@mostajs/orm-copy-data

Cross-dialect data copy — 1 source → N destinations. Backup, migration, seeding. CLI + API. Cron-ready.

Copy data between 13 databases, CSV, JSON, and SQL dump files with one command. No infrastructure needed — just npm install.

Supported sources & destinations

| | Source (read) | Destination (write) | |---|---|---| | Database (13 dialects) | ✅ | ✅ | | SQL dump (.sql) | ✅ parse INSERT | ✅ generate INSERT | | JSON (.json) | ✅ | ✅ | | CSV (.csv) | ✅ | ✅ (1 file per entity) |

Databases : SQLite · PostgreSQL · MySQL · MariaDB · MongoDB · Oracle · SQL Server · CockroachDB · DB2 · SAP HANA · HSQLDB · Spanner · Sybase

Install

Important : install inside your project directory — do NOT use npx @mostajs/orm-copy-data alone, because the database drivers must be in local node_modules/.

cd my-project
npm install @mostajs/orm-copy-data

# + the driver(s) for your source AND destination dialects :
npm install better-sqlite3    # SQLite
npm install pg                # PostgreSQL
npm install mongoose          # MongoDB
npm install mysql2            # MySQL
npm install mariadb           # MariaDB
npm install oracledb          # Oracle
npm install mssql             # SQL Server
# install only what you need

Then run :

npx mostajs-copy              # interactive
# or
npx mostajs-copy --source ... # non-interactive (cron)

Why not npx @mostajs/orm-copy-data directly? npx creates a temporary environment without your project's database drivers (better-sqlite3, pg, mongoose...). The ORM lazy-loads drivers at runtime — they must be in the local node_modules/. Always install first, then run with npx mostajs-copy (which uses the local install).

How to use — CLI (interactive)

npx @mostajs/orm-copy-data

▶ @mostajs/orm-copy-data — Interactive

  Source type :
    1) Database    2) CSV file    3) JSON file    4) SQL dump
  Choice [1]: 1
  Source dialect : postgres
  Source URI : postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/prod

  Destinations (enter one per line, empty to finish) :
    1) Database    2) SQL dump    3) JSON file    4) CSV files    5) Done
  Choice: 1
    Dialect: sqlite
    URI: ./backup.sqlite
  Choice: 2
    File path: ./backup.sql
  Choice: 3
    File path: ./backup.json
  Choice: 4
    File path: ./export/
  Choice: 5

▶ Loading from db (postgres)...
  Tenant : 15 rows
  User : 342 rows
  Product : 1,205 rows
  Total : 4,823 rows from 12 entities

▶ Writing to sqlite (./backup.sqlite)...
  Tenant : 15 copied, 0 errors (12ms)
  User : 342 copied, 0 errors (89ms)
  ...

▶ Writing to sql-dump (./backup.sql)...
  ✓ Written to ./backup.sql

▶ Writing to json (./backup.json)...
  ✓ Written to ./backup.json

▶ Writing to csv (./export/)...
  ✓ Written to ./export/ (12 files)

✓ Done : 4,823 records → 4 destination(s) in 1,230ms (0 errors)

How to use — CLI (non-interactive / cron)

Database → Database

mostajs-copy \
  --source db --source-dialect postgres --source-uri "postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/prod" \
  --dest db --dest-dialect sqlite --dest-uri "./backup.sqlite" \
  --schemas .mostajs/generated/entities.json \
  --create-tables

Database → SQL dump + JSON + CSV (multi-destination)

mostajs-copy \
  --source db --source-dialect postgres --source-uri "$PROD_URI" \
  --dest db --dest-dialect sqlite --dest-uri "./backups/$(date +%Y%m%d).sqlite" \
  --dest sql-dump --dest-file "./backups/$(date +%Y%m%d).sql" \
  --dest json --dest-file "./backups/$(date +%Y%m%d).json" \
  --dest csv --dest-file "./backups/csv-$(date +%Y%m%d)/" \
  --schemas entities.json --create-tables --batch-size 1000

CSV → Database (import)

mostajs-copy \
  --source csv --source-file ./import/ \
  --dest db --dest-dialect postgres --dest-uri "$URI" \
  --schemas entities.json --create-tables

JSON → Database (restore)

mostajs-copy \
  --source json --source-file ./backup.json \
  --dest db --dest-dialect postgres --dest-uri "$URI" \
  --schemas entities.json --create-tables

SQL dump → Database (restore)

mostajs-copy \
  --source sql --source-file ./backup.sql \
  --dest db --dest-dialect sqlite --dest-uri ./restored.sqlite \
  --schemas entities.json --create-tables

Filter specific entities

mostajs-copy \
  --source db --source-dialect postgres --source-uri "$URI" \
  --dest db --dest-dialect sqlite --dest-uri ./subset.sqlite \
  --schemas entities.json --create-tables \
  --entities User,Product,Order

How to use — Command file (--commandFile)

Instead of passing all flags on the command line, put them in a file :

backup-daily.conf :

# Daily backup — Postgres → SQLite + SQL dump
# Run : mostajs-copy --commandFile backup-daily.conf

--source db
--source-dialect postgres
--source-uri "postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/prod"

--dest db
--dest-dialect sqlite
--dest-uri "./backups/daily.sqlite"

--dest sql-dump
--dest-file "./backups/daily.sql"

--dest json
--dest-file "./backups/daily.json"

