Laralink Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Local package development workflow: Standardizes how teams link internal Laravel packages into host applications, replacing ad-hoc symlinks, manual composer.json edits, and bespoke scripts.
• Build vs. buy: A low-cost, focused tool for the “develop package alongside app” workflow; avoids building and maintaining custom Composer/path-repository automation.
• Monorepo-adjacent roadmaps: Supports internal package ecosystems where multiple packages live next to an app (../*, ../*/*, ~/projects) and need quick switching between local source and remote releases.
• Release and QA safety: --backup, rollback on Composer failure, guarded deletes, constraint restoration, and .laralink.json state tracking reduce the risk of broken composer.json, lost work, or accidental deletion during local development.
• Automation and CI visibility: laralink:list --json and --filter=local|remote enable scripts and dashboards for detecting linked packages, stale local copies, constraint drift, and remote-vs-local state.
• Developer productivity: Interactive package discovery, Git URL/branch/tag support, copy-vs-symlink choice, and forced re-linking shorten setup and context-switching time for package maintainers.
• Platform modernization: v2.0.0 requires PHP 8.3+ and Laravel 12/13, so adopting it signals or enforces a modern Laravel baseline; teams on older stacks must plan upgrades first.

When to Consider This Package

Consider adoption when:

• Your team develops one or more Laravel packages that are consumed by a Laravel application and needs a repeatable local linking workflow.
• Developers currently edit composer.json path repositories, create symlinks manually, or run fragile shell scripts to test local package changes.
• You want safer local development operations: rollback on failed Composer runs, backups before publishing, guarded deletes, and constraint restoration.
• You need machine-readable status for automation (--json, --filter) or want to surface linked-package state in internal tooling.
• You are on PHP 8.3+ and Laravel 12/13, or are planning to upgrade as part of the same initiative.
• You want to support local folders and Git URLs (https://, git@host:, ssh://, file://) with branch/tag selection during development.

Look elsewhere or delay when:

• Your application is on PHP <8.3 or Laravel <12; v2.0.0 is explicitly constrained to modern versions.
• Your workflow is not Laravel/PHP or does not rely on Composer path repositories.
• You only need a one-off symlink for a single package and do not need state tracking, rollback, or automation.
• You require a full monorepo build system rather than local package linking; this package is not a replacement for broader workspace tooling.
• You need production deployment tooling; this is a development workflow package, not a runtime dependency manager.
• You depend on the removed --symlink flag or old command behavior; migration planning is required, especially since 1.x was never on Packagist and its documented options did not match actual behavior.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

To executives: This package reduces friction and risk in how our teams develop and test internal Laravel packages. It replaces manual Composer edits and fragile symlink scripts with a supported workflow that can back up work, roll back failed dependency changes, and report local-vs-remote package state. Adopting it can shorten iteration cycles for package maintainers and lower the chance of broken local environments. The trade-off is a platform baseline: PHP 8.3+ and Laravel 12/13, so it fits best alongside an upgrade or for teams already on those versions.

To engineering: v2.0.0 is the first credible release: it adds real --source, --branch, --copy, --force, JSON listing, filtering, backups, compatibility checks, and .laralink.json state memory. It also fixes serious reliability issues: failed Composer runs now roll back composer.json, deletes on symlinks do not touch source folders, and forced re-links update vendor/. Be aware of breaking changes: PHP 8.3+ and Laravel 12/13 are required, --symlink is removed, the path repository is placed first in composer.json, and the hard-coded version/minimum-stability settings are gone. Plan a short migration and validation pass rather than assuming 1.x behavior.

To the delivery team: Use this where local package iteration is a recurring workflow, not as a production dependency. Start with one internal package and one host app, validate laralink:dev, laralink:list --json, and laralink:publish --backup in a non-critical branch, then standardize the workflow if it reduces setup time and Composer-state incidents.