To access an instance of your app’s App\Http\Kernel class, you can use Laravel’s built in resolve() helper function:
<?php
$appKernel = resolve(\App\Http\Kernel::class);
I use this in a unit test to make sure a middleware is registered in the $routeMiddleware array of \App\Http\Kernel.
<?php
namespace Tests\Unit;
use App\Http\Kernel;
use App\Http\Middleware\SetLocale;
use Tests\TestCase;
class SetLocaleMiddlewareTest extends TestCase
{
/** @test */
public function it_is_correctly_registered_in_route_middleware_array_of_the_http_kernel()
{
$routeMiddleware = resolve(Kernel::class)->getRouteMiddleware();
$this->assertArrayHasKey('setLocale', $routeMiddleware);
// Assert it's pointing to the correct namespace
$this->assertEquals(SetLocale::class, $routeMiddleware['setLocale']);
}
}