Laravel Middleware Execution Order: Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

A technical explainer on DEV Community highlights how incorrect middleware execution order in Laravel can cause authentication failures, broken permission checks, and missing log data, even when the middleware code itself is error-free. Laravel processes each request through a layered sequence — global middleware, middleware groups, and route middleware — before it reaches the controller, making order critical. A common mistake is placing permission or logging middleware before authentication, causing the app to check permissions or capture user data before any user identity is established. In multi-tenant applications, running database-dependent middleware before tenant initialization can result in queries hitting the wrong database connection. Developers are advised to define middleware in the correct sequence, ensuring authentication runs first, followed by context-dependent layers like permissions, tenant setup, and logging.