO → Repository → Model

This prevents hidden mutations and unclear persistence behavior.

final class UserDTO extends BaseDTO
{
    public function __construct(
        ?int $id,
        public string $name,
        public string $email
    ) {
        parent::__construct($id);
    }

    public static function fromModel(Model $model): static
    {
        return new static(
            $model->id,
            $model->name,
            $model->email
        );
    }

    public function unique(): array
    {
        return ['email' => $this->email];
    }
}

$dto = UserDTO::fromModel($user);

$repository = new BaseDTORepository(new User());

$repository->update($dto);

$dto = UserDTO::fromModel($user);

$repository = new StatefulDTORepository(
    new BaseDTORepository(new User()),
    $dto
);

$repository->update();

use App\Model\User
$dto = UsetDTO::fromArray($request->all())->repo(new User)->create();