What goes over the wire

A response can be written out by hand:

final class HomeResponse extends Response
{
    public function send(): array
    {
        return ['app' => 'The Quillstack Framework', 'version' => $this->version];
    }
}

That is fine for a fixed payload. It is a poor way to send an entity, because the list of fields is in a second place: rename a property and the response still compiles, still answers, and quietly stops carrying it. Add a column and nobody notices it is missing from the API until somebody asks.

Carry the object instead

use Quillstack\Framework\Http\Responses\SerializedResponse;

final class UserResponse extends SerializedResponse
{
}

That is the whole class. What may go over the wire is said on the entity, beside the field it belongs to:

#[Table('users')]
final class User
{
    public function __construct(
        #[Id, Exposed] public ?int $id = null,
        #[Column(unique: true), Exposed] public string $email = '',
        #[Column] public string $password = '',
    ) {
    }
}

return $this->response->with($user);

{"id": 1, "email": "ada@example.com"}

password is not there, and will not be there the day somebody adds a column beside it. A serializer that sends everything except a list of exclusions sends each new column on the day it is added, and says nothing about it.

Audiences

A response for particular readers names its groups and gets the fields marked for them, without anything else in the application knowing which those are:

final class AdminUserResponse extends SerializedResponse
{
    protected function groups(): array
    {
        return ['admin'];
    }
}

#[Column, Exposed(groups: ['admin'])] public string $note = '',

A list of them

with() takes one object or many:

return $this->response->with($users);

More: Serializer, Response.