Database Client

🔋 ZenStack vs Prisma

Unlike Prisma, ZenStack doesn't bundle any database driver. You're responsible for installing a compatible one. Also it doesn't read database connection string from the schema. Instead, you pass in the connection information when creating the client.

The zen generate command compiles the ZModel schema into TypeScript code, which we can in turn use to initialize a type-safe database client. ZenStack uses Kysely to handle the low-level database operations, so the client is initialize with a Kysely dialect - an object that encapsulates database details.

The samples below only shows creating a client using SQLite (via better-sqlite3) and PostgreSQL (via node-postgres), however you can also use any other Kysely dialects for these two types of databases.

SQLite

npm

npm install --save-dev @types/better-sqlite3
npm install better-sqlite3

pnpm

pnpm add --save-dev @types/better-sqlite3
pnpm add better-sqlite3

bun

bun add --dev @types/better-sqlite3
bun add better-sqlite3

yarn

yarn add --dev @types/better-sqlite3
yarn add better-sqlite3

db.ts

import { ZenStackClient } from '@zenstackhq/runtime';
import { SqliteDialect } from 'kysely';
import SQLite from 'better-sqlite3';
import { schema } from '@/zenstack/schema';

export const db = new ZenStackClient(schema, {
    dialect: new SqliteDialect({
        database: new SQLite(':memory:'),
    }),
});

PostgreSQL

npm

npm install --save-dev @types/pg
npm install pg

pnpm

pnpm add --save-dev @types/pg
pnpm add pg

bun

bun add --dev @types/pg
bun add pg

yarn

yarn add --dev @types/pg
yarn add pg

db.ts

import { ZenStackClient } from '@zenstackhq/runtime';
import { schema } from '@/zenstack/schema';
import { PostgresDialect } from 'kysely';
import { Pool } from 'pg';

export const db = new ZenStackClient(schema, {
    dialect: new PostgresDialect({
        pool: new Pool({
            connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
        }),
    }),
});

The created db object has the full ORM API inferred from the type of the schema parameter. When necessary, you can also explicitly get the inferred client type like:

import type { ClientContract } from '@zenstackhq/runtime';
import type { SchemaType } from '@/zenstack/schema';

export type DbClient = ClientContract<SchemaType>;