README

A Laravel package that provides version control for database seeders, similar to Laravel's migration system. This package tracks which seeders have been run and only executes seeders that have been modified by monitoring class content changes.

Features

Tracks seeder execution history
Only runs modified seeders
Validates seeder content changes using hash verification
Simple integration with Laravel's existing seeder system
Option to generate hash versioning without running seeders

Installation / Configuration

You can install the package via composer:

composer require thetheago/laravel-seeder-versioning

Publish the package configuration and migrations:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=seeder-versioning

Run the migrations to create the seeder versioning table:

php artisan migrate

Usage

Running Seeders

To run your seeders with version control:

php artisan seed:migrate

This command will:

Check all your seeders
Compare their content against previously run versions
Only execute seeders that have been modified or haven't been run before

Before running, it shows what will run and asks for confirmation:

+---------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+
| Seeder        | Status   | Hash   | Risks                            |
+---------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+
| RoleSeeder    | modified | 49ab5e | [high] truncate() on table roles |
| ProductSeeder | new      | cd5947 | [medium] insert() without upsert |
+---------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+

 2 seeders, 1 high risk will be run. Do you want to continue? (yes/no) [no]:

Risks: found by static analysis of the current code of each seeder that will run (token_get_all(), nothing is executed and nothing is stored). It is a heuristic, not a guarantee:

Pattern	Risk	Level
`truncate()`, `delete()`, `forceDelete()`, `DB::statement('DROP/TRUNCATE/DELETE ...')`	Deletes existing data	high
`insert()` / `create()` without `upsert`/`updateOrCreate`/`firstOrCreate`/`updateOrInsert`/`insertOrIgnore` in the seeder	May duplicate data on rerun	medium
`$this->call(...)`	Runs other seeders too	medium
`factory()` / `::factory()`	Random data, not idempotent	medium
`Schema::disableForeignKeyConstraints()`	Disables foreign keys	medium

When is the question asked:

In a terminal, always. Answering no runs nothing and exits with 1.
Without a terminal (--no-interaction, CI), it runs without asking, except in production (APP_ENV=production), where it is cancelled, like db:seed.
--force skips the question everywhere (deploys).

To only see the table, without running anything or creating the versioning tables:

php artisan seed:migrate --pretend
php artisan seed:migrate --force   # run without asking

Hash Generation Only

If you want to generate hash versions for your seeders without executing them:

php artisan seed:migrate --hash-only

This is useful for:

Initial setup in existing projects
Verifying which seeders would be executed
Updating the version control table without running seeders

Checking the status

To see what seed:migrate would run, without running anything:

php artisan seed:status

Last seeder run: UserSeeder (c9fd9c) at 2026-10-17 17:29:36

+---------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+
| Seeder        | Status   | Hash   | Risks                            |
+---------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+
| ProductSeeder | new      | cd5947 | [medium] insert() without upsert |
| UserSeeder    | modified | dfd2ab | [medium] insert() without upsert |
+---------------+----------+--------+----------------------------------+
2 seeders pending. Run php artisan seed:migrate to execute them.

new: never run; modified: changed since its last run (the hash is the file's current one).
Risks work as in seed:migrate (see above).
Use --all to also list the seeders that are up to date.

How It Works

The package creates a seeder_versioning table that stores:

Seeder class names
Content hashes
Execution timestamps

Every time a seeder is registered, a row is also added to the seeder_version_history table (configurable with history_table) with the seeder name, the new hash, the previous hash (null the first time), whether it was a --hash-only run, and when it happened. This lets you see how many times a seeder ran and when its content changed.

If you are upgrading and already have the versions table, the history table is created automatically on the next seed:migrate. If you manage the package migrations yourself, publish them again with php artisan vendor:publish --tag=seeder-versioning.

When you run seed:migrate, the package:

Scans your seeder directory
Generates a hash for each seeder's content
Compares against stored hashes
Executes only modified or new seeders

Excluding seeders

DatabaseSeeder is skipped by default: it calls the other seeders, so running it would run them twice. To skip other seeders, add them to except in config/seeder-versioning.php, with or without namespace:

'except' => [
    'DatabaseSeeder',
    \Database\Seeders\LocalDevSeeder::class,
],

Excluded seeders are never run or registered in the versioning table.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

thetheago / laravel-seeder-versioning

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