Target class controller does not exist - Laravel 8

 

"In previous releases of Laravel, the RouteServiceProvider contained a $namespace property. This property's value would automatically be prefixed onto controller route definitions and calls to the action helper / URL::action method. In Laravel 8.x, this property is null by default. This means that no automatic namespace prefixing will be done by Laravel." Laravel 8.x Docs - Release Notes

 

You would have to use the Fully Qualified Class Name for your Controllers when referring to them in your routes when not using the namespace prefixing.

use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;

Route::get('/users', [UserController::class, 'index']);
// or
Route::get('/users', 'App\Http\Controllers\UserController@index');