V9 is a major refactor that unifies the storage backends into a single, configuration-driven system. This release simplifies the API surface, reduces boilerplate, and provides better extensibility for custom drivers.
🔄 Breaking Changes
Migration Required — see MIGRATION_GUIDE_8_to_9.md
Removed HasSettingsField, HasSettingsTable, HasSettingsRedis traits
Removed flat settings_* config keys (env vars unchanged)
Requires PHP 8.2+ and Laravel 12–13 (dropped 10/11, PHP 8.1)
Mutations (set, update, delete, etc.) now persist only overrides; defaults are no longer copied into storage
Validation runs against the effective (merged) result, not just persisted data
table and redis drivers throw ModelSettingsException when model has no primary key
Redis driver deletes the storage key on clear() instead of storing empty array