Laravel Nanoid

Generate Nanoid-based, Stripe-style IDs for your Eloquent models.

Installation

composer require malico/laravel-nanoid

Quick Start

Add HasNanoids to your model:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Malico\LaravelNanoid\HasNanoids;

class Book extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;
    use HasNanoids;
}

Use a string primary key in your migration:

public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('books', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->string('id')->primary();
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

You can also scaffold migrations with:

php artisan make:nanoid-migration

make:nanoid-migration accepts the same arguments as make:migration.

Configuration

You can configure generated IDs per model with these properties (or methods with the same names):

• nanoidPrefix: static prefix, for example ord_
• nanoidLength: fixed length (10) or random range ([10, 20])
• nanoidAlphabet: allowed characters
• nanoidFormat: structured format like {3}-{4}

Each option supports either:

• A single value for all unique ID columns
• A keyed array per column

nanoidPrefix

// One prefix for all generated ids
protected $nanoidPrefix = 'p-';

// Per-column prefixes
protected $nanoidPrefix = ['id' => 'p-', 'username' => 'u_'];

nanoidLength

// One fixed length for all generated ids
protected $nanoidLength = 12;

// Random length between min and max for all generated ids
protected $nanoidLength = [2, 5];

// Per-column fixed length
protected $nanoidLength = ['id' => 7, 'username' => 12];

// Per-column ranged length (min, max)
protected $nanoidLength = ['id' => [2, 5], 'username' => [8, 10]];

// Invalid: range must have exactly two values [min, max]
protected $nanoidLength = ['id' => [2]];

nanoidAlphabet

// One alphabet for all generated ids
protected $nanoidAlphabet = 'ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789';

// Per-column alphabets
protected $nanoidAlphabet = [
    'id' => 'ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789',
    'username' => 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz',
];

nanoidFormat

// One format for all unique id columns
protected $nanoidFormat = 'u_{4}-{4}';

// Per-column formats
protected $nanoidFormat = ['id' => 'p-{7}', 'username' => 'u_{4}-{4}'];

Full model example

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Malico\LaravelNanoid\HasNanoids;

class SessionToken extends Model
{
    use HasNanoids;

    protected $nanoidAlphabet = 'ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789';
    protected $nanoidPrefix = [
        'id' => 'p-',
    ];
    protected $nanoidLength = 12;
    protected $nanoidFormat = [
        'username' => 'u_{8}',
    ];

    public function uniqueIds(): array
    {
        return ['id', 'username'];
    }
}

// id: p-8F4Z2K9T7Q1M
// username: u_A8K9P2QW

Format Patterns

Use nanoidFormat when you want readable, segmented IDs.

Supported placeholders:

• {n} generates exactly n random characters
• {min-max} generates a random length between min and max

All other characters are kept as-is (-, _, ., spaces, and so on).

class TrackingCode extends Model
{
    use HasNanoids;

    protected $nanoidFormat = 'TRK-{3}-{3-4}-{6}';
}

// TRK-X9a-k2Pm-8Qw1Zr
// TRK-L0p-r7A-2bV9tK

class Coupon extends Model
{
    use HasNanoids;

    protected $nanoidAlphabet = 'ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789';
    protected $nanoidFormat = '{4} {4}';
}

// 7KQ2 M9TZ

Rules:

• If nanoidFormat is set, it fully controls the generated shape
• nanoidFormat cannot be combined with nanoidPrefix
• nanoidFormat cannot be combined with nanoidLength
• Without nanoidFormat, generation falls back to nanoidPrefix + nanoidLength
• With per-column arrays, these conflict rules apply per column

Benchmark

Run the included micro-benchmark:

php benchmarks/nanoid.php

Choosing an ID Type

• Use this package when you want random, non-sequential, human-friendly IDs (for example p-8F4Z2K9T7Q1M)
• Use Laravel HasUlids when you want sortable IDs that preserve creation order better
• Use auto-incrementing integers when you need simple sequential IDs and the best insert locality

If your system requires strictly incremental IDs, this package is not the right tool.

Safety Notes

• Short IDs are easier to collide and easier to guess; increase length for public or sensitive resources
• NanoID's own guidance compares default NanoID entropy with UUID v4 (similar collision profile)
• Always choose size/alphabet based on your scale and threat model
• For custom sizes, check collision estimates with: https://zelark.github.io/nano-id-cc/

If you are upgrading from 0.x, see UPGRADE.MD.

Author

Ndifon Desmond Yong