laravel-comments is a PHP package for Laravel developers who want to attach an approval-aware, nestable commenting system to their Eloquent models without building one from scratch.

What it is

laravel-comments is an MIT-licensed Composer package, published as beyondcode/laravel-comments on Packagist and maintained by the team behind beyondco.de, that lets any Laravel Eloquent model accept comments. You opt a model in by adding the BeyondCode\Comments\Traits\HasComments trait, after which the model gains a comments relationship and comment / commentAsUser methods for creating comments directly from application code. Comments are stored through a migration the package ships and are configured through a publishable config/comments.php file.

The concrete problem it solves is the recurring need to attach user discussion to domain objects — posts, orders, tickets, anything you model — without hand-rolling a comment table, an approval workflow, and reply threading for every project. It replaces that bespoke build with a single trait, an is_approved boolean flag for moderation, and a Comment model that itself implements HasComments, so replies nest for free rather than requiring a self-referential relationship you write yourself.

Key capabilities

• Makes any Eloquent model commentable by adding the HasComments trait, exposing a comments relation on that model.
• Creates comments with $post->comment('This is a comment'), returning the newly created comment instance.
• Attributes comments to an explicit author via commentAsUser($user, ...), so you can comment on behalf of another user.
• Moderates comments through the is_approved flag, with a dedicated approve() method on the Comment model and an approved() query scope for filtering, e.g. $post->comments()->approved()->get().
• Auto-approves per user by implementing the BeyondCode\Comments\Contracts\Commentator interface; needsCommentApproval($model) returns a boolean deciding whether a given comment starts approved or unapproved.
• Nests replies because BeyondCode\Comments\Comment uses the HasComments trait itself, allowing comments on comments.
• Optionally cascades reply deletion via the delete_replies_along_comments setting in config/comments.php.
• Registers and configures itself through its CommentsServiceProvider, with migrations and config published through php artisan vendor:publish.

Who uses it and how

• Laravel application developers adding a discussion layer to content models such as blog posts, using $post->comment(...) directly in controllers or service classes.
• Teams that need comment moderation, keeping new comments hidden until $comment->approve() is called or until an unapproved flag is filtered out in views and controllers.
• Projects where comments must be attributed to an existing user record rather than the request context, handled with commentAsUser.
• Applications with varying trust levels, where a User model implements Commentator to skip approval for staff or trusted accounts while ordinary users' comments are held for review.
• Builds that require threaded discussion, using replies-to-comments with optional cascading deletion of those replies.

Getting started

Install it with composer require beyondcode/laravel-comments, then publish the migration and config with php artisan vendor:publish --provider="BeyondCode\Comments\CommentsServiceProvider" --tag="migrations" and --tag="config", and run php artisan migrate.

How it compares

Among the tools named in these facts — Laravel itself and the comments topic space — the package occupies a narrow, specific slot: it supplies commenting as a Composer dependency inside an existing Laravel application rather than as a standalone service or platform. Its identity is defined by what it integrates with (Eloquent models, Artisan, Packagist) rather than by any competitor named alongside it, so it stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not

You should pick it when you already run a Laravel application and are content to operate a standard relational database for comment storage, publishing and running the package's migrations yourself; there is no hosted option, no bundled frontend, and no email delivery — views, controllers, and moderation UI remain yours to build. Skip it if you are not on Laravel, or if you need moderation tooling, spam filtering, notifications, or a ready-made UI out of the box, none of which the README describes; note also that the README excerpt ends mid-sentence, so the full feature set is not entirely documented here.

$post = Post::find(1);

$post->comment('This is a comment');

$post->commentAsUser($user, 'This is a comment from someone else');

composer require beyondcode/laravel-comments

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="BeyondCode\Comments\CommentsServiceProvider" --tag="migrations"

php artisan migrate

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="BeyondCode\Comments\CommentsServiceProvider" --tag="config"

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use BeyondCode\Comments\Traits\HasComments;

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasComments;
    ...
}

$post = Post::find(1);

$comment = $post->comment('This is a comment from a user.');

$post = Post::find(1);

$comment = $post->commentAsUser($yourUser, 'This is a comment from someone else.');

$post = Post::find(1);
$comment = $post->comments->first();

$comment->approve();

namespace App\Models;

use BeyondCode\Comments\Contracts\Commentator;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;

class User extends Authenticatable implements Commentator
{
    /**
     * Check if a comment for a specific model needs to be approved.
     * @param mixed $model
     * @return bool
     */
    public function needsCommentApproval($model): bool
    {
        return false;
    }

}

$post = Post::find(1);

// Retrieve all comments
$comments = $post->comments;

// Retrieve only approved comments
$approved = $post->comments()->approved()->get();

$comment = BeyondCode\Comments\Comment::first();
$comment->commentAsUser($user, "Hey there!");

composer test