"message": "Method Illuminate\\Auth\\SessionGuard::factory does not exist.",

## Understanding Route Guarding: Why Your API Routes Might Be Using Web Middleware in Laravel It is a very common point of confusion for developers working with Laravel, especially when dealing with API development. When you are specifically hitting routes defined in `routes/api.php`, you expect them to be handled by the lightweight, stateless nature of an API, but if you observe behavior that suggests "web guard" mechanisms are being applied, it usually points to a configuration issue within your middleware setup or route grouping. This issue is not necessarily a bug in Laravel itself, but rather how you have configured the application to handle incoming requests based on the routes they match. Understanding this distinction is crucial for building robust and secure APIs. ### The Root Cause: Middleware and Route Grouping In Laravel, route protection is managed by **middleware**. Middleware functions act as filters that process an HTTP request before it reaches the final controller logic. By default, if you are using standard web routes, they often fall under middleware groups designed for session management, CSRF protection, and cookie handling—this is what users commonly refer to as "web guard." When you access `routes/api.php`, Laravel needs to ensure that only API-appropriate middleware (like throttling or authentication checks) are applied, not the full set of web security checks. If your routes are somehow being processed by a group that includes web-specific middleware, you will experience this behavior, even if the route definition itself looks purely like an API call. ### How to Correctly Isolate API Routes The solution lies in explicitly defining and separating your web and API route groups within your `routes/web.php` and `routes/api.