What are Form Requests in Laravel?

Form Requests are dedicated classes that encapsulate validation and authorization logic, keeping controllers clean. Generate: php artisan make:request StorePostRequest. The class has two methods: authorize() (return true/false — can this user perform this action?) and rules() (return validation rules array). Type-hint the Form Request in your controller method: public function store(StorePostRequest $request) — Laravel automatically validates and authorizes before the method is called. If authorization fails, a 403 response is returned. If validation fails, the user is redirected back with errors. Access validated data with $request->validated() — only returns data that passed validation, never extra fields. Add custom messages with messages() method.