---
title: "Translatable descriptions — Permissions for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Per-locale role and permission descriptions via translatable-for-laravel, with a deliberate, configurable fallback."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/permissions-for-laravel/descriptions
language: en
---

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[Permissions for Laravel](https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/permissions-for-laravel.md)

# Translatable descriptions

The description on both Role and Permission is a real translatable attribute, backed by translatable-for-laravel. It is stored as a per-locale JSON map (jsonb) and resolves to a plain string for the current app locale. There is nothing to wire — the trait is applied for you:

```php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\App;

$permission->update(['description' => ['en' => 'View users', 'sk' => 'Zobraziť používateľov']]);

App::setLocale('sk');
$permission->description;              // "Zobraziť používateľov"  (current locale)

App::setLocale('en');
$permission->description;              // "View users"

$permission->getTranslations('description'); // ['en' => 'View users', 'sk' => 'Zobraziť …']
$permission->getTranslation('description', 'sk'); // "Zobraziť používateľov"
```

Write a per-locale array to set several locales at once, or a bare string to set only the current locale:

```php
App::setLocale('sk');

$role->description = 'Správca';   // a bare string writes the current locale only
$role->save();

$role->getTranslations('description'); // ['sk' => 'Správca']

$role->setTranslation('description', 'en', 'Administrator')->save();
```

toArray(), toJson() and API Resources emit the resolved locale string, matching property access — not the raw JSON map.

## Fallback modes

When the current locale has no value, permissions.description\_fallback (env PERMISSIONS\_DESCRIPTION\_FALLBACK) decides how far the read reaches:

| Mode | Chain | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Fallback` | current locale → app fallback\_locale → null | The default. A description you have not translated for a locale never surfaces content from an unrelated language. |
| `None` | current locale → null | Exact locale only. |
| `Any` | current locale → app fallback\_locale → first available locale | Descriptions never render blank, but an untranslated value can surface in another locale. Opt in deliberately. |

Descriptions are developer- and admin-facing labels, not personal data, so Any is a reasonable opt-in — it is simply not the default, because silently reaching into an unrelated locale is a surprise:

```bash
# Opt into first-available fallback (descriptions never render blank):
PERMISSIONS_DESCRIPTION_FALLBACK=any
```

To set the mode for one model, declare $translatableFallbackMode on your own subclass and register it in permissions.models.role or permissions.models.permission. The config fills the property only when it is null, so an explicit per-model mode always wins over description\_fallback:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Permissions\Models\Role;
use RoundlyConsulting\Translatable\Enums\FallbackMode;

final class AppRole extends Role
{
    protected ?FallbackMode $translatableFallbackMode = FallbackMode::None;
}
```

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