What a feature test is for

01 Name it for the outcome

If the feature disappeared, this test would fail. That is the check that the test is aimed at the behaviour rather than at the framework.

it('issues an invoice for the signed-in team', function () {
    $user = User::factory()->create();

    $this->actingAs($user)
        ->post('/invoices', [
            'number' => 'INV-1042',
            'issued_on' => '2026-10-22',
        ])
        ->assertRedirect();
});

One test, one outcome. A second behaviour, such as “a guest is redirected to login”, is a second test. Mixing them makes a failure tell you less about what broke.

02 A guest is a second test

The signed-in test above never sees the login redirect. A guest test leaves actingAs() off and asserts the redirect Laravel’s auth middleware actually returns. It does not assert a saved invoice, because the interesting fact is that no invoice was written.

it('sends a guest to login', function () {
    $this->post('/invoices', [
        'number' => 'INV-1042',
        'issued_on' => '2026-10-22',
    ])->assertRedirect('/login');

    $this->assertDatabaseCount('invoices', 0);
});

If this test fails on the redirect, the route lost its middleware. If it fails on the count, the controller stored a row before the middleware ran. Those are different bugs, which is why they are not folded into the test that checks a team’s invoice number. A feature test that never makes an HTTP call is a unit test of a class. This series is about the request.