I'm writing something that is performing an eloquent query on a model called Enquiry. The actual query I want to run will be built up dynamically based on input parameters.

To create the basic starting point, I'd like to retrieve the "base" eloquent query builder (Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder) for my Enquiry model, e.g. the equivalent to SELECT * FROM enquiries.

I can't use Enquiry::all() since that actually runs the query, and I just want to return the builder, not run it.

Am I missing something?

        $enquiries = null; // I want to get the base builder here ....
        collect($keywords)->each(function($item) use (&$enquiries) {
            // So I can drop the first half of this "if" condition, and just "add" to the base
            if (!$enquiries) {
                $enquiries = Enquiry::whereHas('data', function($query) use ($item) {
                    $query->where('value', 'like', '%'.$item.'%');
                });
            } else {
                $enquiries->orWhereHas('data', function($query) use ($item) {
                    $query->where('value', 'like', '%'.$item.'%');
                });
            }
        });