Work with the database in a NocoBase 3 application: configure connections and dialects, add migrations and seeds, declare schema with the Collection Builder, read and write records with Repository or
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Work with the database in a NocoBase 3 application: configure connections and dialects, add migrations and seeds, declare schema with the Collection Builder, read and write records with Repository or QueryAdapter, run transactions, and read Collection definitions. Use for any task under database/ or any server code that touches data. Do not use for the NocoBase 2 @nocobase/database package.
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nocobase-db
description
Work with the database in a NocoBase 3 application: configure connections and dialects, add migrations and seeds, declare schema with the Collection Builder, read and write records with Repository or QueryAdapter, run transactions, and read Collection definitions. Use for any task under database/ or any server code that touches data. Do not use for the NocoBase 2 @nocobase/database package.
metadata
short-description: Configure, migrate and query the database in a NocoBase 3 application
The database in a NocoBase 3 application
Most mistakes here are made before the first line of code, by putting a task at the wrong layer: changing schema from runtime code, reading records through the schema builder, or reimplementing relation writes on top of raw queries.
Six areas, in the order an application grows into them:
what the database actually resolves to, for code and for you
The exact parameters and return types are always the TypeScript declarations in @nocobase/db. This Skill decides which API to reach for, where the code belongs, and the boundaries the types cannot express.
Where the code lives
server/config/database.ts connections and the default connection
config.yml per-environment overrides and credentials (gitignored)
database/<connection>/migrations schema history for that connection
database/<connection>/seeds install data for that connection
database/<connection>/collections resolved Collection artifacts
server/routes/, server/providers runtime reads and writes
<connection> is a connection name from server/config/database.ts, so the default connection's migrations are in database/main/migrations/. Adding a connection means adding its directory alongside and keeping database/tsconfig.json in place, so migrations and seeds are typechecked and linted as server source.
Runtime code never changes schema, and a migration never imports runtime code. That split is what these directories encode.
1. Configuration
Connections are declared in code and overridden per environment:
Location
Responsibility
server/config/database.ts
Connection defaults through defineAppDatabaseConfig
config.yml
Environment overrides including credentials — gitignored
config.example.yml
The documented structure and credential placeholders; keep it in step
The second argument maps environment variables onto the section: connectionEnvironment('main') declares DB_DIALECT, DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, DB_SSL and DB_FILENAME for the main connection, each overriding config.yml. Only main has them; a connection you add declares its own with a prefix naming it, connectionEnvironment('analytics', 'DB_ANALYTICS'), merged into the same env.
The dialects are sqlite, postgres, mysql, mssql, oracle, dameng, kingbase and oceanbase. Each is an optional peer of @nocobase/app-server shipped as its own package: install @nocobase/db-<dialect> into dependencies — so it reaches the deployed server — and configure the dialect. No import or driver registration is needed, and the dialect package brings its own underlying driver.
Switching a dialect means changing both layers. config.yml deep-merges into the code defaults, so editing only the code leaves a stale YAML override in place — with fields belonging to the previous dialect still applied. Remove filename from a connection switched away from SQLite. In YAML, database: is an alias for filename and takes precedence over it, which is the usual reason a changed filename appears to do nothing.
schemaManagement decides who owns the schema. A connection the application owns is 'managed' and has migrations; a database owned by another system is 'external', which rejects builder DDL and migrations while still allowing record reads and writes, subject to the database account's own permissions. pnpm nocobase db apply --all reports external connections as skipped, and targeting one explicitly is an error.
Passing pnpm typecheck validates neither the YAML contents nor connectivity. Only starting the application against the target proves either.
The mechanics belong to the application rather than to this package: how pnpm nocobase config init configures one, the per-dialect connection fields and defaults, driver installation and native binaries, and the typing of defineAppDatabaseConfig are in .agents/skills/nocobase-app-development/references/database-connections.md.
Keep @nocobase/db itself in dependencies, not devDependencies: the deployed server resolves it at runtime, and TypeScript reads that declaration to infer the database configuration.
2. Migrations and seeds
A migration creates structure. A seed inserts the records the application needs in order to run. Neither does the other's job. Sample or demonstration content is not install data: declare it as a sample seed, described below, never as a plain seed.
Apply both with pnpm nocobase db apply, adding --connection <name> for a non-default connection or --all for every managed one.
Each context carries its own tools, and which one to use is not a free choice — see Repository and Query. In short: a migration works through builder and query, and a seed writes through repository.
