When integrating Sanctum for authentication and the Spatie Permission package for authorization, it’s generally best to let each package do what it’s designed for:
- Sanctum: Handles authentication (who the user is), and can optionally restrict tokens to certain abilities/scopes.
- Spatie Permission: Handles authorization (what the user can do), such as assigning roles and permissions.
Best Practice:
- Use Sanctum to authenticate API requests.
- Use Spatie Permission to check if the authenticated user has the required roles/permissions.
There’s no need to modify the abilities column of personal_access_tokens unless you have a use-case for token-specific capabilities (rare if you’re fully using Spatie for authz). The abilities column is for restricting what each token can do, similar to OAuth2 scopes.
Typical Setup Example:
// In your route or controller
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::middleware(['auth:sanctum'])->group(function() {
Route::get('/admin', function(Request $request) {
if ($request->user()->can('view admin dashboard')) {
// Authorized via Spatie Permission
return 'Welcome Admin!';
}
abort(403, 'Unauthorized.');
});
});
Summary Table:
| Concern | Package Used | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | Sanctum | Don't modify abilities unless you want scoped tokens |
| Authorization | Spatie Permission | Use roles/permissions checks ($user->can('...')) |
Only use Sanctum’s abilities/scopes if you want some tokens for limited purposes, separate from Spatie’s role/permission system.
Reference:
Summary:
You should rely on the Spatie package to check permissions/roles, and let Sanctum handle authentication, without needing to alter the abilities column unless your app has a specific need for token abilities.
