Installation and setup.

Before a saved model can create mentions, the package needs somewhere to store them and a way to find each target. This guide creates the mentions table and maps handles such as @jane to your User model.

1. Install the package

Install the package with Composer:

composer require byrcsc/laravel-mentions

Laravel discovers Byrcsc\Mentions\MentionsServiceProvider through the package manifest. You do not need to register it manually.

2. Publish the migration

Publish the package migration and create the mentions table:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="mentions-migrations"
php artisan migrate

Laravel adds the current timestamp to the generated filename. The migration creates indexes for both morph sides and a unique index across the source and target identity.

3. Publish the configuration

Publish config/mentions.php:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="mentions-config"

The shipped resolver has no target model. Set one before saving source text that contains handles:

// config/mentions.php
'resolvers' => [
    'users' => [
        'model' => App\Models\User::class,
        'column' => 'name',
    ],
],

The default column resolver compares @jane with User::$name without case sensitivity. This works with Laravel's default User model. In production, a unique username column avoids ambiguity between equal display names.

4. Make the target queryable

Add Mentionable to the target model:

namespace App\Models;

use Byrcsc\Mentions\Concerns\Mentionable;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use Mentionable;
}

This trait adds mentionedIn(). Resolution itself only needs the model class in configuration, but reverse queries need the trait.

Configuration caching

Rebuild Laravel's configuration cache after changing resolver definitions in a deployed application:

php artisan config:cache

Long-running workers must restart before they use the new configuration.

What to read next

• Quick start to add mention text to a source model.
• Configuration for every key and default.
• Published assets for the migration schema and publish tags.