Storing colors

Casting the column

By default Palette stores the selected color as an array, so the column must be cast to array or json on your model:

protected $casts = [
    'content' => 'array', // or 'json'
];

The stored shape

A saved color looks like this:

[
    'key' => 'primary',
    'property' => '--primary-500',
    'label' => 'Primary',
    'type' => 'rgb',
    'value' => '238, 246, 213',
]

Each key is derived as follows:

Key	Meaning
`key`	The array key you gave the color in `colors()`.
`property`	A CSS custom property name — `--{key}` for a flat color, or `--{key}-{shade}` when the color came from a Filament color object.
`label`	The label from `labels()`, or the title-cased key.
`type`	One of `hex`, `rgb`, `oklch` or `class`, detected from the value.
`value`	The resolved color value at the selected shade.

Storing the whole array means you can render the color without looking anything up — you have the value, a property name to bind it to, and a label to display.

The class type is what makes CSS-class colors work. A value like bg-gradient-secondary is not a color at all, so Palette marks it as a class and you apply it as one rather than as a value.

Storing only the key

If you would rather store a plain string, use storeAsKey() on the field:

use Awcodes\Palette\Forms\Components\ColorPicker;

ColorPicker::make('color')
    ->storeAsKey(),

The column then holds 'primary' rather than the full array, so it does not need an array cast. You give up the resolved value, property and label — you will need to resolve the key against your palette yourself when rendering.

To apply it across every Palette field, set it in the config file instead:

// config/palette.php
return [
    'store_as_key' => true,
];

The field-level modifier always wins over the config. With store_as_key enabled globally, an individual field can still opt out and store the full array:

ColorPicker::make('color')
    ->storeAsKey(false),

A field that never calls storeAsKey() follows the config value.

Reading a stored color

ColorEntry handles both shapes. Given a full array it renders it directly. Given a key, it resolves that key against its own colors — so pass the entry the same palette you gave the field:

use Awcodes\Palette\Infolists\Components\ColorEntry;
use Filament\Support\Colors\Color;

ColorEntry::make('color')
    ->colors([
        'badass' => Color::hex('#bada55'),
    ])
    ->shades([
        'badass' => 300,
    ]),

Without a matching entry in colors() there is nothing to resolve the key to, so the entry renders nothing rather than a broken swatch. The same applies when the column is empty. See Components.