Custom Helper Functions in Laravel 11 and 12

Laravel doesn't ship a dedicated helpers file, but adding your own global functions — a currency formatter, a slug generator, a shortcut you call in dozens of Blade views — is a common and supported pattern. The setup is the same in Laravel 11 and 12; only the surrounding app-structure files have changed from older tutorials, so version mismatches are the most common source of confusion here.

1. Create the helpers file

Create app/helpers.php (some projects use app/Support/helpers.php — either works, as long as the path below matches):

<?php

if (! function_exists('money')) {
    function money(int $cents, string $currency = 'USD'): string
    {
        return number_format($cents / 100, 2).' '.$currency;
    }
}

The function_exists guard matters more than it looks: without it, running the same helper file twice in a test suite or a package that also defines money() throws a fatal "cannot redeclare function" error.

2. Autoload it via composer.json

Add the file to the autoload.files array in composer.json:

"autoload": {
    "files": [
        "app/helpers.php"
    ],
    "psr-4": {
        "App\\": "app/"
    }
}

Then regenerate the autoloader:

composer dump-autoload

What changed from Laravel 8/9 tutorials

Older guides sometimes have you load the helper file from AppServiceProvider::register() with a manual require. That still works, but it's unnecessary — the Composer autoload.files approach is simpler, doesn't run on every service provider boot, and is what Laravel's own first-party packages use internally.

Using it

Once autoloaded, money() is available anywhere — controllers, Blade templates, Artisan commands, without an import:

{{ money($order->total_cents) }}

Common mistake

If the function isn't found after adding it, the fix is almost always composer dump-autoload — Composer only scans autoload.files entries when the autoloader is regenerated, not on every request in production (though in local development with APP_DEBUG enabled and Composer's file watcher, it often picks it up automatically).