astra-db-ts is a TypeScript client for interacting with DataStax Astra DB.
Warning This README is still under construction; parts of it may be incomplete or outdated.
This README targets v2.0.0+, which expands on the previous 1.x API. Click here for the pre-existing client readme.
Use your preferred package manager to install @datastax/astra-db-ts. Note that this is not supported in browsers.
Get the API endpoint and your application token for your Astra DB instance @ astra.datastax.com.
import { DataAPIClient, ObjectId, vector, VectorDoc, oid } from '@datastax/astra-db-ts'; // Connect to the db const client = new DataAPIClient({ logging: 'all' }); const db = client.db(process.env.CLIENT_DB_URL!, { token: process.env.CLIENT_DB_TOKEN! }); // The `VectorDoc` interface adds `$vector?: DataAPIVector` as a field to the collection type interface Dream extends VectorDoc { _id: ObjectId, // Uses an `astra-db-ts` provided type here (NOT the `bson` version) summary: string, tags?: string[], // No sets/maps available without creating custom ser/des rules } (async () => { // Create the table using our helper function. // The _id should be an `ObjectId` type, as specified by `defaultId.type` const collection = await db.createCollection<Dream>('dreams', { defaultId: { type: 'objectId' }, }); // Batch-insert some rows into the table // _id can be optionally provided, or be auto-generated @ the server side await collection.insertMany([{ summary: 'A dinner on the Moon', $vector: vector([0.2, -0.3, -0.5]), // Shorthand for `new DataAPIVector([0.2, -0.3, -0.5])` }, { summary: 'Riding the waves', $vector: vector([0, 0.2, 1]), tags: ['sport'], }, { _id: oid('674f0f5c1c162131319fa09e'), // Shorthand for `new ObjectId('674f0f5c1c162131319fa09e')` summary: 'Meeting Beethoven at the dentist', $vector: vector([0.2, 0.6, 0]), }]); // Hm, changed my mind await collection.updateOne({ id: 103 }, { $set: { summary: 'Surfers\' paradise' } }); // Let's see what we've got const cursor = collection.find({}) .sort({ vector: vector([0, 0.2, 0.4]) }) // Performing a vector search .includeSimilarity(true) // The found doc is inferred to have `$similarity` as a property now .limit(2); // This would print: // - Surfers' paradise: 0.98238194 // - Friendly aliens in town: 0.91873914 for await (const result of cursor) { console.log(`${result.summary}: ${result.$similarity}`); } // Cleanup (if desired) await collection.drop(); })();import { DataAPIClient, InferTableSchema, vector } from '@datastax/astra-db-ts'; // Connect to the db const client = new DataAPIClient({ logging: 'all' }); const db = client.db(process.env.CLIENT_DB_URL!, { token: process.env.CLIENT_DB_TOKEN! }); // Create a table through the Data API if it does not yet exist. // Returns the created table through a function so we can use the inferred type of the table ourselves // (instead of having to manually define it) const mkDreamsTable = async () => await db.createTable('dreams', { definition: { columns: { id: 'int', // Shorthand notation for { type: 'int' } summary: 'text', tags: { type: 'set', valueType: 'text' }, // Collection types require additional type information vector: { type: 'vector', dimension: 3 }, // Auto-embedding-generation can be enabled through a `service` block }, primaryKey: 'id', // Shorthand for { partitionBy: ['id'] } }, ifNotExists: true, // If any table with the same name exists, do nothing }); // (note that this does not check if the tables are the same) // Infer the TS-equivalent type from the table definition (like zod or arktype). Equivalent to: // // interface TableSchema { // id: number, -- A primary key component, so it's required // summary?: string | null, -- Not a primary key, so it's optional and may return as null when found // tags?: Set<string>, -- Sets/maps/lists are optional to insert, but will actually be returned as empty collections instead of null // vector?: DataAPIVector | null, -- Vectors, however, may be null. // } type Dream = InferTableSchema<typeof mkDreamsTable>; (async () => { // Create the table using our helper function. // Table will be typed as `Table<Dream, { id: number }>`, where the former is the schema, and the latter is the primary key const table = await mkDreamsTable(); // Enables vector search on the table (on the 'vector' column) await table.createVectorIndex('dreams_vector_idx', 'vector', { options: { metric: 'cosine' }, ifNotExists: true, }); // Batch-insert some rows into the table const rows: Dream[] = [{ id: 102, summary: 'A dinner on the Moon', vector: vector([0.2, -0.3, -0.5]), // Shorthand for `new DataAPIVector([0.2, -0.3, -0.5])` }, { id: 103, summary: 'Riding the waves', vector: vector([0, 0.2, 1]), tags: new Set(['sport']), // Collection types use native JS collections }, { id: 37, summary: 'Meeting Beethoven at the dentist', vector: vector([0.2, 0.6, 0]), }]; await table.insertMany(rows); // Hm, changed my mind await table.updateOne({ id: 103 }, { $set: { summary: 'Surfers\' paradise' } }); // Let's see what we've got const cursor = table.find({}) .sort({ vector: vector([0, 0.2, 0.4]) }) // Performing a vector search .includeSimilarity(true) // The found doc is inferred to have `$similarity` as a property now .limit(2); // This would print: // - Surfers' paradise: 0.98238194 // - Friendly aliens in town: 0.91873914 for await (const result of cursor) { console.log(`${result.summary}: ${result.$similarity}`); } // Cleanup (if desired) await table.drop(); })();- More info and usage patterns are given in the ts-doc of classes and methods
- TS client reference
- Data API reference
- Package on npm
astra-db-ts's abstractions for working at the data and admin layers are structured as depicted by this diagram:
flowchart TD DataAPIClient -->|".db(endpoint)"| Db DataAPIClient -->|".admin()"| AstraAdmin Db --->|".collection(name) .createCollection(name)"| Collection Db --->|".table(name) .createTable(name)"| Table AstraAdmin -->|".dbAdmin(endpoint) .dbAdmin(id, region)"| DbAdmin Db -->|".admin()"| DbAdmin DbAdmin -->|".db()"| Db Here's a small admin-oriented example:
import { DataAPIClient } from '@datastax/astra-db-ts'; // Spawn an admin const client = new DataAPIClient('*TOKEN*'); const admin = client.admin(); (async () => { // list info about all databases const databases = await admin.listDatabases(); const dbInfo = databases[0]; console.log(dbInfo.info.name, dbInfo.id, dbInfo.info.region); // list namespaces for the first database const dbAdmin = admin.dbAdmin(dbInfo.id, dbInfo.info.region); console.log(await dbAdmin.listNamespaces()); })();Like the client hierarchy, the options for each class also exist in a hierarchy.
