Philsquare Permissions

A Laravel package for managing role-based permissions through policies. Define permissions declaratively in your policies and sync them to your database with a single command.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Laravel 10+
• spatie/laravel-permission ^6.21

Installation

composer require philsquare/permissions

The service provider is auto-registered via Laravel's package discovery.

Setup Spatie Permissions

If you haven't already, publish and run the Spatie migrations:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Permission\PermissionServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

Add the HasRoles trait to your User model:

use Spatie\Permission\Traits\HasRoles;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasRoles;
}

Quick Start

1. Create a Policy

Use the artisan command with the --withPermissions flag:

php artisan make:policy PostPolicy --model=Post --withPermissions

Or add permissions to an existing policy by extending BasePolicy:

<?php

namespace App\Policies;

use App\Models\Post;
use App\Models\User;
use Philsquare\Permissions\BasePolicy;

class PostPolicy extends BasePolicy
{
    public function rolePermissions(): array
    {
        return [
            'admin' => $this->permissions()->all(),
            'editor' => $this->permissions()->crud(),
            'viewer' => $this->permissions()->only(['viewAny', 'view']),
        ];
    }

    public function viewAny(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function view(User $user, Post $post): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function create(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function update(User $user, Post $post): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function delete(User $user, Post $post): bool
    {
        return true;
    }
}

2. Sync Permissions to Database

Run the refresh command whenever you add or modify permissions:

php artisan permissions:refresh

This command:

• Scans all policies in app/Policies/ that extend BasePolicy
• Creates any missing roles
• Creates any missing permissions
• Syncs role-permission assignments

3. Assign Roles to Users

Use Spatie's methods to assign roles:

$user->assignRole('editor');

4. Check Permissions

Use Laravel's built-in authorization:

// In controllers
$this->authorize('update', $post);

// Using Gate
Gate::authorize('update', $post);

// On User model
$user->can('update', $post);

// In Blade
@can('update', $post)
    <button>Edit</button>
@endcan

How It Works

Permission Naming Convention

Permissions are stored in kebab-case format: {model}:{action}

The before() Hook

When you extend BasePolicy, the before() method automatically checks if the user's roles have the required permission. If the permission exists, it returns null (allowing the policy method to execute). If not, it returns false (denying access).

This means your policy methods define the logic for when an action should be allowed, and the role-permission mapping controls who can attempt it.

Policy Method Return Values

Your policy methods should return true or false based on business logic:

public function update(User $user, Post $post): bool
{
    // Only allow updates if post is draft OR user has force-update permission
    return $post->status === 'draft' || $user->can('force-update', $post);
}

The before() hook runs first. If the user lacks the permission, they're denied immediately. If they have the permission, your method's logic determines the final result.

Permission Helpers

The permissions() method provides helpers for building permission lists:

all()

Returns all public methods from the policy (excluding system methods):

public function rolePermissions(): array
{
    return [
        'admin' => $this->permissions()->all(),
    ];
}

crud(array $additional = [])

Returns standard CRUD methods plus any additional methods:

// Returns: viewAny, view, create, update, delete
'editor' => $this->permissions()->crud(),

// Returns: viewAny, view, create, update, delete, publish, archive
'editor' => $this->permissions()->crud(['publish', 'archive']),

only(array $methods)

Returns only the specified methods:

'viewer' => $this->permissions()->only(['viewAny', 'view']),

except(array $methods)

Returns all methods except the specified ones:

