Laravel API Security in Depth: Sanctum Tokens, Granular Rate Limiting, and Multi-Version Routing

You've built the endpoints, wired up the controllers, and the happy path works. Then someone hammers your API with 10,000 requests in a minute, a client ships a breaking change to mobile users on v1, and a rogue token gives third-party access to everything it shouldn't. This is where most "RESTful API" tutorials stop — and where real API design begins. This article goes beyond the basics. We'll cover Laravel Sanctum token scopes, building genuinely useful rate limiting that doesn't punish legit