laravel make api controller return json not 404 page code example

Example: 404 json laravel

To do that, we need to add this logic to the app/Exceptions/Handler.php class:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\ModelNotFoundException;

// ...

public function render($request, Exception $exception)
{
    if ($exception instanceof ModelNotFoundException && $request->wantsJson()) {
        return response()->json(['message' => 'Not Found!'], 404);
    }

    return parent::render($request, $exception);
}