ZenStack Documentation

ZenStack is a TypeScript database toolkit for developing full-stack or backend Node.js/Bun applications. It provides a unified data modeling and query solution with the following features:

• Schema-first ORM: Compatible with Prisma's schema and API.
• Versatile API: Offers high-level ORM queries and a low-level Kysely query builder.
• Security: Built-in access control and data validation.
• Advanced Modeling: Supports patterns like polymorphism.
• Extensibility: Designed for flexibility and extensibility.
• Automatic APIs: Generates CRUD web APIs with adapters for popular frameworks.
• Frontend Integration: Provides automatic TanStack Query hooks for easy CRUD operations.
• Zod Integration: Generates Zod schemas.

The @zenstackhq/orm is a type-safe database client built on top of Kysely. Key capabilities include:

• Type-safe CRUD operations: Automatically generated from your ZModel schema.
• Plugin system: Supports query interception and entity mutation hooks.
• Multi-dialect support: Works with SQLite (better-sqlite3), PostgreSQL (pg), and MySQL (mysql2).
• Computed fields: Evaluated at the database level.
• Custom procedures: Allows encapsulating complex queries and mutations.

The @zenstackhq/tanstack-query package provides integrations for the following frameworks via specific entry points:

• React: @zenstackhq/tanstack-query/react
• Vue: @zenstackhq/tanstack-query/vue
• Svelte: @zenstackhq/tanstack-query/svelte

ZenStack V3 is a major rewrite that replaces Prisma ORM with a custom ORM engine built on top of Kysely, while maintaining a Prisma-compatible query API.

Key benefits of V3 include:

• Pure TypeScript: No Rust or WASM components required.
• Improved Type Inference: More TypeScript type inference and reduced reliance on code generation.
• Typed Query Builder: A fully-typed Kysely-based query builder serves as a superior escape hatch compared to Prisma's raw SQL or typed SQL.

Supported Frameworks

• Express
• Fastify
• Next.js
• Nuxt
• SvelteKit
• Hono
• Elysia
• TanStack Start

API Styles

• REST: Resource-oriented endpoints with JSON:API support.
• RPC: Procedure-call style endpoints.

The project is organized into the following directories:

• app/: Contains Nuxt application components and pages.
• server/: Contains Nuxt server files.
  • api/model/[...path].ts: The ZenStack API endpoint.
  • utils/db.ts: The database client.
• zenstack/: Contains ZenStack schema and generated files.
  • schema.zmodel: The database schema definition.
  • seed.ts: The database seeding script.

The @zenstackhq/sdk package provides low-level utilities for developers building tools on top of ZenStack. Key capabilities include:

• ZModel AST traversal: Utilities for working with the ZModel Abstract Syntax Tree and model structures.
• TypeScript code generation: Generating TypeScript schema output directly from ZModel.
• CLI plugin interface: An interface for building and extending the zenstack generate command via plugins.
• Prisma interop: Utilities for interacting with Prisma schema artifacts.

You can automatically populate your ZModel schema with better-auth data models by using the @better-auth/cli generation command.

npx @better-auth/cli generate

After creating your project and installing dependencies (using npm install, pnpm install, or yarn), start the development server using the dev script. You can use the --open flag to automatically open the application in a new browser tab.

npm run dev

# or start the server and open the app in a new browser tab
npm run dev -- --open