Zod

@better-drizzle/zod generates Zod schemas directly from your Better Drizzle schema and uses them to validate payloads, query args, and results through plugin hooks.

Install

npm install @better-drizzle/zod zod

pnpm add @better-drizzle/zod zod

yarn add @better-drizzle/zod zod

bun add @better-drizzle/zod zod

Usage

import { better } from 'better-drizzle';
import { z } from 'zod';
import { zod } from '@better-drizzle/zod';

const client = better(db, {
	schema,
	plugins: [
		zod({
			validate: {
				create: true,
				update: true,
				upsert: true,
				result: true,
			},
			behavior: {
				coerce: true,
				unknownKeys: 'strip',
			},
			schemas: {
				users: {
					fields: {
						email: (schema) => schema.email().toLowerCase(),
						name: (schema) => schema.min(2),
						passwordHash: false,
					},
					create: {
						omit: ['id', 'passwordHash'],
						extend: {
							password: z.string().min(8),
						},
					},
					update: {
						omit: ['id', 'passwordHash'],
						partial: true,
					},
					select: {
						omit: ['passwordHash'],
					},
				},
			},
		}),
	],
});

$zod on every delegate

Each table delegate exposes generated schemas:

client.users.$zod.create;
client.users.$zod.update;
client.users.$zod.upsert;
client.users.$zod.select;
client.users.$zod.where;
client.users.$zod.orderBy;
client.users.$zod.pagination;
client.users.$zod.query;

Use them directly when you want shared validation at the edges of your app:

const input = client.users.$zod.create.parse(req.body);

Validation behavior

The plugin can validate:

• create and batch create payloads
• update, updateMany, and updateEach payloads
• upsert and upsertMany payloads
• query args such as where, orderBy, select, include, paginate, and cursor
• result shapes after writes and reads

Per-call validation can be disabled with validate: false:

await client.users.create({
	data: req.body,
	validate: false,
});

Schema customization

The plugin starts from database columns and then applies operation rules:

• generated columns are omitted from write schemas
• notNull without default becomes required on create
• notNull with default becomes optional on create
• nullable columns become nullable().optional() for create
• update starts from the create schema and becomes partial

Then your per-table overrides are applied:

• fields customizes or removes individual column schemas
• create, update, select, where, query, orderBy, pagination, and upsert can omit, extend, or partial

Coercion and unknown keys

behavior.coerce enables input coercion for supported scalar types, and behavior.unknownKeys controls whether Zod strips, rejects, or passes through unknown keys.

zod({
	behavior: {
		coerce: true,
		unknownKeys: 'strip',
	},
});

Notes

• The plugin strips non-column keys before handing write payloads to Drizzle.
• Schema-only extension fields such as password are valid during parsing but are not forwarded to the database write.
• @better-drizzle/zod is runtime validation. It complements, but does not replace, TypeScript types.