Laravel 9 UI Auth Routes

I installed Laravel UI using this tutorial https://www.itsolutionstuff.com/post/laravel-9-authentication-using-breeze-tutorialexample.html

The login and register forms are there http://localhost:8000/login but after login if I go to my route (http://localhost:8000/api/categories) inside the middleware I am redirected to the home page. If I have the route outside the middleware it works but without requiring a login.

** Works ** (at least the ‘Category’ view shows)

    Route::controller(AppHttpControllersAPICategoryController::class)->group(function(){
        Route::get('categories', 'index')->name('categories.index')
    });

** Does Not work ** (redirects to home view)

Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth:api'], function(){
    Route::controller(AppHttpControllersAPICategoryController::class)->group(function(){
        Route::get('categories', 'index')->name('categories.index')
    });
});

** CategoryController**

<?php

namespace AppHttpControllersAPI;

use AppHttpControllersController;
use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use AppModelsCategory;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesAuth;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesLog;

class CategoryController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Display a listing of the resource.
     *
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function index()
    {
        $cat = $this->getCategories();
        return response()->json($cat);
    }

    /**
     * Show the form for creating a new resource.
     *
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function create()
    {
        $cat = $this->getCategories();
        return view('create-category',compact('cat'));
    }

    /**
     * Store a newly created resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  IlluminateHttpRequest  $request
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        return Auth::user();
        $category = Category::firstOrCreate(
            ['name' => $role_name],
            ['guard_name' => 'api']
        );
    }

    /**
     * Display the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function show($id)
    {
        $cat = $this->getCategories($id);
//        $cat = Category::where('id', $id)->get()->keyBy('id');
        return response()->json($cat);
    }

    /**
     * Show the form for editing the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function edit($id)
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Update the specified resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  IlluminateHttpRequest  $request
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function update(Request $request, $id)
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Remove the specified resource from storage.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return IlluminateHttpResponse
     */
    public function destroy($id)
    {
        //
    }

    public function getParentCategory($id) {
        $cat = Category::where('id', $id)->get()->keyBy('id');
        return $cat;
    }

    public function getChildCategory($id, $keyBy = null) {
//        return $keyBy;
        $cat = Category::where('parent_id', $id)->get()->keyBy('id');
        return $cat;
    }

    private function setKeyBy($collection, $name) {
        $collection = $collection->keyBy($name);
        return $collection;
    }

    public function getCategories($category_id = null) {
        $cat = Category::where('id', '>', 0);
        if(!is_null($category_id)) {
            $cat = $cat->where('id', $category_id)->get()->keyBy('id');
        } else {
            $cat = $cat->whereNull('parent_id')->get()->keyBy('id');

            foreach($cat as $catID=>$catArray) {
                $subCat = $this->getChildCategory($catID, 'id');
//                $subCat = $subCat->keyBy('id');
                if ($subCat->first()) {
                    $cat[$catID]['subcat'] = $subCat;
                }
            }
        }
        return $cat;
    }

    public function createCategoryForm() {
        $cat = $this->getCategories();
        return view('create-category',compact('cat'));
    }

    public function categoryDropown($child_id = null) {
        $cat = $this->getCategories();
    }

    public function categoryChildDropown($child_id) {
        $cat = Category::where('parent_id', $child_id)->get();
        return $cat;
    }
}

I have used Laravel for a while now but this is the first time creating an app from scratch with Auth. I do not know what I am missing. TIA