Tomato Subscription Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Laravel 11 upgrade go/no-go: v1.1.2 removes a hard install/migration blocker (Blueprint::unsignedDouble no longer exists in Laravel 11+). If this package is in the dependency graph, the Laravel 11 upgrade can proceed once the constraint is raised to ^1.1.2; before this patch, fresh migrations failed outright.
• Build vs. buy for plan/subscription schema: The package supplies the plans data model and migration layer. That is a build-vs-buy decision worth revisiting only if the roadmap requires plan tiers; it is not a reason to build a full billing engine in-house.
• Roadmap sequencing: Treat this as an enabler inside the Laravel 11 upgrade epic, not a standalone initiative. It unblocks environments that need the plans table to exist before feature work (entitlements, gating, quotas) can be tested.
• Vendor/dependency risk posture: Patch-level responsiveness and linked issues (#8, #9) are a positive maintenance signal. For a small schema package, that is sufficient evidence to keep it; it is not evidence of enterprise-grade support.
• Release gating policy: Pin a minimum version (>=1.1.2) in composer.json for any Laravel 11 project. This is a cheap policy change that prevents new environments from re-hitting a known-broken migration.
• Use cases supported: SaaS plan tiers, feature entitlement tables, and subscription-adjacent schema where the team wants the table definitions handled rather than hand-rolled.

When to Consider This Package

Consider adoption when:

• You are on Laravel 11+ and need a plans/subscription schema migration without writing and maintaining it yourself.
• You want a small, narrow dependency rather than a full billing platform; the surface area here is schema, not payment orchestration.
• You value active patching: a same-line fix for a framework API removal is a reasonable proxy for maintainer attention.
• You are already mid-upgrade and need a low-risk unblocker; the change is non-breaking and does not alter the public API.

Look elsewhere when:

• You need billing orchestration — Stripe sync, proration, invoicing, dunning, tax. This package appears to cover the plans schema, not the billing lifecycle.
• You require a vendor with an SLA, security review, or long-term support commitment. A small package with patch releases does not provide that.
• You are on an older Laravel version and cannot validate the new double()->unsigned() form across your matrix. Confirm compatibility before bumping.
• Your team already owns a canonical subscription schema in a shared internal package; adding a second source of truth is worse than the migration savings.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For executives: This is a small, actively maintained dependency that was blocking our Laravel 11 upgrade path. The latest patch fixes a framework compatibility failure in the plans migration at effectively zero integration cost. Keeping it avoids custom schema maintenance and removes a known upgrade risk. Recommendation: pin the patched version and proceed; no new budget or headcount required.

For engineering: Bump the constraint to ^1.1.2 and re-run migrations on Laravel 11. The migration now uses double()->unsigned() instead of the removed Blueprint::unsignedDouble. Verify on a clean database and on an existing database with plan rows, confirm rollback behaves, and add a Laravel 11 job to the CI matrix so this class of framework API removal is caught before the next upgrade. No public API changes; the fix is non-breaking.

For the PM: Frame this as a dependency hygiene item inside the platform upgrade, not a feature. Success is a green migration on Laravel 11 and a pinned minimum version in the manifest. Do not over-invest in evaluation; do track whether patching continues, since that is the main risk signal for a package this size.