some progress

app/Http/Middleware/GoatCounterMiddleware.php

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+<?php
+
+namespace App\Http\Middleware;
+
+use App\Services\GoatCounterService;
+use Closure;
+use Illuminate\Http\Request;
+
+class GoatCounterMiddleware
+{
+    protected GoatCounterService $goatCounter;
+
+    public function __construct(GoatCounterService $goatCounter)
+    {
+        $this->goatCounter = $goatCounter;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Handle an incoming request.
+     */
+    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
+    {
+        $response = $next($request);
+
+        // Only track "real" HTML page requests:
+        if (
+            $request->isMethod('GET') &&
+            !$request->ajax() &&
+            $this->isTrackable($request)
+        ) {
+            $this->goatCounter->trackPageview(
+                '/' . ltrim($request->path(), '/'),
+                $request->route()?->getName() ?? ucfirst(str_replace('/', ' ', $request->path())),
+                $request->headers->get('referer')
+            );
+        }
+
+        return $response;
+    }
+
+    protected function isTrackable(Request $request): bool
+    {
+        $path = $request->path();
+
+        // Ignore file extensions (css, js, images, fonts, etc.)
+        if (preg_match('/\.(css|js|png|jpe?g|gif|svg|ico|woff2?|ttf|map)$/i', $path)) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        // Optionally skip API routes
+        if ($request->is('api/*')) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        return true;
+    }
+}