> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.novel.dev/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.novel.dev/novel-server/database.md).

# Database

Novel makes use of PostgreSQL exclusively because it has very wide adoption across cloud and a vibrant plugin community.

Knex.js with Objection.js is the ORM of choice for the project.

{% embed url="<https://www.postgresql.org/>" %}

To install PostgreSQL, follow the [Start](/start.md#manual-installation) tutorial.

{% embed url="<https://knexjs.org/>" %}

{% embed url="<https://vincit.github.io/objection.js/>" %}

## Setup

If you have not followed the Getting started tutorial, it would be best to start with that

{% embed url="<https://docs.novel.dev/start>" %}

Your Novel instance will use the environment variable below to create a connection pool against your database.

{% code title=".env" lineNumbers="true" %}

```sh
DB_HOST=postgres://username:password@postgres-server:5432/novel
```

{% endcode %}

## Why not Drizzle/Prisma/TypeORM/Kysely?

* **Prisma** uses a different DSL that you most likely would not touch frequently. It also has abstraction overhead and troubleshooting issues due to having a different runtime engine.
* **Drizzle** has a smaller community but with comparable pedigree as knex
* **TypeORM** is more of an ORM but also suffers from abstraction overhead. It has better support for typescript than knex.
* **Kysely** is a newer player and have a smaller community similar to Drizzle.

## Managing the Data

There are a lot of tools out there you can use to connec to your database. What we recommend is [Datagrip by Jetbrains](https://www.jetbrains.com/datagrip/), or [pgAdmin for OSX](https://www.pgadmin.org/download/pgadmin-4-macos/).

Novel ships with default database tables that function as a foundation for all the relevant features you have access to.

These are located in `/packages/novel/migrations`.

These migrations are executed during development runtime as well as when you start the server.

{% embed url="<https://docs.novel.dev/guides/knowledge-base/database/creating-a-table>" %}

## Usage

You can use the internal database connection like below

{% code title="feature.ts" lineNumbers="true" %}

```typescript
import db from 'novel/db';

await db('accounts').select();
```

{% endcode %}

You can use knex methods here.

## Request Bound Transactions

You can create a request bound transaction

{% code title="feature.ts" lineNumbers="true" %}

```typescript
import db from 'novel/db';

function handler(request, reply) {
    await db().session();
    // this will run in a transaction
    await db('accounts').where('id', 1).update({ test: 1 });
    // and any db calls from required functions
    await updateAccount();
}
```

{% endcode %}

All database calls within the request lifecycle uses the transaction.

## Base Models

These models follows the multi-tenancy principle. These are also covered under warranty and not advised to be overwritten.

These models are located in `/packages/novel/models/`.

<div data-full-width="false"><figure><img src="/files/gWTSuwVepXJNtMKvHpSb" alt=""><figcaption><p>Overview of the Base Models included with Novel</p></figcaption></figure></div>

A deeper discussion and explanation of the way models work are explained below

{% embed url="<https://docs.novel.dev/novel-server/models>" %}

## Changelog

* 2024-12-20 - Initial Documentation