README

A lightweight Laravel package for managing key-value settings. Supports global, user-specific, and model-specific scopes with optional JSON file caching.

Requirements: PHP 8.3+ · Laravel 11 or 12 or 13

Installation

composer require pico/settings

Publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pico-settings-config

Generate and run the migration:

php artisan pico:settings-table-migration
php artisan migrate

This creates a timestamped create_settings_table migration in your database/migrations/ directory.

If you want to customise the stub before generating, publish it first:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=pico-settings-stubs

The stub will be placed at stubs/pico-settings/create_settings_table.stub and pico:settings-table-migration will use it automatically.

Configuration

config/pico-settings.php

return [

    // The table name used for the users foreign key
    'user_table' => 'users',

    'cache' => [
        // Enable JSON file caching (recommended for production)
        'enabled' => true,

        // Directory where per-scope JSON cache files are stored
        'path' => storage_path('app/pico-settings'),
    ],

];

Usage

Facade

use Pico\Settings\Facades\Settings;

Helper function

settings()

Global settings

// Set a single value
Settings::set('maintenance_mode', 'false');

// Set multiple values at once
Settings::set(['theme' => 'dark', 'locale' => 'en']);

// Get a single value (with optional default)
Settings::get('theme');            // 'dark'
Settings::get('missing', 'light'); // 'light'

// Get multiple values at once
Settings::get(['theme', 'locale']);
// ['theme' => 'dark', 'locale' => 'en']

User-specific settings

$user = auth()->user();

Settings::for($user)->set('locale', 'fr');
Settings::for($user)->set(['locale' => 'fr', 'timezone' => 'Europe/Paris']);

Settings::for($user)->get('locale');             // 'fr'
Settings::for($user)->get('missing', 'en');      // 'en'
Settings::for($user)->get(['locale', 'timezone']);
// ['locale' => 'fr', 'timezone' => 'Europe/Paris']

Model-specific settings

use App\Models\Post;

Settings::model(Post::class)->set('per_page', '20');
Settings::model(Post::class)->get('per_page'); // '20'

You can also pass a model instance:

$post = Post::find(1);
Settings::model($post)->set('featured', 'true');

Combined scope (user + model)

Settings::for($user)->model(Post::class)->set('view', 'grid');
Settings::for($user)->model(Post::class)->get('view'); // 'grid'

// Scopes are isolated — other scopes are unaffected
Settings::for($user)->get('view');              // null
Settings::model(Post::class)->get('view');      // null

Using the helper

settings()->for($user)->model(Post::class)->get('view', 'list');
settings()->for($user)->set(['locale' => 'en', 'timezone' => 'UTC']);

Deleting settings

// Delete a single key
Settings::delete('theme');

// Delete multiple keys
Settings::delete(['theme', 'locale']);

// Delete all keys in the current scope
Settings::delete();

// Delete within a user scope
Settings::for($user)->delete('locale');

// Delete within a combined user + model scope
Settings::for($user)->model(Post::class)->delete('view');

Deleting only affects the targeted scope — other scopes are left untouched.

Caching

When caching is enabled, settings are stored in JSON files under storage/app/pico-settings/ (configurable). Each scope gets its own file:

Scope	File
Global	`global.json`
User only	`user_1.json`
Model only	`model_posts.json`
User + model	`user_1_model_posts.json`

On every set() call, the database is written first and then the cache file is rebuilt. On the first get() after boot (cache miss), the full scope is loaded from DB and written to the cache.

Clearing the cache

To delete all JSON cache files at once:

php artisan pico:clear

To disable caching (e.g. in tests):

// config/pico-settings.php
'cache' => [
    'enabled' => false,
],

Database schema

Column	Type	Notes
`id`	bigint	Primary key
`user_id`	bigint (nullable)	FK → users table
`model`	string (nullable)	Fully-qualified class name
`key`	string	Setting key
`value`	longText	Setting value
`created_at`	timestamp
`updated_at`	timestamp

A unique constraint is enforced on (user_id, model, key).

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