Inquire

Inquire is a lightweight TypeScript SQL builder. It helps you define schemas, build SQL queries, and execute them through a connection wrapper. It does not model records, relationships, or unit-of-work behavior for you.

What Inquire is for

Use Inquire when you want:

• typed query results in TypeScript
• one small API for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and PGlite
• schema helpers without adopting a full ORM
• the option to mix builders and raw SQL

Use something else if you want:

• model instances and change tracking
• relationship loading
• repository patterns generated by the library
• a full migration workflow with history and orchestration

Supported databases

Inquire supports these connection packages:

• @stackpress/inquire-mysql2
• @stackpress/inquire-pg
• @stackpress/inquire-pglite
• @stackpress/inquire-sqlite3

PostgreSQL-compatible services such as CockroachDB, Neon, Supabase, and Vercel Postgres can use the PostgreSQL adapter when the underlying driver is compatible.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer
• yarn

Install

Install the core library and one connection package.

# Core package
yarn add @stackpress/inquire

# MySQL
yarn add @stackpress/inquire-mysql2 mysql2

# PostgreSQL
yarn add @stackpress/inquire-pg pg

# SQLite
yarn add @stackpress/inquire-sqlite3 better-sqlite3

# PGlite
yarn add @stackpress/inquire-pglite @electric-sql/pglite

Quick start

This is the shortest local path with SQLite.

import sqlite from 'better-sqlite3';
import connect from '@stackpress/inquire-sqlite3';

const resource = sqlite(':memory:');
const engine = connect(resource);

await engine.create('users')
  .addField('id', { type: 'integer', autoIncrement: true })
  .addField('email', { type: 'string', length: 255, nullable: false })
  .addField('name', { type: 'string', length: 255, nullable: false })
  .addPrimaryKey('id')
  .addUniqueKey('users_email_unique', 'email');

await engine.insert('users').values({
  email: 'ada@example.com',
  name: 'Ada'
});

type UserRow = {
  id: number;
  email: string;
  name: string;
};

const users = await engine.select<UserRow>([
    'id',
    'email',
    'name'
  ])
  .from('users')
  .where('email = ?', ['ada@example.com']);

console.log(users);

Connection examples

MySQL

import mysql from 'mysql2/promise';
import connect from '@stackpress/inquire-mysql2';

const resource = await mysql.createConnection({
  host: 'localhost',
  user: 'root',
  database: 'app'
});

const engine = connect(resource);

PostgreSQL

import { Client } from 'pg';
import connect from '@stackpress/inquire-pg';

const client = new Client({
  database: 'app',
  user: 'postgres'
});

await client.connect();

const engine = connect(client);

PGlite

import { PGlite } from '@electric-sql/pglite';
import connect from '@stackpress/inquire-pglite';

const resource = new PGlite('./build/database');
const engine = connect(resource);

Core API

The Engine creates six main builders:

• create(table)
• alter(table)
• select(columns?)
• insert(table)
• update(table)
• delete(table)

It also exposes:

• query(query, values?)
• sql\...``
• transaction(callback)
• diff(from, to)
• rename(from, to)
• drop(table)
• truncate(table, cascade?)

Raw SQL

Use query() or sql when the builder surface is not enough.

const rows = await engine.query<{ id: number; email: string }>(
  'SELECT id, email FROM users WHERE id = ?',
  [1]
);

const ids = await engine.sql<{ id: number }>`
  SELECT id
  FROM users
  WHERE email LIKE ${'%@example.com'}
`;

Transactions

Use engine.transaction() when several writes must succeed or fail together.

await engine.transaction(async (tx) => {
  await tx.query({
    query: 'INSERT INTO users (email, name) VALUES (?, ?)',
    values: ['grace@example.com', 'Grace']
  });

  await tx.query({
    query: 'INSERT INTO profiles (user_id) VALUES (?)',
    values: [1]
  });
});

The transaction callback receives the connection wrapper, not a nested Engine.

Type safety

Use TypeScript generics to type query results.

type User = {
  id: number;
  email: string;
  name: string;
};

const users = await engine.select<User>([
    'id',
    'email',
    'name'
  ])
  .from('users');

Documentation

The full docs now live under specs:

• Start here
• Quick start
• Mental model
• Guides
• API reference

Examples

For package-level usage examples, see:

• MySQL2 package
• PostgreSQL package
• SQLite3 package
• PGlite package