The rules are absolute, because these files are history that has already run on other machines:
Self-contained. Spell out every table, field, index, constraint and metadata operation in the file. Never import a Collection definition, model, registry or shared constant that keeps evolving — that silently changes both the behavior and the checksum of something already applied.
Immutable once merged. Check with git log -- <file> if unsure. Before the branch is merged you may correct the file in place; after it, every change is a new, later file. Never hard-code a previous checksum to make an edited migration look untouched. Correcting it in place changes nothing on its own — it is recorded as executed, so a plain apply skips it and the database keeps the schema the old file produced. pnpm nocobase db redo rolls the latest batch back and applies it again.
The file name body matches name, and the name is unique across every source in the application.
Declare irreversible: true when there is no real reverse operation, instead of writing a down() that quietly does nothing.
A seed is idempotent, keyed on a stable business value backed by a unique constraint, so a repeated run is a no-op — upsertOne is the direct way to express that. A seed context has no builder at all, and a seed has no rollback or truncate behavior.
A backfill belongs in the migration that makes it necessary, using query from the same context — not in a seed.
Sample data goes in the same seeds directory, declared with defineSeed({ name, sample: true, run }). It runs only when the application installs its database with app.sampleData set (APP_SAMPLE_DATA=true): the connection held no migration or seed history before that start, or db reset rebuilt it. Otherwise the seed is recorded as skipped and never runs on its own; pnpm nocobase db sample runs every skipped sample seed in development, and a deployment refuses it. Sample data that has to go through other plugins' services, such as projects with issues, is registered instead on sampleDataToken from @nocobase/app-server/sample-data, from a service provider's boot(): container.resolve(sampleDataToken).register({ name, packageName, run }). It runs once the application is ready, under the same condition, and is recorded in the default connection's seed history as sample-data:<name>. The seed history's status column, executed or skipped, records which happened; the library adds it to an existing history table on the next run.
Both run inside a transaction by default. transaction: false opts out, and a failure then leaves partial work behind with no history record, so take it only when the operation genuinely cannot run in one.
A task's connection is not the runtime connection either. It carries dialect, capabilities and client() — enough to branch on the database, and deliberately not a way back to the manager. Anything conditional on the dialect reads it from there.
3. Builder
builder is the schema API, and a migration is where it belongs. Runtime code has db.builder() available and should not use it: schema that changes outside the migration history is schema nothing can reproduce.
createCollection(name, callback) takes a callback, not a field array:
Field builders are increments, integer, bigInt, string, char, text, boolean, decimal, float, double, date, time, datetime, datetimeTz, json, blob, uuid, and native for a dialect-specific type. Options include nullable, length, defaultValue, precision and scale; the equivalent chained form (.notNull(), .defaultTo(), .unique()) is also available — pick one style and keep the file consistent.
Relations are belongsTo, hasOne, hasMany and belongsToMany. Constraints and indexes are primary, unique, foreignKey and index, each taking one field name or an array.
Change an existing table with explicit alter, rename and drop operations in a safe dependency order. Do not drop and recreate — that destroys data and is not what down() should undo.
Builder arguments are logical names. Physical table and column names are generated deterministically from underscored and tablePrefix; never store or concatenate tableName and columnName yourself. The exception is a raw index or constraint name such as fk_order_items_order, which is passed through unconverted and must be spelled the same way when dropped.
db.builder() is a method on the manager; connection.builder is a property. Getting that backwards is the most common typo in this area.
4. Repository and Query
Two layers over the same tables. The choice is not stylistic, and two questions settle almost every case.
Where does the code run? Runtime code under server/ reaches both through the manager. A migration and a seed reach both through their own context — as context.repository(name), a method on the context rather than on the minimal task connection — but with opposite defaults, and those defaults are the rule rather than a hint:
Context
Tools
Default for data
Migration
builder, query, repository
query
Seed
repository, query
repository
A migration changes structure, so builder and query are its tools and repository is reserved for the writes query would get wrong: cross-dialect field encoding and decoding, Collection-level naming overrides, and relation writes including the junction rows behind a belongsToMany. Anything query expresses correctly stays on query. A seed changes no structure and writes installation data in Collection terms, so repository is its normal tool and query covers what that cannot express, such as reading a physical table backing no Collection.
