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Simfinity.js: What Its GraphQL API Handles—and What It Leaves to You

Define GraphQL.js types, register them, create a schema, then initialize Simfinity’s PostgreSQL adapter before serving requests. See how relations become foreign keys and what your application must still handle.
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With Simfinity.js, you define GraphQL.js object types, register them, build a schema, and initialize the PostgreSQL adapter before serving requests. The generated API includes operations and resolvers based on those types; it does not replace your database setup, authentication, authorization rules, or migration process.

How Simfinity turns GraphQL types into an API

A GraphQLObjectType is the starting point for both the API and generated storage. Simfinity reads registered types and their relation metadata to prepare inputs, queries, mutations, resolvers, and storage descriptions. The operation names and input shapes are designed to remain consistent across its database adapters, while the underlying persistence differs. Simfinity schema documentation

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1. Define a domain type

Create ordinary GraphQL.js object types for your domain, with scalar, enum, list, and object fields as needed. Field descriptions document the public API. Relation or behavior metadata can be supplied through extensions where the framework expects it; that metadata matters because it helps Simfinity interpret relationships when generating storage and resolvers.

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2. Register endpoint and supporting types

Register a type with connect() when it should receive its own root operations. Use addNoEndpointType() for a supporting type that should participate in the schema but should not get its own CRUD endpoints. Register all types before calling createSchema(). The schema guide

3. Build the executable schema

Call createSchema() after registration. Simfinity prepares the generated API surface, including inputs, list and detail operations, mutations, and relation resolvers. Review that surface as part of API design: generated CRUD operations are not a substitute for deciding which operations your application should expose.

How to connect the generated API to PostgreSQL

The PostgreSQL quick start documents @simtlix/simfinity-postgres. A newer plugin architecture is also documented using @simtlix/simfinity-sql with the PostgreSQL plugin. Its example creates SQL storage with createSQL({ plugin: postgresPlugin({ pool, schema }) }); createPostgres({ pool, schema }) remains available as a convenience facade. In either form, provide a database pool and schema, and initialize storage before the application serves GraphQL operations. PostgreSQL quick start SQL core and plugins

  1. Install compatible packages. Keep Simfinity packages on aligned versions, and check the current PostgreSQL compatibility guide and npm package listing before installation. The documentation identifies Simfinity.js version 3.4.1 in its current search results; its PostgreSQL quick start lists Node.js >=18.18.0, GraphQL 16, and PostgreSQL 15, 16, and 18 as supported. The starter example calls for Node.js 22 or newer. The npm listing describes PostgreSQL 15 or later and Node.js 18.18 or later. Treat these as package guidance, not a guarantee that every deployment combination has been tested.

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  2. Create the connection and storage. Supply your pool and a named PostgreSQL schema to the adapter. Await the documented database initialization in the appropriate create or validation mode before handling requests. The application owns the pool lifecycle, including closing it during shutdown.

  3. Attach the schema to an HTTP GraphQL server. Pass the schema returned by Simfinity to a server such as Yoga. Your application remains responsible for starting and stopping the HTTP server, loading credentials from its deployment environment, and managing authentication and application-specific access rules. Introduction

What generated PostgreSQL storage means

The adapter maps the registered types and relations to PostgreSQL structures rather than using a document database. The documented PostgreSQL backend uses generated SQL schemas and tables, UUID identities, indexes, constraints, and PostgreSQL transaction behavior. Generated storage does not mean Simfinity has taken ownership of production operations: connection configuration, deployment, access policy, and workload-specific database design remain application responsibilities. PostgreSQL quick start Choosing Simfinity

How relationship metadata maps to PostgreSQL

Single reference: a UUID column and foreign key

If a season references a series, the reference is represented by a UUID column on the referencing record and a real foreign key to the target identity. The column uses the configured connection field, or the GraphQL field name, and the guide describes a referencing index as well. This provides database-level referential integrity for that relation.

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Inverse collection: resolve through the child

An inverse collection does not create an array column on the parent. Instead, the resolver finds child records through their reference to that parent. Model the reference on the child where the relationship belongs.

Many-to-many: use an explicit link entity

Represent a many-to-many relationship with a link entity that has its own table and foreign keys. If the same pair should not appear more than once, add uniqueness metadata for the pair. Reciprocal lists alone are not sufficient to describe an otherwise unmodeled many-to-many relation; the guide says such cases are rejected.

Embedded objects and lists of references

Embedded objects and lists containing references use owned tables and owner foreign keys. Distinguish those owned records from references to external entities: ownership affects how cascades are treated. The documentation also notes that whole embedded objects cannot be sorted or grouped.

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What Simfinity does not decide for your application

PostgreSQL or MongoDB: what changes?

With the same type registrations and relation metadata, the documentation describes the adapters as generating the same operation names and input shapes. The storage, integrity mechanisms, and database-specific behavior are different. Database comparison

Area PostgreSQL adapter MongoDB adapter
Physical storage Generated SQL schemas and tables, UUID identities, indexes, and constraints Mongoose models and MongoDB collections
Referential integrity Native foreign keys and database constraints MongoDB/Mongoose persistence semantics
Transactions PostgreSQL transaction/session API; the guide describes repeatable-read transactions Transactions through the Mongoose-backed adapter
Package/runtime @simtlix/simfinity-postgres; SQL core and plugin architecture is also available @simtlix/simfinity-js facade with MongoDB-specific dependencies
Moving an existing application Does not automatically migrate MongoDB data Does not make a populated PostgreSQL application switchable at runtime

When this approach is a fit—and its limits

Simfinity is intended for applications where GraphQL types can serve as a shared description of API operations and generated persistence. It is not a database switcher or a replacement for application-specific rules. PostgreSQL-specific expectations should be checked against the guide: arbitrary MongoDB pipelines and Mongoose-native methods do not have PostgreSQL equivalents, and some relation or embedded-object operations have the limits described above. Fit guide Database comparison

For an existing MongoDB application, adopting PostgreSQL means planning data migration and reviewing database-specific application behavior separately. The shared generated GraphQL surface can ease consistency across adapters, but it does not make the underlying databases interchangeable.

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