Schema Generation

Overview

Rebase uses a schema-as-code pipeline where your TypeScript collection definitions are the single source of truth. The CLI transforms them through a deterministic pipeline:

Collections (TypeScript) → Drizzle Schema → SQL Migrations → PostgreSQL

This page covers every CLI command involved in that pipeline.

The Pipeline

1. Collections → Drizzle Schema

Your collection definitions in config/collections/ describe tables, columns, types, relations, and enums. The schema generate command reads these and outputs a Drizzle ORM schema file.

2. Drizzle Schema → Migrations

From the generated Drizzle schema, db generate diffs against the current database state and produces timestamped SQL migration files.

3. Migrations → PostgreSQL

The db migrate command applies pending migrations to your PostgreSQL database.

Commands

rebase schema generate

Generate a Drizzle ORM schema file from your collection definitions:

rebase schema generate

What it does:

• Reads all collections from config/collections/
• Generates backend/src/schema.generated.ts with Drizzle table definitions, enums, and relations

Options:

Flag	Description
--collections, -c	Path to collections directory (default: config/collections/)
--output, -o	Output path for the generated schema file
--watch, -w	Watch for changes and regenerate automatically

Watch mode is useful during development — edit a collection file and the schema regenerates instantly:

rebase schema generate --watch

rebase schema introspect

Reverse-engineer collection definitions from an existing PostgreSQL database:

rebase schema introspect

What it does:

• Connects to your database (using the connection string from your .env)
• Inspects all tables, columns, types, and foreign keys
• Generates collection definition files

Options:

Flag	Description
--output, -o	Output directory for generated collection files

This is useful when adopting Rebase on an existing database — introspect first, then customize the generated collections.

rebase db push

Push schema changes directly to the database without migration files:

rebase db push

What it does:

• Reads the generated Drizzle schema
• Applies changes directly to the database (CREATE, ALTER, DROP)
• Does not create migration files

Caution

db push modifies the database directly. Use it only in development. For production, use db generate + db migrate to create reviewable migration files.

rebase db generate

Generate SQL migration files from schema changes:

rebase db generate

What it does:

• Compares the Drizzle schema against the current database state
• Produces timestamped SQL migration files in the drizzle/ directory
• Files can be reviewed, edited, and committed to version control

The generated migrations are plain SQL files — you can inspect and modify them before applying.

rebase db migrate

Run all pending migrations:

rebase db migrate

What it does:

• Reads the drizzle/ directory for unapplied migrations
• Applies them in order to the database
• Tracks which migrations have been applied

rebase db studio

Open Drizzle Studio to browse and edit your database visually:

rebase db studio

rebase db branch

Database branching for parallel development:

rebase db branch create feature_auth
rebase db branch list
rebase db branch delete feature_auth

rebase doctor

Detect three-way drift between your collection definitions, the generated Drizzle schema, and the live PostgreSQL database:

rebase doctor

What it checks:

• Collections ↔ Generated schema — are they in sync?
• Generated schema ↔ Database — are there unapplied changes?
• Collections ↔ Database — is there any unexpected drift?

Run doctor whenever something feels out of sync. It pinpoints exactly where the mismatch is.

rebase generate-sdk

Generate a typed client SDK from your collection definitions:

rebase generate-sdk

What it does:

• Reads collections from config/collections/ (supports index.ts barrel exports or individual files)
• Generates TypeScript types for all entities in generated/sdk/
• Produces a database.types.ts file for use with createRebaseClient<Database>()

Options:

Flag	Description
--collections	Path to collections directory
--output	Output directory for the SDK (default: generated/sdk/)

Usage after generation:

import { createRebaseClient } from "@rebasepro/client";
import type { Database } from "./generated/sdk/database.types";

const client = createRebaseClient<Database>({
    baseUrl: "http://localhost:3001",
});

// Full type safety and autocomplete
const { data } = await client.data.products.find();

Development Workflow

The fast-iteration workflow for development:

# 1. Edit your collection in config/collections/
# 2. Generate the Drizzle schema
rebase schema generate

# 3. Push directly to dev database
rebase db push

Production Workflow

The safe, reviewable workflow for production:

# 1. Edit your collection in config/collections/
# 2. Generate the Drizzle schema
rebase schema generate

# 3. Generate SQL migration files
rebase db generate

# 4. Review the generated SQL in drizzle/
# 5. Commit the migration to version control
git add drizzle/

# 6. Apply in production
rebase db migrate

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Solution
Could not detect an active database plugin	Install @rebasepro/server-postgresql in backend/package.json
Schema file not updating	Check the --collections path points to the right directory
Migration shows unexpected changes	Run rebase doctor to identify drift
db push fails on production	Use db generate + db migrate instead

Next Steps

• Collections — Define your data model
• CLI Reference — All CLI commands
• Client SDK — Use the generated SDK