I am trying to get a json only out for api routes in Laravel 11.

<?php

use AppHttpMiddlewareForceJsonResponse;
use IlluminateFoundationApplication;
use IlluminateFoundationConfigurationExceptions;
use IlluminateFoundationConfigurationMiddleware;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(
        web: __DIR__ . '/../routes/web.php',
        api: __DIR__ . '/../routes/api.php',
        commands: __DIR__ . '/../routes/console.php',
        health: '/up',
    )
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        $middleware->api(append: [
            ForceJsonResponse::class,
        ]);
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {

    })->create();

Just using append() works,

    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        $middleware->append([
            ForceJsonResponse::class,
        ]);
    })

This is applicable for all routes, which i dont want.

I would like to know why the $middleware->api(append: []); is not working.

I am trying to get json output for the api routes in Laravel.