NestJS TypeORM commands

TypeORM CLI reimplemented to be conveniently used in NestJS alongside @nestjs/typeorm and nest-commander.

Works with TypeORM version 0.3.x.

Quick setup

npm i nestjs-typeorm-commands nest-commander

In src/app.module.ts:

import { NestTypeOrmCommandsModule } from 'nestjs-typeorm-commands';

@Module({
  imports: [
    // ...
    // TypeOrmModule.forRootAsync({
    // ... your TypeORM configuration, usually based on a config module
    // }),
    NestTypeOrmCommandsModule.forRoot({
      migrationsDir: 'src/migrations',
    }),
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

In src/cli.ts (standard integration of nest-commander, if you haven't done that already):

import { CommandFactory } from 'nest-commander';
import { AppModule } from './app.module.ts';

async function bootstrap() {
  await CommandFactory.run(AppModule);
}

bootstrap();

In package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "migration:generate": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:generate",
    "migration:run": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:run",
    "migration:revert": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:revert"
  }
}

And then run them:

• npm run migration:generate MigrationName - automatically create a migration
• npm run migration:run - run pending migrations
• npm run migration:revert -- revert last migration

Voila.

NOTE: More commands are supported, see the full list in the configuration steps below.

Why?

If you have followed the recommended way to integrate with TypeORM and used @nestjs/typeorm package, then your app.module.ts probably looks like this:

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { TypeOrmModule } from '@nestjs/typeorm';

@Module({
  imports: [
    TypeOrmModule.forRoot({
      type: 'mysql',
      host: 'localhost',
      port: 3306,
      username: 'root',
      password: 'root',
      database: 'test',
      autoLoadEntities: true,
      // synchronize: true, // this is bad
    }),
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

(or, even better, you get the config values from a configuration module that pulls them from env or some other mechanism).

When your project exits PoC stage and you want to make use of migrations... you get stuck. NestJS db migration docs are no help and they point to TypeORM CLI docs, but the way TypeORM CLI is implemented is nowhere near compatible with NestJS: it requires a dedicated file that configures DataSource class and does not support autoLoadEntities flag. Of course, you could create it and pass the same config values to it, but it gets complicated if you have non-trivial configuration layer and you use autoLoadEntities.

TypeORM 0.2.x used to support ormconfig.js file, that was slightly easier to manage, but the result was the same.

Migrations are a core requirement for any production application and their support in NestJS + TypeORM is lacking.

What?

This package adds 1st class support of TypeORM CLI commands to NestJS, so you don't have to worry about duplicating configuration and shoehorning it to make it work with the original TypeORM CLI.

It leverages nest-commander (see also NestJS docs about it) to build and register the commands in the application. You may already be using it (it's recommended if not yet).

How?

Installation

Assuming you're already using NestJS and TypeORM, install these two libraries:

npm i nestjs-typeorm-commands nest-commander

Configuration

Open your app.module.ts and add the following:

import { NestTypeOrmCommandsModule } from 'nestjs-typeorm-commands';

@Module({
  imports: [
    // ...
    // TypeOrmModule.forRootAsync({
    // ... your TypeORM configuration, usually based on a config module
    // }),
    NestTypeOrmCommandsModule.forRoot({
      migrationsDir: 'src/migrations',
    }),
  ],
})
export class AppModule {}

You can set migrationsDir to whatever destination you want, relative to the root of the project.

nest-commander integration

Skip if you already have nest-commander integrated into your project.

Best to follow standard integration of nest-commander, by creating a src/cli.ts file and pasting the below code to it:

import { CommandFactory } from 'nest-commander';
import { AppModule } from './app.module.ts';

async function bootstrap() {
  await CommandFactory.run(AppModule);
}

bootstrap();

Configuring package.json

To be able to run these commands, it's best to expose them in your package.json file in the scripts section.

Copy and paste the below:

{
  "scripts": {
    "migration:create": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:create",
    "migration:generate": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:generate",
    "migration:run": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:run",
    "migration:revert": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:revert",
    "migration:show": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm migration:show",
    "schema:drop": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm schema:drop",
    "schema:log": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm schema:log",
    "schema:sync": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm schema:sync",
    "typeorm:cache:clear": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm cache:clear",
    "typeorm:query": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm query",
    "typeorm:version": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/cli.ts typeorm version"
  }
}

If you are not using NestJS's monorepo and you use relative paths for imports, as well as no aliases, you may omit the -r tsconfig-paths/register part of these commands, for readability.

If you have integrated nest-commander via a different file than src/cli.ts then replace it here.

Usage

Now you have access to the following commands:

• npm run migration:create MigrationName - create an empty migration with the given name
• npm run migration:generate MigrationName - automatically create a migration with the given name
• npm run migration:run - run pending migrations
• npm run migration:revert -- revert last migration
• npm run migration:show - show list of migrations and their status
• npm run schema:drop - drop the db schema
• npm run schema:log - show diff between db schema and codebase
• npm run schema:sync - sync the db schema with the codebase
• npm run typeorm:cache:clear - clear query cache
• npm run typeorm:query "SELECT * FROM migrations" - run an SQL query
• npm run typeorm:version - check TypeORM version

Disclaimer

This package simply reimplements the TypeORM CLI commands in a "NestJS-way", injecting the application's DataSource into the commands, so the configuration can be fully reused. The actual command code is 100% based on the original commands and some small features might be missing.

For full visibility:

• the commands use the default DataSource (connection) to the database. Support for handling multiple connections / specifying which connection should be used in on TODO list.
• migration:generate and migration:create only supports TypeScript migrations, no JS files
• Output coloring has been removed for simplicity. It might be added later.
• Error handling is simplified and errors simply uncaught.