In this paper, our purpose is to investigate the anisotropic stellar structure caused by [Formula: see text] modified gravity, where [Formula: see text] represents the Ricci scalar and [Formula: see text] represents the scalar potential. This study emphasizes the impact of static spherically symmetric stellar structures using anisotropic distribution. Furthermore, an anisotropic matter source is employed to explore the stability of star formations. To get the value of unknown parameters of the compact structures, we compare the Schwarzschild metric to external geometry. Moreover, we examine the physical attributes of compact objects by presuming a viable [Formula: see text] gravity model. We analyze the graphical behavior of density and pressure, the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkov equation, energy conditions, mass function, surface redshift, and adiabatic index. It is recognized that all the obtained results deliver emphatic evidence for the stability of our considered realistic stars.