Can I use a team as the default scope for feature checks in Laravel Pennant

How to Use a Team as the Default Scope

Instead of checking features against the user every time via `Feature::for($user->team)`, you can configure Pennant to automatically use the authenticated user's team as the default scope. This is done by defining a scope resolver in one of your application's service providers, typically the `AppServiceProvider`. For example:

php
namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Laravel\Pennant\Feature;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function boot(): void
    {
        Feature::resolveScopeUsing(fn ($driver) => Auth::user()?->team);
    }
}

With this setup, calling `Feature::active('billing-v2')` will implicitly check the feature against the authenticated user's team, equivalent to `Feature::for($user->team)->active('billing-v2')`[1].

Defining Features for a Team Scope

When defining features that use a team as the scope, your feature definition closure should expect a `Team` model instead of a `User`. For example:

php
use App\Models\Team;
use Carbon\Carbon;
use Illuminate\Support\Lottery;
use Laravel\Pennant\Feature;

Feature::define('billing-v2', function (Team $team) {
    if ($team->created_at->isAfter(new Carbon('1st Jan, 2023'))) {
        return true;
    }

    if ($team->created_at->isAfter(new Carbon('1st Jan, 2019'))) {
        return Lottery::odds(1 / 100);
    }

    return Lottery::odds(1 / 1000);
});

This closure uses the `Team` instance to determine if the feature is active based on the team's creation date and some probabilistic rollout[1].

Handling Nullable Scopes

If there is a chance that the scope could be `null` (for example, in unauthenticated routes, Artisan commands, or queued jobs), you should make your feature definitions accept nullable scopes and handle the `null` case accordingly. Pennant will return `false` automatically if the scope is `null` and the feature does not support it, but you can customize this behavior:

php
Feature::define('new-api', fn (Team|null $team) => $team === null ? false : /* your logic here */);

This ensures your feature checks do not break in contexts where there is no authenticated user or team[1].

Summary

- You can use a team as the default scope in Laravel Pennant by configuring the default scope resolver to return the authenticated user's team.
- This avoids having to explicitly call `Feature::for($user->team)` every time you check a feature.
- Feature definitions should expect the `Team` model as the scope parameter.
- Handle nullable scopes to avoid issues in unauthenticated or background contexts.
- This approach is recommended to centralize feature flag scoping logic and keep your code cleaner[1][2].

This flexibility makes Laravel Pennant suitable for feature flagging not just at the user level but also at broader scopes like teams or other models.

Citations:
[1] https://laravel.com/docs/12.x/pennant
[2] https://elliotderhay.com/blog/how-to-make-laravel-pennant-features-that-apply-globally
[3] https://www.honeybadger.io/blog/a-guide-to-feature-flags-in-laravel/
[4] https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/laravel-pennant-how-to-control-a-feature-for-all-users
[5] https://dev.to/saurabh-dhariwal/how-to-manage-feature-flags-with-laravel-pennant-in-2024-1phb
[6] https://laracasts.com/comments/26789
[7] https://www.reddit.com/r/PHPhelp/comments/199o0h2/im_working_with_laravel_pennant_and_i_want_to/
[8] https://redberry.international/laravel-pennant-feature-flagging-made-easy/