Laravel Middleware: Route-Level, Groups & Ordering Pitfalls

Laravel middleware is where most "it works locally but not in production" routing bugs hide: a route that should require login but doesn't, a rate limit that counts the wrong user, a model that loads before the permission check that was supposed to guard it. Part 1 showed that web.php and api.php differ because of the middleware group wrapped around them, and Part 2 covered route model binding. This part covers how middleware is registered, how it is ordered, and the mistakes that come from getting either one wrong. Middleware is a layer a request passes through on the way to your controller,