REST API stack for Filament
4️⃣v4
Hi everyone 
I’m currently evaluating options for building a REST API alongside a Filament-based Laravel application and would appreciate some input from people who’ve solved this cleanly.
Context
This is not a public multi-tenant API — it’s a fairly controlled setup:
• 1 API client (for now)
• Static API key authentication
• 1 main endpoint: orders
• Required includes:
• customer_company
• customer_contact
• budgets
• Filtering
• Sorting
• Pagination
What I’ve tried
1. “API Package”
Initial setup was smooth and promising.
However:
• sort is giving me trouble in more complex cases
• include behavior doesn’t fully match my expectations (nested/controlled includes)
2. Spatie Query Builder (manual controllers)
This works reliably and is predictable.
But:
• Quite a bit of boilerplate
• Concern about long-term maintainability as the API grows
• Feels somewhat “manual” compared to more declarative approaches
I really like the architecture and philosophy behind API Platform.
However, it clearly leans towards Symfony, and the Laravel documentation feels a bit thin in certain areas — especially from the perspective of someone not deeply familiar with its ecosystem.
What I’m looking for
• Something that plays nicely with Filament (ideally not fighting the admin architecture)
• Clean include/filter/sort handling
• Minimal repetitive controller logic
• Reasonable long-term maintainability
Has anyone here successfully used Orion with Filament in a production setup?
Or would you recommend sticking with Spatie Query Builder and abstracting the boilerplate instead?
Curious to hear how others approach this in real-world Filament projects
I’m currently evaluating options for building a REST API alongside a Filament-based Laravel application and would appreciate some input from people who’ve solved this cleanly.
Context
This is not a public multi-tenant API — it’s a fairly controlled setup:
• 1 API client (for now)
• Static API key authentication
• 1 main endpoint: orders
• Required includes:
• customer_company
• customer_contact
• budgets
• Filtering
• Sorting
• Pagination
What I’ve tried
1. “API Package”
Initial setup was smooth and promising.
However:
• sort is giving me trouble in more complex cases
• include behavior doesn’t fully match my expectations (nested/controlled includes)
2. Spatie Query Builder (manual controllers)
This works reliably and is predictable.
But:
• Quite a bit of boilerplate
• Concern about long-term maintainability as the API grows
• Feels somewhat “manual” compared to more declarative approaches
I really like the architecture and philosophy behind API Platform.
However, it clearly leans towards Symfony, and the Laravel documentation feels a bit thin in certain areas — especially from the perspective of someone not deeply familiar with its ecosystem.
What I’m looking for
• Something that plays nicely with Filament (ideally not fighting the admin architecture)
• Clean include/filter/sort handling
• Minimal repetitive controller logic
• Reasonable long-term maintainability
Has anyone here successfully used Orion with Filament in a production setup?
Or would you recommend sticking with Spatie Query Builder and abstracting the boilerplate instead?
Curious to hear how others approach this in real-world Filament projects