--schemas .mostajs/generated/entities.json
--create-tables
--batch-size 1000

mostajs-copy --commandFile backup-daily.conf

Syntax rules :

• One flag per line
• Lines starting with # are comments
• Values with spaces must be quoted : --source-uri "postgres://user:pass@host/db"
• Extra CLI flags override/extend the file

Cron example :

# /etc/cron.d/mostajs-backup
0 2 * * * cd /app && npx mostajs-copy --commandFile backup-daily.conf >> /var/log/backup.log 2>&1

How to use — API (programmatic)

Basic copy

import { copyData } from '@mostajs/orm-copy-data'
import { entities } from './.mostajs/generated/entities.js'

const result = await copyData({
  source: {
    type: 'db',
    dialect: 'postgres',
    uri: 'postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/prod',
  },
  destinations: [
    { type: 'db', dialect: 'sqlite', uri: './backup.sqlite', createTables: true },
    { type: 'sql-dump', file: './backup.sql' },
    { type: 'json', file: './backup.json' },
    { type: 'csv', file: './export/' },
  ],
  schemas: entities,
  options: { batchSize: 500 },
})

console.log(`${result.totalCopied} records → ${result.destinations.length} destinations in ${result.durationMs}ms`)

Individual loaders & writers

import { loadFromDb, loadFromCsv, loadFromJson, loadFromSql } from '@mostajs/orm-copy-data'
import { writeToDb, writeToSql, writeToJson, writeToCsv } from '@mostajs/orm-copy-data'

// Load from any source
const { data, disconnect } = await loadFromDb({ dialect: 'postgres', uri: '...' }, schemas)
// or : const data = loadFromJson('./backup.json')
// or : const data = loadFromCsv('./import/')
// or : const data = loadFromSql('./dump.sql')

// Write to any destination
await writeToDb({ dialect: 'sqlite', uri: './copy.sqlite', createTables: true }, schemas, data)
writeToSql('./backup.sql', schemas, data, 'postgres://...')
writeToJson('./backup.json', data, 'postgres://...')
writeToCsv('./export/', data)

await disconnect()

Output formats

SQL dump

-- @mostajs/orm-copy-data — SQL dump
-- Source : postgres://user@host/prod
-- Date : 2026-04-18T15:30:00Z
-- Entities : 12

-- Entity: User (342 rows)
INSERT INTO "User" ("id", "email", "name", "role", "createdAt") VALUES
  ('uuid-1', '[email protected]', 'Alice Martin', 'ADMIN', '2026-01-01'),
  ('uuid-2', '[email protected]', 'Bob Wilson', 'MANAGER', '2026-02-15');

JSON

{
  "source": "postgres://user@host/prod",
  "date": "2026-04-18T15:30:00Z",
  "entities": {
    "User": [
      { "id": "uuid-1", "email": "[email protected]", "name": "Alice Martin" },
      { "id": "uuid-2", "email": "[email protected]", "name": "Bob Wilson" }
    ],
    "Product": [
      { "id": "uuid-10", "sku": "MAC-PRO-16", "title": "MacBook Pro", "price": 2499 }
    ]
  }
}

CSV (one file per entity)

export/
├── User.csv
├── Product.csv
├── Order.csv
└── ...

id,email,name,role,createdAt
uuid-1,[email protected],Alice Martin,ADMIN,2026-01-01
uuid-2,[email protected],Bob Wilson,MANAGER,2026-02-15

CLI flags reference

| Flag | Description | Default | |---|---|---| | --source | Source type : db | csv | json | sql | — (required) | | --source-dialect | Source dialect (db only) | — | | --source-uri | Source connection URI (db only) | — | | --source-file | Source file path (csv/json/sql only) | — | | --dest | Destination type : db | csv | json | sql-dump (repeatable) | — | | --dest-dialect | Destination dialect (db only) | sqlite | | --dest-uri | Destination URI (db only) | ./copy.sqlite | | --dest-file | Destination file path (file types only) | — | | --schemas | Path to entities.json | auto-detect .mostajs/generated/entities.json | | --create-tables | Create tables on db destinations | true | | --batch-size | Rows per read batch | 500 | | --entities | Comma-separated entity names (filter) | all | | --commandFile | Load flags from a file (1 flag per line, # comments) | — | | --help | Show help | — |

Use cases

| Use case | Command | |---|---| | Daily backup | mostajs-copy --commandFile backup.conf via cron | | Prisma → new DB | Bootstrap option 5 uses this internally | | Dev seeding | JSON → SQLite for local dev | | Export for analytics | Postgres → CSV for BI tools | | Cross-dialect migration | Oracle → PostgreSQL one-shot | | Disaster recovery | SQL dump → new DB | | Data archiving | Prod DB → compressed JSON/CSV |

Ecosystem

Part of the @mostajs ecosystem :

| Package | Role | |---|---| | @mostajs/orm | Multi-dialect ORM (13 databases) | | @mostajs/orm-cli | Interactive CLI (convert, init, seed, replicate, bootstrap) | | @mostajs/orm-bridge | Prisma drop-in replacement | | @mostajs/replicator | Continuous CQRS replication (master/slave, CDC) | | @mostajs/replica-monitor | Live replication dashboard | | @mostajs/orm-copy-data | One-shot data copy & backup (this package) |

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later + commercial license available — contact [email protected].

Author

Dr Hamid MADANI — [email protected]