This does not loosen the self-contained rule. repository(name) resolves the Collection from the database itself — the metadata a previous builder operation wrote — which is why it is available at all; importing or iterating the application's own collection definitions from a migration stays forbidden. But a migration using it is betting on a shape it did not declare in its own body, so three constraints follow:
Say in a comment why query was not enough. Nothing static can check this, and the comment is what separates a considered use from a reflex.
Do not use it in down. By the time a rollback runs, the Collection has moved past what up left behind, possibly several migrations past.
Do not use it to walk a table. Selecting every row and updating each one through a Repository is the shape to avoid; a set-based query statement is both correct and bounded.
Both tasks take their Repository from the connection the task runs on, which inside a transaction is that transaction's connection, so a failed task discards its writes. That is also why context.container is not the application container. Its type is ServiceResolver, but at runtime it is a frozen allow list holding one token — idGeneratorToken from @nocobase/app-server/id-generator, for a task that has to generate an identifier. Every other resolve throws, databaseManagerToken included: a service taken from there would hold the application's connection rather than the task's, and inside a transaction would write outside it and survive a failure that should have discarded it.
Is the unit of work a Collection's records, or a result set? Records of one Collection and the things related to them are Repository's job. A shape that is not any Collection's records — a report joining unrelated tables, a set aggregated then paginated — is Query's.
The task needs
Use
Reading a relation, or a nested create/update/delete
Repository
Optimistic locking through a version field
Repository
A row scope or write allow list (withPolicy)
Repository
Cursor pagination over a stable sort
Repository
Collection-level naming overrides to be honored
Repository
Dialect-correct JSON and temporal encoding on write
Repository
A join between tables with no relation between them
Query
A subquery, or conditions composed programmatically
Query
Paging or limiting a grouped result
Query
The costly mistake is rebuilding a relation read as a hand-written join because the join is familiar. That loses the naming mapping, the relation metadata and the write path that goes with it, and it has to be maintained against a schema the Collection definition already describes. If the records belong to a Collection, start from Repository and only drop to Query for the part Repository genuinely cannot express.
They mix freely inside one transaction — take both from the callback connection, as the example in Transactions does.
Repository is Collection-aware: it resolves fields and relations from the Collection definition, so relation reads and nested writes are expressed as data instead of assembled by hand.
Resolve the manager once — in a route factory, or as a constructor dependency of a service — not inside every handler. db.repository(), db.query(), db.builder(), db.collections() and db.transaction() take the connection name as their last argument and use the default connection when it is omitted, so single-connection code never names one.
filter, values, select and sort each accept a builder callback or the equivalent serializable JSON AST, and mean the same thing either way. They do not accept a shorthand string array such as ['id', 'name'] or ['-createdAt']. Field names are Collection logical names, never column names. A write returns a result object — the record is result.record, alongside result.version and the created relation targets — rather than the record itself. findMany is awaited for an array or iterated asynchronously to consume a large result incrementally.
The methods are findOne, findMany, count, exists, aggregate, groupBy, createOne, createMany, updateOne, updateMany, upsertOne, deleteOne and deleteMany; describeMutation and validateMutation report capabilities and pre-validate input, and withPolicy returns a scoped Repository.
For restricted access across several Collections, use connection.restrict(policies, principal). It returns a RestrictedDatabase exposing only repository, transaction, afterCommit, afterRollback, and explainPolicies; unlisted direct Collection access throws POLICY_REQUIRED. Policy factories run once at binding, and transaction callbacks receive the same restricted database bound to their transaction. Its repositories expose narrow() but no withPolicy(), and return Partial<TRecord> because policies can omit fields. Relation access still follows the originating policy; ref() explicitly reuses another entry's read rules. Keep the trusted connection for raw queries, schema operations and event subscriptions. Use connection.withPolicies() when binding policies while retaining full connection capabilities and unbound access to unlisted Collections. withPolicies() and ScopedDatabaseConnection remain supported without deprecation; adopting restrict() requires an explicit policy for each Collection the service accesses directly.
Boundaries that are easy to get wrong:
findOne takes the first match; updateOne and deleteOne require exactly one; upsertOne requires a unique equality condition.
updateMany and deleteMany refuse an empty scope. Pass all: true only when the task explicitly calls for every row — never to make an error go away.
createMany and updateMany do not accept nested relation writes. createOne accepts create and connect on a relation, not the full set.
disconnect detaches; delete removes the target record. A relation target update or delete stays inside the current parent record's scope.
Repository does not apply the application's permissions. A route handler decides what the caller may see and change before anything reaches filter, values or select. writePolicy defaults to true for an internal Repository and false for one reached from an API route, so a route-facing Repository needs an explicit allow list.
