Seeders

What data gets seeded by default and how to run individual seeders.

Signals ships with database seeders that populate your application with reference data, permissions, roles, and optional demo content. Running php artisan db:seed executes all default seeders in the correct dependency order.

What Runs by Default#

The DatabaseSeeder calls these seeders in order:

It also creates a test user (test@example.com) for development.

CountrySeeder#

Loads all ISO country records from database/data/countries.json. Each country has a code, name, and associated metadata. Uses updateOrCreate keyed on code — safe to re-run.

ListsSeeder#

Creates the system-managed lists of values used throughout the platform:

All values are marked is_system = true and use updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

CurrencySeeder#

Creates 30 ISO 4217 currency definitions. GBP, USD, and EUR are enabled by default; the remaining 27 are disabled and can be enabled in settings.

TaxTypeSeeder#

Creates the default tax typeification records:

• Company Tax type: Standard (default)
• CatalogueItem Tax Types: Standard (default), Exempt

Uses updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

TaxRateSeeder#

Creates three default tax rates suitable for UK VAT:

Uses updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

RevenueGroupSeeder#

Creates four revenue groups used for categorising rental line items:

• Dry Hire
• Wet Hire
• Sales
• Services

Uses updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

CostGroupSeeder#

Creates five cost groups used for categorising rental costs:

• Equipment Sub-Hire
• Crew Sub-Hire
• Transport
• Consumables
• Equipment Purchase

Uses updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

CatalogueItemGroupSeeder#

Creates 10 default catalogue item groups with sort order:

Audio, Lighting – Generic, Lighting – Moving Heads, Video, Staging, Power, Rigging, Furniture, Transport, Consumables.

Uses updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

PermissionSeeder#

Creates all permissions used by the role-based access control system. Permissions follow the resource.action naming convention and are grouped by domain:

Uses Permission::findOrCreate() — safe to re-run.

RoleSeeder#

Creates the four system roles and assigns their default permission sets. Owner access is handled separately via the is_owner flag on users — not as a Spatie role.

All roles are marked is_system = true and cannot be deleted through the UI. The RoleSeeder calls PermissionSeeder internally, ensuring permissions exist.

EmailTemplateSeeder#

Creates three system email templates:

Templates support merge fields (e.g. {{ user.name }}, {{ company.name }}). Uses updateOrCreate — safe to re-run.

NotificationTypeSeeder#

Registers notification type definitions via the NotificationRegistry and syncs them to the notification_types table:

ViewSeeder#

Creates system-managed live filters for each entity type. These views appear in the API and UI view selectors and cannot be deleted by users.

Uses updateOrCreate keyed on name + entity type — safe to re-run.

RateSpecificationPresetSeeder#

Creates the 11 industry-standard rate specification presets from RatePresets::all(). Presets are identified by a preset_slug and use updateOrCreate — safe to re-run. See the Rate specifications page for details on each preset.

CatalogueItemSeeder#

Creates 14 sample catalogue items across rental, sale, and service types to demonstrate the catalogue:

Note: This seeder is not idempotent — re-running it will create duplicate catalogue-items. It depends on CatalogueItemGroupSeeder having run first.

ActivitySeeder#

Creates 6 sample activities (task, call, meeting, email, note, completed) linked to the first user and the first available accounts. Depends on UserFactory having created the test user.

Note: This seeder is not idempotent — re-running it will create duplicate activities.

WarehouseSeeder#

Creates a default warehouse called "Main Warehouse" if no warehouses exist. This seeder is not included in the default DatabaseSeeder — run it separately if needed.

Note: The setup wizard (php artisan signals:setup) handles warehouse creation interactively, so this seeder is primarily useful for automated deployments.

DemoDataSeeder#

Creates large volumes of realistic demo data for development and evaluation:

• 3 demo warehouses (London Warehouse, Manchester Depot, Edinburgh Office)
• 2,000 companies, 500 venues, and 3,000 contacts — each with a primary email and phone
• Relationships between contacts, companies, and venues

All demo accounts are tagged with demo-data so they can be identified and cleared later.

This seeder is not included in the default DatabaseSeeder. Use the Artisan commands below or the admin panel.

# Seed demo data
php artisan signals:seed-demo

# Remove demo data (deletes all records tagged 'demo-data')
php artisan signals:clear-demo

Note: Running DemoDataSeeder multiple times will create duplicate warehouses and accounts. Use signals:clear-demo before re-seeding.

Running Seeders#

# Run all default seeders
php artisan db:seed

# Run a specific seeder
php artisan db:seed --class=PermissionSeeder
php artisan db:seed --class=ViewSeeder

# Run in production (requires --force flag)
php artisan db:seed --force
php artisan db:seed --class=PermissionSeeder --force

You can also run seeders from the admin panel under Settings > System > Database Seeders, which shows the current status of each seeder and lets you run them individually.

Idempotency#

Most seeders use updateOrCreate or findOrCreate and are safe to run multiple times:

• CountrySeeder — updateOrCreate on code
• ListsSeeder — updateOrCreate on list design and value name
• CurrencySeeder — updateOrCreate on code
• TaxTypeSeeder — updateOrCreate on name
• TaxRateSeeder — updateOrCreate on name
• RevenueGroupSeeder — updateOrCreate on name
• CostGroupSeeder — updateOrCreate on name
• CatalogueItemGroupSeeder — updateOrCreate on name
• PermissionSeeder — Permission::findOrCreate()
• RoleSeeder — Role::findOrCreate() and syncPermissions()
• EmailTemplateSeeder — updateOrCreate on key
• NotificationTypeSeeder — syncToDatabase() via registry
• ViewSeeder — updateOrCreate on name + entity type
• RateSpecificationPresetSeeder — updateOrCreate on preset_slug
• CatalogueItemSeeder — not idempotent; creates duplicates if re-run
• ActivitySeeder — not idempotent; creates duplicates if re-run
• DemoDataSeeder — not idempotent; use signals:clear-demo before re-seeding