Introduction

Durcno is a PostgreSQL Query Builder and Migration Manager for TypeScript designed around four core principles:

• Intuitive: Clean definitions and queries that map to PostgreSQL
• Type-safe: Full TypeScript inference across all operations
• Runtime-safe: Built-in validators for runtime data safety
• Robust: Auto generated, reversible, and squashable migrations

Why Durcno?

Durcno provides a modern, type-safe approach to working with PostgreSQL databases in TypeScript applications. Unlike traditional ORMs, Durcno prioritizes developer experience with an intuitive API, comprehensive type safety, runtime validation, and robust migration management.

🧩 Intuitive

Define your database schema using clean, type-safe table definitions that map directly to PostgreSQL columns:

import {
  table,
  pk,
  varchar,
  timestamptz,
  enumtype,
  notNull,
  unique,
  now,
} from "durcno";

// Define an enum type for user roles
export const UserRole = enumtype("public", "userRole", [
  "admin",
  "moderator",
  "user",
]);

// Create a fully-typed Users table
export const Users = table("public", "users", {
  id: pk(),
  username: varchar({ length: 50, notNull, unique }),
  email: varchar({ length: 255, notNull, unique }),
  role: UserRole.enumed({ notNull }).default("user"),
  createdAt: timestamptz({ notNull }).default(now()),
});

Every column type maps naturally to PostgreSQL types, and TypeScript automatically infers the correct types for all your queries. No decorators, no magic—just clean, declarative code with configuration objects.

🎯 Type-safe

Every query & the return,

// TypeScript knows exactly what columns and types are available
const users = await db.from(Users).select({
  id: Users.id, // type: bigint
  username: Users.username, // type: string
  email: Users.email, // type: string
  role: Users.role, // type: "admin" | "moderator" | "user"
});
// Result type: { id: bigint; username: string; email: string; role: "admin" | "moderator" | "user" }[]

// TypeScript prevents invalid operations
await db.insert(Users).values({
  username: "john_doe",
  email: "john@example.com",
  role: "staff", // ❌ TypeScript error: Type '"staff"' is not assignable to type '"admin" | "moderator" | "user"'
});

With Durcno, your IDE becomes your most powerful debugging tool, catching mistakes before you even run your code.

🔒 Runtime-safe

Beyond compile-time checks, Durcno provides runtime safety through built-in Zod schema generation. Validate incoming data against your table definitions before it ever reaches the database:

import { createInsertSchema } from "durcno/validators/zod";

const UserInsertSchema = createInsertSchema(Users);

// Validates at runtime — throws for invalid data
const data = UserInsertSchema.parse(req.body);
await db.insert(Users).values(data);

This ensures your application handles untrusted data — from API requests, webhooks, or user input — safely and predictably.

🔥 Robust

No separate migration tool needed. Durcno includes a powerful CLI that automatically generates migrations by comparing your schema definitions with your database:

# Generate migrations from schema changes
durcno generate
# Creates timestamped migration with up.ts and down.ts

# Apply pending migrations
durcno migrate
# Executes all pending migrations in order

# Rollback specific migration
durcno down <migration-name>
# Safely rolls back changes with down.ts (exports rollback DDL statements)

# View migration status
durcno status
# See which migrations are applied or pending

# Squash a range of migrations into one
durcno squash <start-migration> <end-migration>

Durcno tracks your schema changes automatically, so you can focus on building features instead of writing SQL migration scripts by hand.

A robust, production-ready foundation — designed to scale with your project from prototype to production.

Features

• 🔗 Relation Mapping — Intuitive many, one, and fk relations with full type inference.
• ⚡ Zero Runtime Overhead — Thin abstraction layer that compiles to efficient SQL.
• 🔌 Multiple Drivers — Support for pg, postgres, bun, and pglite drivers.
• 🌍 PostGIS Support — First-class geographic column types for spatial queries.

Next Steps

Ready to get started? Check out the Getting Started guide to set up your first Durcno project.