Do not assume an id exists, and do not infer a field's type, primary key or auto-increment from its name.
Query knows tables and columns, not Collections: it does not read Collection metadata, does not honor Collection-level naming overrides, applies no policy or optimistic locking, and performs no relation-aware CRUD.
Terminating methods are execute(), executeTakeFirst() and executeTakeFirstOrThrow(), plus the shorthands value(column), pluck(column) and exists().
Conditions are three-argument — where(lhs, operator, rhs) — or a callback taking the expression builder for anything composite. There is no two-argument where(field, value), and none of Knex's orWhere(), whereIn(), whereNull(), orOn() or orOnRef() exist here. Values are parameterized; never build SQL by string concatenation.
updateTable and deleteFrom refuse to run without a where. Affecting every row requires an explicit allowAllRows(), because an omitted where is unrecoverable in production.
Write the same camelCase names the migration declared. A createdAt field lives in a created_at column and is converted in both directions, so rows come back with createdAt keys.
Use only the connection the callback hands you. Calling the outer db.query(), db.builder(), db.repository() or db.connection() inside the callback runs outside the transaction and will not roll back with it — the same applies to metadata work, which must go through the transaction connection's collectionMetadata and collections.
Returning commits; throwing rolls back. Swallowing an error inside the callback and continuing commits the partial work.
A Repository nested write opens its own transaction when none is active and joins an existing one when there already is, without a savepoint per write. Several independent calls that must roll back together need an explicit transaction around them.
Work that must happen only if the writes are kept — a realtime message, a cache delete, a job dispatch — goes in connection.afterCommit(callback), never directly inside the callback, where it would still run when a later step rolls the transaction back:
It runs after the outermost commit, in registration order, and transaction() resolves once every callback has finished, so keep it quick and hand slow work to a job. Inside a nested transaction() it waits for the outer commit and is dropped if that savepoint rolls back. Outside a transaction it starts at once, so a service can call it whether or not its caller opened one. A callback that throws does not undo the commit: the error goes to the connection's onTransactionCallbackError, or becomes a TRANSACTION_CALLBACK_FAILED warning whose cause is the error. The transaction connection is finished when the callback runs; write through db or a new transaction. connection.afterRollback((error) => …) is the counterpart for logging and cleanup after a rollback. Migration and seed contexts do not offer either.
Observing Repository writes
afterCommit needs every write site to remember to register. When code must react to any change of some Collections — wherever it was made, including rows a nested relation write touched — subscribe once with connection.onRepositoryMutation() instead:
const off = db.connection().onRepositoryMutation(
{ id: 'task-board', collections: ['tasks'] },
{
afterCommit: async (events) => {
for (const event of events) {
if (event.granularity !== 'rows') continue;
for (const change of event.changes)
if (change.collection === 'tasks') boardTopic.publish(change.key);
}
},
},
);
Every Repository write method emits one event per call whose changes list each row written (created, updated or deleted, its key and the fields written), nested targets, foreign keys and through rows included; collections matches the root Collection or any of them. afterCommit(events, connection) runs once per outermost commit with that transaction's matching events and the root connection, and its errors go to the connection's onRepositoryEventError. inTransaction(event, connection) runs inside the call's transaction before it ends: throwing fails the call and rolls it back. Writes made through the connection either listener receives emit events carrying parentOperationId, nested at most repositoryEventMaxDepth (default 8) deep before REPOSITORY_EVENT_RECURSION, so a listener that writes what it observes stops instead of looping; write through that connection rather than db.connection(). Subscriptions belong to the root connection and are shared by its transactions; call the returned function to unsubscribe.
A bulk updateMany or deleteMany observed by a subscription that wants keys locks the matching rows and writes them by key; declare keys: false when knowing that the table changed is enough (cache invalidation), which keeps the single statement and delivers a count event. Always check event.granularity before reading changes. connection.explainRepositoryEvents({ collection, operation }) shows which strategy a call will use. Pass caller information with meta built by a defineRepositoryEventMeta<T>(namespace) handle and read it with handle.read(event); ask for written values with values: true only when needed, since they may include secrets.
Events cover Repository writes only: not query, client(), upsertPhysicalRow(), database cascades, or anything a migration or seed writes. They are delivered in the writing process only and lost if it crashes before delivery, so durable consumers write an outbox row in inTransaction instead.
