Models & fields

A model is an entity that becomes a stored table. Declare it by name — no keyword — followed by a block of fields.

Model syntax#

ModelName {
  field: type
  field: type
}

Rules the parser enforces (fatal on violation):

• The model name must be PascalCase — User, OrderItem. user or order_item fail to parse.
• A model must contain at least one field. An empty User { } is rejected.
• Model names must be unique within the schema.

User {
  id: +uuid
  email: &string @email
  created_at: +timestamp
}

Field syntax#

Each field has the form:

name: [MODIFIER]type [@directive ...]

• name — required, snake_case (created_at, not createdAt). Non-snake_case names are a fatal parse error.
• type — required, immediately after the colon. One of the scalar types, an enum, a struct, or a relation.
• modifiers — optional +, &, ^ prefixes (before the type).
• directives — optional @... directives after the type.

Field names must be unique within a model — a duplicate id is rejected.

Modifier positions#

The prefix modifiers + (auto-generate), & (unique), and ^ (indexed) appear between the colon and the type name. Any combination is allowed, in any order:

field: +type      // auto-generate
field: &type      // unique
field: ^type      // indexed
field: +&^type    // all three (any combination)

The nullable modifier ? is different: it appears after the type (postfix), though a prefix form also parses. See modifiers for the full rules.

field: string?    // nullable string (postfix — the idiomatic form)
field: ?string    // prefix nullable also parses
field: +uuid?     // auto-generate + nullable

Worked field examples#

Post {
  id: +uuid                                 // auto-generated UUID PK
  title: string @length(1, 200)             // required string, length constraint
  slug: ^&string @length(1, 200)            // indexed + unique string
  view_count: u32 @default(0)               // default marker (semantic)
  published: bool @default(false)
  published_at: timestamp?                  // nullable timestamp
  author: *User                             // required foreign key
  created_at: +timestamp                    // auto-generated timestamp
}

Terminators & layout#

• No semicolons. Fields and models are delimited by newlines and the { / } block braces — newlines are significant.
• A field's @ directives must follow its type on the same logical line (before the next newline or the next constraint).
• Definitions may span multiple lines; horizontal whitespace is insignificant.

See comments & whitespace for the details.