SeedSmith

A Node.js + TypeScript CLI and library that auto-generates seed data for MongoDB (Mongoose) and Prisma with realistic fake data.

Features

• 🎭 Uses @faker-js/faker to generate realistic values
• 🔍 Inspects Mongoose schemas automatically
• 🔗 Handles refs by linking to existing docs or creating stubs
• 🛡️ Prevents seeding when NODE_ENV=production
• 🔌 Pluggable adapter pattern for multiple ORMs
• 📦 Built-in adapters: Mongoose, Prisma
• 🎲 Deterministic seeding via seed option
• 🔄 Transaction support
• 🎯 Smart field-name mapping (email, phone, price, etc.)

Install

npm install @alieutech/seedsmith

# or for CLI usage
npm install -g @alieutech/seedsmith

CLI usage

# Basic
seedsmith --uri mongodb://localhost:27017/mydb --models ./path/to/models --count 25

# Quick start with your Atlas cluster (use environment variable – do NOT hardcode secrets)
export MONGO_URI="mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@<cluster-host>/<dbName>?retryWrites=true&w=majority&appName=SeedSmith"

NODE_ENV=development \
seedsmith \
  --uri "$MONGO_URI" \
  --models ./models \
  --count 25

Include/Exclude models

seedsmith --uri mongodb://localhost:27017/mydb --models ./models --include User,Post --exclude Log

Drop collections before seeding

seedsmith --uri mongodb://localhost:27017/mydb --models ./models --drop

### Optional config file

Create `seed.config.js` in your project root to customize defaults:

```js
// seed.config.js
module.exports = {
  docsPerModel: 25,
  includeModels: ["User", "Post"],
  dropBeforeSeed: false,
  useTransactions: false,
};

Library usage

import mongoose from "mongoose";
import { seedDatabase } from "@alieutech/seedsmith";

await mongoose.connect("mongodb://localhost:27017/mydb");
await seedDatabase(mongoose, {
  // modelsPath: "./models", // optional: if omitted, uses already-registered models
  docsPerModel: 20,
  includeModels: ["User", "Post"],
  dropBeforeSeed: false,
  useTransactions: false,
});
await mongoose.disconnect();

Note: SeedSmith inspects models that are registered with the Mongoose instance you pass in. If your models live in files (for example ./models/user.js), require/import them before calling seedDatabase, or pass modelsPath to automatically load them. Example:

// require the model files so they register with mongoose
require("./models/user");
require("./models/post");

// then call seedDatabase
await seedDatabase(mongoose, { docsPerModel: 10 });

Using with Prisma

SeedSmith supports Prisma via the adapter pattern:

import { PrismaClient } from "@prisma/client";
import { createPrismaAdapter } from "@alieutech/seedsmith";

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

const adapter = createPrismaAdapter(prisma, {
  models: [
    { name: "user" }, // model name must match Prisma schema (lowercase)
    { name: "post" },
    { name: "comment", idField: "commentId" }, // custom ID field
  ],
});

// Note: Currently requires Mongoose for schema extraction
// Pure Prisma seeding (without Mongoose) coming soon
await seedDatabase(mongoose, {
  adapter,
  docsPerModel: 10,
});

await prisma.$disconnect();

Advanced Options

await seedDatabase(mongoose, {
  modelsPath: "./models", // auto-load model files
  docsPerModel: 20, // or { User: 50, Post: 100 }
  includeModels: ["User", "Post"], // filter models
  excludeModels: ["Log"], // exclude models
  dropBeforeSeed: true, // drop collections first
  useTransactions: true, // wrap in transaction
  seed: 12345, // deterministic faker seed
  verbose: true, // detailed logging
});

Notes

• SeedSmith throws if NODE_ENV is production.
• Models must register themselves with Mongoose (e.g., mongoose.model('User', userSchema)).
• CLI loads seed.config.js if present and merges with flags.

Security

• Never hardcode credentials in code or docs. Prefer environment variables (e.g., MONGO_URI) or a secrets manager.
• Avoid passing credentials directly in shell history. Use export MONGO_URI=... or a .env file that is not committed.
• Use a least-privilege database user for seeding (only the necessary permissions for inserts/updates).
• If credentials were exposed, rotate them immediately and revoke any leaked tokens.
• Keep seeding to non-production environments; SeedSmith blocks when NODE_ENV=production.