README

Auto-save draft & crash recovery for Filament v4 create/edit pages, with swappable storage drivers. 100% test coverage, enforced in CI.

While a user edits a create or edit form, the form state is auto-saved (debounced, ~2s). If their browser crashes, the tab closes, or the session expires, returning to the page shows a persistent notification offering to recover or discard the draft. Drafts are cleared on a successful save and expire after 7 days.

Storage drivers

Driver	Where drafts live	Notes
`local-storage` (default)	The user's browser localStorage	Zero server storage; drafts are plaintext on the user's machine
`database`	The `recoverable_drafts` table	Drafts follow the user across devices
`laravel-drafts`	On the model being edited, via oddvalue/laravel-drafts	Auto-saves become draft revisions of the record itself

Custom drivers can be registered with DraftRecovery::extend().

Installation

composer require oddvalue/filament-draft-recovery

php artisan filament-draft-recovery:install

The install command publishes the config and (for the server-side drivers) the migrations. Skip running the migrations if you only use the local-storage driver.

Usage

Add the trait to a resource's create and/or edit page:

use Filament\Resources\Pages\CreateRecord;
use Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Concerns\RecoversDrafts;

class CreatePost extends CreateRecord
{
    use RecoversDrafts;

    protected static string $resource = PostResource::class;
}

That's it — the trait injects the JavaScript via the page footer and everything else is automatic.

Choosing a driver

Set the default in config/filament-draft-recovery.php (or FILAMENT_DRAFT_RECOVERY_STORE):

'store' => 'database',

Per panel:

use Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\DraftRecoveryPlugin;

$panel->plugin(DraftRecoveryPlugin::make()->store('database'));

Per page:

class CreatePost extends CreateRecord
{
    use RecoversDrafts;

    protected ?string $draftStore = 'laravel-drafts';
}

The laravel-drafts driver

composer require oddvalue/laravel-drafts

Edit-page drafts are stored directly on the model being edited via laravel-drafts' first-class auto draft feature. Requirements: the model uses the HasDrafts trait, its table has the drafts columns (including is_auto), and auto drafts are enabled (drafts.auto_drafts.enabled in laravel-drafts' config).

Edit pages: each auto-save calls saveAsAutoDraft() on the record — a single, quietly upserted working copy that is never the current draft, never spawns revisions, and reads back via the record's autoDraft() relation. The record keeps is_current; intentional drafts ($record->draft) are untouched.
Create pages: auto drafts only exist for existing records, so create-page drafts are delegated to another store — the laravel-drafts.create_store config value, falling back to your default store (or database when the default is laravel-drafts itself). Any driver works, including custom ones.
Clearing (successful save / discard) calls discardAutoDraft() — published rows, intentional drafts, and revision history are never touched.
Saves are best-effort: payloads that violate column constraints (required fields not yet filled) are skipped and retried on the next auto-save.
Only real table columns are persisted; form-only keys are dropped. Repeater/relation state is not covered by this driver — use database if you need the full form payload.

Custom drivers

Implement Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Contracts\DraftStore and register it in a service provider:

use Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Contracts\DraftStore;
use Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Data\DraftContext;
use Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Data\RecoveredDraft;
use Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Facades\DraftRecovery;

class RedisDraftStore implements DraftStore
{
    public function isClientSide(): bool
    {
        return false;
    }

    public function get(DraftContext $context): ?RecoveredDraft
    {
        $payload = Redis::get($context->key);

        return $payload ? new RecoveredDraft(data: json_decode($payload, true)) : null;
    }

    public function put(DraftContext $context, array $data): void
    {
        Redis::setex($context->key, 60 * 60 * 24 * 7, json_encode($data));
    }

    public function forget(DraftContext $context): void
    {
        Redis::del($context->key);
    }
}

// In a service provider:
DraftRecovery::extend('redis', fn () => new RedisDraftStore);

Then select it like any built-in driver ('store' => 'redis', DraftRecoveryPlugin::make()->store('redis'), or protected ?string $draftStore = 'redis';).

Every method receives a DraftContext carrying the unique key (always sufficient for key/value stores) plus the page's modelClass, operation (create/edit), record (edit pages), and userId — everything a record-based store needs.

Excluding sensitive fields

Drafts may be stored as plaintext (especially with local-storage). Exclude anything sensitive:

protected function draftRecoveryExcludedFields(): array
{
    return ['password', 'api_token'];
}

Livewire temporary upload markers are always stripped — file uploads cannot be restored from a draft.

Pages with their own lifecycle hooks

The trait clears drafts from afterCreate() / afterSave(). A page that defines its own version of either hook silently overrides the trait's — call the clear method yourself:

protected function afterSave(): void
{
    $this->dispatchDraftRecoveryClear();

    // your own logic…
}

The same applies to getFooter(): if your page overrides it, include the view from Oddvalue\FilamentDraftRecovery\Concerns\RecoversDrafts::getFooter() in your footer.

If Filament gains trait-named lifecycle hook support (filamentphp/filament PR), this caveat goes away.

How it works

The Alpine component (injected via the page footer) snapshots the Livewire form state ($wire.data) on input/change, debounced by 2 seconds.
With local-storage, drafts stay in the browser; with a server-side driver the payload is sent to the page via a Livewire call.
On return, a differing draft triggers a persistent Filament notification with Recover draft / Discard actions. Recovery merges the draft over the current form state.
On successful save the page dispatches draft-recovery-clear, removing the draft and stopping the auto-save timers.
Drafts expire after expiry_days (default 7); expired localStorage entries are pruned on page load.

Testing

composer test

Credits

Inspired by the auto-save draft & crash recovery Filament example, re-imagined with client-side storage and swappable drivers. Started from the Filament plugin skeleton.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.md.

oddvalue / filament-draft-recovery

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