'editor' => $this->permissions()->except(['delete', 'forceDelete']),

Full Example

<?php

namespace App\Policies;

use App\Enums\OrderStatus;
use App\Models\Order;
use App\Models\User;
use Philsquare\Permissions\BasePolicy;

class OrderPolicy extends BasePolicy
{
    public function rolePermissions(): array
    {
        return [
            'admin' => $this->permissions()->all(),
            'manager' => $this->permissions()->crud(['cancel', 'refund']),
            'sales' => $this->permissions()->only(['viewAny', 'view', 'create']),
            'support' => $this->permissions()->only(['viewAny', 'view', 'addNote']),
        ];
    }

    public function viewAny(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function view(User $user, Order $order): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function create(User $user): bool
    {
        return true;
    }

    public function update(User $user, Order $order): bool
    {
        // Can only update pending orders
        return $order->status === OrderStatus::PENDING;
    }

    public function delete(User $user, Order $order): bool
    {
        // Can only delete draft orders with no items
        return $order->status === OrderStatus::DRAFT
            && $order->items()->count() === 0;
    }

    public function cancel(User $user, Order $order): bool
    {
        return in_array($order->status, [
            OrderStatus::PENDING,
            OrderStatus::PROCESSING,
        ]);
    }

    public function refund(User $user, Order $order): bool
    {
        return $order->status === OrderStatus::COMPLETED
            && $order->paid_at !== null;
    }

    public function addNote(User $user, Order $order): bool
    {
        return true;
    }
}

Commands

permissions:refresh

Syncs all role permissions from policies to the database. Run this after:

• Adding a new policy method
• Changing the rolePermissions() array
• Adding a new role

php artisan permissions:refresh

make:policy --withPermissions

Creates a new policy that extends BasePolicy:

php artisan make:policy ArticlePolicy --model=Article --withPermissions

Deployment

Add permissions:refresh to your deploy script to ensure permissions stay in sync:

php artisan migrate --force
php artisan permissions:refresh
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache

This ensures any new permissions added in the release are automatically synced to the database without manual intervention.

Defining Roles

Roles are created automatically when you run permissions:refresh. Any role name used in a rolePermissions() array will be created if it doesn't exist.

For better organization, you can define roles in an enum:

<?php

namespace App\Enums;

enum Roles: string
{
    case Admin = 'admin';
    case Manager = 'manager';
    case Editor = 'editor';
    case Viewer = 'viewer';
}

Then use it in your policies:

use App\Enums\Roles;

public function rolePermissions(): array
{
    return [
        Roles::Admin->value => $this->permissions()->all(),
        Roles::Editor->value => $this->permissions()->crud(),
    ];
}

Claude Code Plugin

This package includes a Claude Code plugin that provides AI-assisted permission implementation.

Features

Autonomous Implementation: When you create a new policy in a project using this package, the plugin's agent will proactively offer to add role-based permissions - extending BasePolicy and implementing rolePermissions() with appropriate helpers.

Skill Knowledge: The plugin provides Claude with knowledge about permission helpers, naming conventions, and best practices so it can correctly implement permissions without documentation lookups.

Commands:

• /philsquare-permissions:refresh - Run permissions:refresh to sync permissions
• /philsquare-permissions:make-policy <Model> - Create a new policy with permissions scaffold

Installation

The plugin is included in the package. To enable it in Claude Code:

Option 1: Using the /plugins command

Run /plugins in Claude Code and add vendor/philsquare/permissions as a local plugin.

Option 2: Manual configuration

Add the plugin path to your project's .claude/settings.json:

{
  "plugins": [
    "vendor/philsquare/permissions"
  ]
}

Plugin Structure

.claude-plugin/
├── plugin.json           # Plugin manifest
commands/
├── refresh.md            # Refresh command
├── make-policy.md        # Make policy command
agents/
├── permissions-implementer.md  # Autonomous agent
skills/
└── permissions-usage/
    ├── SKILL.md          # Package knowledge
    └── references/
        └── permission-helpers.md

Using the Plugin

The plugin activates automatically in projects that have philsquare/permissions in their composer.json. When creating policies, Claude will:

1. Detect the package is installed
2. Extend BasePolicy instead of Laravel's base policy
3. Add the rolePermissions() method with appropriate role mappings
4. Remind you to run permissions:refresh

License

MIT