What is Collections

@deessejs/collections is a functional-first data modeling layer built on top of Drizzle ORM. It provides type-safe collections, native internationalization, a powerful plugin system, and auto-generated APIs.

The Problem

Building data-intensive applications requires handling many concerns:

• Data Modeling: Defining schemas, relationships, and validation rules
• Type Safety: Ensuring TypeScript types match your database schema
• Validation: Runtime validation for user input
• Internationalization: Translating labels, error messages, and content
• API Generation: Creating CRUD endpoints for your collections
• Cross-Cutting Concerns: Caching, versioning, soft delete, SEO metadata

Traditional ORMs and query builders handle database operations well, but leave you to build everything else yourself.

The Solution

Collections provides a complete data modeling layer that addresses all these concerns:

Type-Safe by Default

Every collection is fully typed. TypeScript infers types from your field definitions, giving you autocomplete and type safety everywhere.

// TypeScript knows user has name: string and email: string
const user = await collections.users.findUnique({
  where: { id: 1 }
})

user.name // ✅ Type-safe
user.age // ❌ Type error

Functional-First Design

Everything is a composable function. Fields, collections, plugins—all built from simple, reusable pieces.

field({ type: text({ min: 3, max: 255 }) })

collection({
  slug: 'posts',
  fields: { ... }
})

defineConfig({
  collections: [posts],
  plugins: [cachePlugin(), versioningPlugin()]
})

Native i18n

Translate labels, descriptions, validation messages, and enum values without external i18n libraries.

label: {
  en: 'Blog Post',
  fr: 'Article de Blog',
  es: 'Artículo de Blog'
}

Plugin System

Extend functionality with plugins that can add fields, collections, field types, hooks, and operations.

defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    softDeletePlugin({ collections: ['posts'] }),
    seoPlugin({ collections: ['posts', 'pages'] }),
    cachePlugin({ collections: ['posts', 'users'] })
  ]
})

Auto-Generated APIs

Generate Hono APIs automatically from your collections.

// Generates CRUD routes for all collections
export const api = generateAPI(collections)

What Collections Is Not

Collections is not:

• A full-stack framework like Next.js or Remix
• An admin UI generator like Payload CMS or Strapi
• A replacement for Drizzle ORM—you still use Drizzle for raw queries when needed

Instead, Collections is the data modeling layer that sits between your application code and Drizzle ORM, providing a richer, more productive API for working with your data.

When to Use Collections

Collections is ideal when:

• You're building data-intensive applications with complex schemas
• You need type safety across your entire data layer
• You require native internationalization support
• You want to extend functionality through plugins
• You prefer functional, composable APIs over class-based ORMs
• You're already using Drizzle ORM and want a higher-level abstraction

Next Steps

• Getting Started - Install and create your first collection
• Comparison - See how Collections compares to alternatives
• Core Concepts - Deep dive into configuration, collections, and fields