Model Pruning to Auto-Clean Old Records

Laravel Tip: Use “Model Pruning” to Auto-Clean Old Records

It lets you automatically delete stale or unnecessary rows from your database — no need for custom cleanup jobs.

How It Works:

Add Prunable to a model:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Prunable;
class ActivityLog extends Model
{
    use Prunable;
    public function prunable()
    {
        // Delete logs older than 30 days
        return static::where('created_at', '<=', now()->subDays(30));
    }
}

Run the Command

php artisan model:prune

Automate with Scheduler

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;
Schedule::command('model:prune')->daily();

Why It’s Special

• Keeps DB lean & fast without manual cleanup
• Works on any model (logs, notifications, tokens, drafts)
• Almost nobody uses it (hidden gem!)