The general options for parent classes are deeply merged with the options for child classes.
graph TD DataAPIClientOptions --> AdminOptions DataAPIClientOptions --> DbOptions DbOptions --> CollectionOptions DbOptions --> TableOptions See DATATYPES.md for a full list of supported datatypes and their TypeScript equivalents.
astra-db-ts officially supports Data API instances using non-Astra backends, such as Data API on DSE or HCD.
However, while support is native, detection is not; you will have to manually declare the environment at times.
import { DataAPIClient, UsernamePasswordTokenProvider, DataAPIDbAdmin } from '@datastax/astra-db-ts'; // You'll need to pass in environment to the DataAPIClient when not using Astra const tp = new UsernamePasswordTokenProvider('*USERNAME*', '*PASSWORD*'); const client = new DataAPIClient(tp, { environment: 'dse' }); const db = client.db('*ENDPOINT*'); // You'll also need to pass it to db.admin() when not using Astra for typing purposes // If the environment does not match, an error will be thrown as a reminder // `environment: 'dse'` makes the return type be `DataAPIDbAdmin` const dbAdmin = db.admin({ environment: 'dse' }); dbAdmin.createNamespace('...');The TokenProvider class is an extensible concept to allow you to create or even refresh your tokens as necessary, depending on the Data API backend. Tokens may even be omitted if necessary.
astra-db-ts provides two TokenProvider instances by default:
StaticTokenProvider- This unit provider simply regurgitates whatever token was passed into its constructorUsernamePasswordTokenProvider- Turns a user/pass pair into an appropriate token for DSE/HCD
(See examples/non-astra-backends for a full example of this in action.)
astra-db-ts is designed foremost to work in Node.js environments.
It will work in edge runtimes and other non-node environments as well, though it'll use the native fetch API for HTTP requests, as opposed to fetch-h2 which provides extended HTTP/2 and HTTP/1.1 support for performance.
By default, it'll attempt to use fetch-h2 if available, and fall back to fetch if not available in that environment. You can explicitly force the fetch implementation when instantiating the client:
import { DataAPIClient } from '@datastax/astra-db-ts'; const client = new DataAPIClient('*TOKEN*', { httpOptions: { client: 'fetch' }, });There are four different behaviours for setting the client:
- Not setting the
httpOptionsat all- This will attempt to use
fetch-h2if available, and fall back tofetchif not available
- This will attempt to use
client: 'default'orclient: undefined(or unset)- This will attempt to use
fetch-h2if available, and throw an error if not available
- This will attempt to use
client: 'fetch'- This will always use the native
fetchAPI
- This will always use the native
client: 'custom'- This will allow you to pass a custom
Fetcherimplementation to the client
- This will allow you to pass a custom
On some environments, such as Cloudflare Workers, you may additionally need to use the events polyfill for the client to work properly (i.e. npm i events). Cloudflare's node-compat won't work here.
Check out the examples/ subdirectory for some non-standard runtime examples with more info.
Due to the variety of different runtimes JS can run in, astra-db-ts does its best to be as flexible as possible. Unfortunately however, because we need to dynamically require the fetch-h2 module to test whether it works, the dynamic import often breaks in minified environments, even if the runtime properly supports HTTP/2.
There is a simple workaround however, consisting of the following steps, if you really want to use HTTP/2:
- Install
fetch-h2as a dependency (npm i fetch-h2) - Import the
fetch-h2module in your code asfetchH2(i.e.import * as fetchH2 from 'fetch-h2') - Set the
httpOptions.fetchH2option to the imported module when instantiating the client
import { DataAPIClient } from '@datastax/astra-db-ts'; import * as fetchH2 from 'fetch-h2'; const client = new DataAPIClient('*TOKEN*', { httpOptions: { fetchH2 }, });This way, the dynamic import is avoided, and the client will work in minified environments.
Note this is not required if you don't explicitly need HTTP/2 support, as the client will default to the native fetch implementation instead if importing fails.
(But keep in mind this defaulting will only happen if httpOptions is not set at all).
(See examples/http2-when-minified for a full example of this workaround in action.)
The Data API itself does not natively support browsers, so astra-db-ts isn't technically supported in browsers either.
However, if, for some reason, you really want to use this in a browser, you can probably do so by installing the events polyfill and setting up a CORS proxy to forward requests to the Data API.
But keep in mind that this is not officially supported, and may be very insecure if you're encoding sensitive data into the browser client.
(See examples/browser for a full example of this workaround in action.)