- Is rikudou/unleash-sdk-bundle a Laravel package or a Symfony bundle?
- It is a Symfony bundle. It wraps the Unleash PHP SDK and registers the client in Symfony's dependency injection container and configuration tree. No Laravel service provider or Laravel-specific config ships with it, so it will not work as a drop-in Laravel dependency. For a Laravel application its value is as a reference implementation and protocol example rather than something you install and forget.
- How do I add Unleash feature flags to a Laravel application?
- Use the generic unleash/client-sdk-php library directly and bind the client as a singleton in a service provider. Create a config/unleash.php file mirroring the bundle's settings, and inject a PSR-18 HTTP client (Guzzle or Symfony HttpClient, since Laravel's HTTP client is not PSR-18 out of the box) plus a PSR-16 cache adapter, which Laravel's cache repository satisfies. Then wrap evaluation behind your own FeatureFlag contract so the rest of the app never touches the SDK directly.
- What does this bundle add on top of the Unleash PHP SDK?
- Symfony-native configuration, service autowiring, wiring into Symfony's DI and configuration system, and integration with Symfony's event system. The actual flag evaluation, context handling and activation strategies live in the underlying SDK. If you are not on Symfony, you are rewriting the wrapper, not the engine.
- Do I still need a running Unleash server if I install this package?
- Yes. The package implements the Unleash client protocol, not the server. You need an Unleash instance as a runtime dependency, either self-hosted, where your team owns the on-call, or Unleash Cloud, where the vendor SLA applies. That is a platform commitment rather than a library install and should be an explicit decision before you adopt the bundle or the SDK.
- How much work is it to reach parity with this bundle in Laravel?
- Roughly two to four days for a competent PHP engineer, tests included. The work is a service provider binding, a config file, PSR-18 and PSR-16 adapters, and a thin adapter class over the SDK. Keep the wrapper small, because the more Symfony conventions you copy, the more fork maintenance you inherit.
- Which Symfony, PHP and Laravel versions are supported?
- The bundle added Symfony 8 support in v0.12.285, alongside Symfony 6 and 7, so the integration surface is tracking current framework releases. The PHP floor and framework-independent constraints come from the underlying unleash/client-sdk-php, so confirm those separately rather than assuming the bundle's requirements cover them. Laravel support is whatever your own adapter targets, so pin your PHP and Laravel matrix explicitly.
- Is this package safe to depend on in production?
- It is MIT licensed, owned first-party by the Unleash organisation, and the surface is small and well understood, which are strong mitigating factors. The main risk is ecosystem thinness: around 37 stars and zero dependents means no organic battle-testing and no community backstop. The project also publishes very frequently, with releases from v0.12.182 to v0.12.285 in a short window, so pin a specific tag instead of floating and review upgrades deliberately.
- What happens when the Unleash server is unreachable?
- The SDK supports a backup-file fallback and cached last-known-good values, but the contract is yours to define per flag. Decide explicitly whether a flag falls back to a backup file, a cached value, or a hardcoded default, and write a test for each path. Flag evaluation sits on the hot path for user-facing behaviour, so inherited trust is not enough.
- How should I test Unleash feature flags in Laravel without hitting the server?
- Put an interface in front of evaluation and swap in a NullFlag or config-driven implementation during tests. Fake the SDK client for strategy and context tests, and test caching and fallback semantics directly rather than assuming they work. Also test the unreachable-server path, because that is where production incidents tend to hide.
- What are the alternatives to this bundle for feature flags in Laravel?
- The most direct alternative is unleash/client-sdk-php behind your own FeatureFlag contract, which avoids inheriting Symfony coupling. If you run a polyglot PHP estate with a Symfony service beside a Laravel app, adopting the bundle natively in Symfony and mirroring the config shape in Laravel keeps behaviour identical across services. Laravel Pennant covers simple local toggles but does not speak the Unleash client protocol, so it is not a straight swap when you need Unleash contexts and strategies.