6. Collections
A Collection is what the database resolves to once physical schema and metadata are combined. There are two ways to reach it, and they answer different questions.
pnpm nocobase collections generate writes it to disk, for you to read. It reads every Collection of a connection and writes collection.json, metadata.json and schema.json per Collection under database/<connection>/collections/<name>/, plus one _manifest.json for the connection. The db commands and pnpm dev run it for you whenever migrations change a connection's schema; run it yourself after editing an external connection's metadata. Read the artifact before writing a query — it is the reliable way to learn the real field names, types, nullability, keys and relations instead of guessing them from a migration you have not read. --connection <name> and --all select connections; --check writes nothing and exits non-zero when the files are stale.
Those files are a cache for every connection, external ones included: gitignored, safe to delete, and never read at runtime. Never edit them — change the migration, or the metadata, and regenerate.
What is written by hand sits beside the cache, in its own directory:
Directory
Written by
Holds
database/<connection>/migrations/
People
The authority on a managed connection's schema
database/<connection>/metadata/
People
One <name>.json metadata document per Collection: the default metadata source of an external connection, committed and read at startup
database/<connection>/collections/
collections generate
The cache described above
So an external connection's titles, descriptions and relations are edited in metadata/<name>.json, and deleting that directory removes the metadata the application runs on; deleting collections/ costs nothing but a regeneration.
db.collections() reads it at runtime, for code that has to adapt to the schema rather than assume it:
Beyond get(name) there are getPhysical(name) for the physical schema behind a logical name, list() and scan() to enumerate, refresh() and invalidate() around cache lifetime, and validateRelations(). For read-only inspection of real tables, columns, indexes and constraints by physical identity, use connection.schemaInspector; to read or update titles, descriptions and relation metadata, use connection.collectionMetadata.
Ordinary feature code does not need any of this. Reading a Collection at runtime is for generic behavior — an exporter, an admin screen, a validator — not for a handler that already knows which fields it wants.
What each API names
API
Names
db.connection(name)
a connection configuration name
Builder collection, field, relation API
logical names
query table and column arguments
connection-level query identifiers
collections.get() / getPhysical()
Collection logical names
schemaInspector
physical schema and table identity
collectionMetadata
Collection and field logical names
Branch on connection.dialect (for example 'postgres') to detect the database; read connection.driver only for genuinely driver-specific code. connection.client() returns the underlying Knex instance and bypasses the schema guard, so it is the last resort and never a way around 'external' — check connection.capabilities first.
API shapes that do not exist
Do not write
Write instead
db.builder
db.builder()
connection.builder()
connection.builder
db.query
db.query()
connection.query()
connection.query
db.repository() with no name
db.repository('orders')
connection.metadataStore
connection.collectionMetadata
connection.client
await connection.client()
connection.driver === 'pg'
connection.dialect === 'postgres'
Do not generate findUnique, findFirst, connectOrCreate, countDistinct, distinctOn, native array fields, or a root-level relations argument. They are not part of this package, whatever a Prisma-shaped intuition or an old design proposal suggests.
Verify
Change
Minimum verification
Configuration
The application starts against the target and pnpm nocobase db apply succeeds
Migration
up plus physical schema and metadata assertions; down when reversible
Seed
First run, repeat run, and a failed run leaving no history
Repository or query
A test against a real database, not only a mock
Transaction
Both commit and rollback
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm lint
pnpm build
pnpm nocobase db apply against a disposable database is what proves a migration runs; asserting the builder's return value is not. pnpm nocobase db redo reruns the latest batch through its own down() and up(), which is what a correction to an unmerged migration needs. pnpm nocobase db reset --force drops the managed schema and reruns everything from empty without calling any down() — only for a database that is genuinely disposable. Regenerate collection artifacts afterwards, or pnpm nocobase collections generate --check will fail.
Cover the empty result, the partial match and the absent relation, not only the happy path. Passing on SQLite does not verify PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle or SQL Server; report an unverified dialect rather than implying the behavior is uniform.
When reporting the work, say which layer you chose and why, which tests you added, which commands you actually ran, which dialects you actually exercised, and what you did not verify.
KingbaseES, Dameng and OceanBase drivers are NocoBase Pro commercial packages requiring the appropriate commercial license and authenticated access to the private package registry. Install the selected package in the application’s production dependencies, then configure its dialect and connection settings. Automatic loading and config init --dialect remain supported; explicit registration in database.drivers is optional and takes precedence.