<?php

return [

    /* ... */

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Authentication Guards
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Next, you may define every authentication guard for your application.
    | Of course, a great default configuration has been defined for you
    | here which uses session storage and the Eloquent user provider.
    |
    | All authentication drivers have a user provider. This defines how the
    | users are actually retrieved out of your database or other storage
    | mechanisms used by this application to persist your user's data.
    |
    | Supported: "session", "token"
    |
    */

    'guards' => [
        'web' => [
            'driver' => 'null', // Use NullGuard for "web"
            'provider' => 'users',
        ],

        'api' => [
            'driver' => 'token',
            'provider' => 'users',
            'hash' => false,
        ],
    ],

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | User Providers
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | All authentication drivers have a user provider. This defines how the
    | users are actually retrieved out of your database or other storage
    | mechanisms used by this application to persist your user's data.
    |
    | If you have multiple user tables or models you may configure multiple
    | sources which represent each model / table. These sources may then
    | be assigned to any extra authentication guards you have defined.
    |
    | Supported: "database", "eloquent"
    |
    */

    'providers' => [
        'users' => [
            'driver' => 'null', // Use NullUserProvider for "users"
        ],
        
        // 'users' => [
        //     'driver' => 'eloquent',
        //     'model' => App\User::class,
        // ],

        // 'users' => [
        //     'driver' => 'database',
        //     'table' => 'users',
        // ],
    ],

    /* ... */
];

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Mpyw\NullAuth\NullAuthenticatable;

class User extends Model implements Authenticatable
{
    use NullAuthenticatable;
}

<?php

$user = User::find(1);

// Minimal implementation for Authenticatable
var_dump($user->getAuthIdentifierName()); // string(2) "id"
var_dump($user->getAuthIdentifier());     // int(1)

// Useless implementation for Authenticatable when we don't use StatefulGuard
var_dump($user->getAuthPassword());       // string(0) ""
var_dump($user->getRememberTokenName());  // string(0) ""
var_dump($user->getRememberToken());      // string(0) ""
$user->setRememberToken('...');           // Does nothing

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use App\User;
use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Example\API\Authentication\Client;

class AuthenticateThroughExternalAPI
{
    /**
     * @var \Example\API\Authentication\Client
     */
    protected $client;

    /**
     * @param \Example\API\Authentication\Client $client
     */
    public function __construct(Client $client)
    {
        $this->client = $client;
    }

    /**
     * @param \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
     * @param \Closure $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
    {
        // Return user_id on success, throw AuthenticationException on failure
        $userId = $this->client->authenticate($request->input('token'));

        // Return User on success, throw ModelNotFoundException on failure
        $user = User::findOrFail($userId);

        Auth::setUser($user);

        return $next($request);
    }
}