README

Let a Laravel package register its own database seeders and have them run
as part of the normal db:seed command, with no changes to the host application.

Requirements
Installation
Quick Start
How It Works
Artisan Commands
Console Output
Translations
Laravel Support
Upgrading
Testing
Credits
License

Requirements

PHP 8.2 or newer
Laravel 9 through 13

Installation

composer require jeremykenedy/laravel-seedster

The service provider is auto discovered. There is nothing to register and no configuration file to publish.

Quick Start

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Mypackage\Database\Seeders\PostsTableSeeder;
use Mypackage\Database\Seeders\UsersTableSeeder;

class MypackageServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function register(): void
    {
        $this->app['seed.handler']->register(UsersTableSeeder::class);

        // Or register several at once.
        $this->app['seed.handler']->register([
            UsersTableSeeder::class,
            PostsTableSeeder::class,
        ]);
    }
}

That is the whole API. The host application keeps running php artisan db:seed exactly as before, and your seeders run with it.

If your package should work with or without Seedster installed, hook the binding instead of requiring it:

$this->app->afterResolving('seed.handler', function ($handler): void {
    $handler->register(UsersTableSeeder::class);
});

The callback never fires when Seedster is absent, so the package stays installable on its own.

How It Works

Seedster binds a seed.handler singleton that holds a collection of seeder class names, and replaces the framework db:seed command with a subclass of it.

When db:seed runs, the replacement resolves the root seeder the way Laravel always has, then wraps it so the registered seeders run first:

Every registered seeder runs, in the order it was registered.
The root seeder runs last. That is the class argument, the --class option, or Database\Seeders\DatabaseSeeder by default.

Because the command is a subclass of Illuminate\Database\Console\Seeds\SeedCommand, everything the framework command does still applies: the production confirmation, the --force bypass, unguarded models during seeding, and restoring the previous default connection after seeding a different one.

One framework caveat carries through with it. Only Laravel 13 restores that connection when a seeder throws; on Laravel 9 through 12 the restore sits after the call rather than in a finally, so a failed seed leaves --database in effect for the rest of the process. That is how db:seed behaves on those versions with or without this package.

When no package has registered anything, db:seed behaves exactly like the framework command.

Artisan Commands

Seedster adds no commands of its own. It extends the one Laravel already ships.

Command	Description
`db:seed`	Seed the database with records. Runs registered package seeders, then the root seeder.

Argument or option	Description
`class`	The class name of the root seeder.
`--class`	The class name of the root seeder. Defaults to `Database\Seeders\DatabaseSeeder`.
`--database`	The database connection to seed.
`--force`	Force the operation to run when in production.

A seeder registered by its short name resolves out of the application seeder namespace, matching how db:seed treats a bare class value.

Console Output

Registered seeders report through the standard Laravel seeder output, with a line naming how many came from packages:

   INFO  Seeding database.

   INFO  Running 2 registered package seeders.

  Mypackage\Database\Seeders\UsersTableSeeder ................. RUNNING
  Mypackage\Database\Seeders\UsersTableSeeder ................ 4 ms DONE

  Mypackage\Database\Seeders\PostsTableSeeder ................. RUNNING
  Mypackage\Database\Seeders\PostsTableSeeder ................ 2 ms DONE

  Database\Seeders\DatabaseSeeder ............................ RUNNING
  Database\Seeders\DatabaseSeeder ........................... 1 ms DONE

Every seeder that runs is named, the root one included. When nothing is registered the output is byte for byte what the framework prints.

Translations

The announcement line is translatable. Publish the language file to override it:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=seedster-lang

The file lands in lang/vendor/seedster/en/seedster.php.

Laravel Support

Laravel	Supported	Built in CI
13	Yes	Yes
12	Yes	Yes
11	Yes	No
10	Yes	No
9	Yes	No

Laravel 9, 10 and 11 are still supported by the constraint in composer.json, but they are not built in CI. Every remaining release on those branches is covered by a security advisory with no patched version, so Composer will not resolve them under its default advisory policy.

Upgrading

From 1.0.x

Releases 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 bound the replacement command to the command.seed container key. Laravel stopped resolving db:seed through that key in Laravel 9, so on Laravel 9 and later the registered seeders were collected but never run. Upgrading fixes that, which means seeders your packages register will start running again on db:seed. Check what your installed packages register before seeding an environment you care about.

The public API is unchanged. The seed.handler binding, the register() and seeders() methods, the class names, and the command.seed key all behave as they did.

From eklundkristoffer/seedster

Swap the requirement and remove the old package. The container bindings are the same, so $this->app['seed.handler']->register(...) keeps working untouched. The only difference is the namespace, from Seedster\ to Jeremykenedy\LaravelSeedster\, which matters only if you imported the classes directly.

Testing

composer test

Check code style:

composer lint

Credits

Jeremy Kenedy
Kristoffer Eklund, author of the original seedster

License

The MIT License (MIT). See LICENSE for more information.

jeremykenedy / laravel-seedster

Package info

Security

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