keithwhor/nodal

★ 4,485JavaScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((nodal))
    Core idea
      Stateless API server
      No shared memory
      Multi-worker default
    Features
      CLI scaffolding
      Database migrations
      ORM for PostgreSQL
    Built-in modules
      User authentication
      OAuth tokens
      Background workers
    Not for
      Websockets
      Streaming apps

mindmap root((nodal)) Core idea Stateless API server No shared memory Multi-worker default Features CLI scaffolding Database migrations ORM for PostgreSQL Built-in modules User authentication OAuth tokens Background workers Not for Websockets Streaming apps

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Spin up a REST JSON API for a mobile app with built-in user authentication and OAuth token handling.

USE CASE 2

Build a stateless API server backed by PostgreSQL without writing raw SQL, using the built-in ORM and migration system.

USE CASE 3

Add background job processing to an API server for tasks like sending emails outside of normal request handling.

Tech stack

JavaScriptNode.jsPostgreSQL

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires a running PostgreSQL database to use the ORM, migrations, and authentication features.

In plain English

Nodal is a Node.js framework for building API services, meaning the kind of backend server that a web app, mobile app, or IoT device calls to read and write data. It is opinionated, meaning it makes decisions about structure and patterns for you rather than leaving everything open-ended. The goal is to let a developer get a working API up quickly without having to piece together separate libraries for routing, database access, and data modeling. The core idea Nodal is built around is that API servers should be stateless. Each request comes in, gets handled, and goes out with no shared memory between requests. The framework actively enforces this by running multiple worker processes even in development, which would break any code that tries to store data in memory between requests. If you need to persist data, you connect Nodal to a PostgreSQL database and let the database be the single source of truth. Nodal comes with a command-line tool that generates a new project in a few steps. It includes a database migration system for creating and changing your database tables over time, an ORM (a way to query the database using JavaScript objects instead of writing raw SQL), and pre-built models and controllers for user accounts and OAuth tokens so you do not have to write authentication from scratch. It also includes background workers and a scheduling module for jobs that run outside of normal request handling. A controller in Nodal handles the standard create, read, update, and delete operations for a resource. The README shows a short example of what a blog post controller looks like, with methods for listing, showing, creating, updating, and deleting posts. The framework is not intended for streaming or long-lived socket connections. The README explicitly says those use cases should live in a separate server that can communicate with your Nodal API server if needed.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Generate a new Nodal project with a blog post resource that has create, read, update, and delete endpoints.

Prompt 2

Set up a database migration in Nodal to add a published_at timestamp column to a posts table.

Prompt 3

Implement user registration and login in a Nodal API server using the built-in authentication system.

Prompt 4

Add a background worker in Nodal that sends a welcome email asynchronously after a new user signs up.

Prompt 5

Add limit and offset query parameters to a Nodal list controller endpoint for paginating results.

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