Ascertain

Zero-dependency, high-performance schema validator for Node.js and browsers.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Install
• Quick Start
• Performance
• Schema Reference
• Type Casting
• Patterns
• Compile Options
• Standard Schema
• Complete Example
• Documentation
• License

Features

• Zero dependencies - Minimal footprint, no external dependencies
• High performance - Compiles schemas to optimized JS functions (~6x faster than dynamic validation)
• Type-safe - Full TypeScript support with type inference
• Flexible schemas - AND, OR, optional, tuple, discriminated operators
• Type casting - Built-in parsers for numbers (hex, octal, binary), dates, JSON, base64
• Object validation - Validate keys/values with $keys, $values, $strict
• Partial validation - createValidator validates subsets with type narrowing
• Detailed errors - Clear error messages with paths for debugging
• Standard Schema v1 - Interoperable with tRPC, TanStack Form, and other ecosystem tools

Install

npm install ascertain

Quick Start

import { ascertain, or, optional } from 'ascertain';

ascertain({
  name: String,
  age: Number,
  role: or('admin', 'user'),
  email: optional(String),
}, userData);

Performance

Ascertain compiles schemas into optimized JavaScript functions. Compiled validators run ~6x faster than dynamic validation.

import { compile } from 'ascertain';

// Compile once
const validateUser = compile(userSchema);

// Validate many (no recompilation)
validateUser(user1);
validateUser(user2);

| When to use | Function | Speed | |-------------|----------|-------| | Repeated validation (API handlers, loops) | compile() | Fastest | | One-off validation | ascertain() | Convenient |

Benchmark

| Library | Mode | Valid (ops/s) | Invalid (ops/s) | |---------|------|---------------|-----------------| | Ascertain | first-error | 322M | 84M | | Ascertain | all-errors | 325M | 36M | | AJV | first-error | 92M | 65M | | AJV | all-errors | 92M | 30M | | Zod | all-errors | 62M | 72K |

Benchmark source: src/__bench__/benchmark.ts

Run it locally:

pnpm build
pnpm bench

Notes:

• Maintainer-run benchmark, not an independent study
• Measures valid and invalid paths for compiled validators
• Compares the current checkout, published ascertain, AJV, and Zod
• Results vary by CPU, Node.js version, and workload, so treat the numbers as directional

Schema Reference

| Schema | Validates | Example | |--------|-----------|---------| | String, Number, Boolean | Type check | { age: Number } | | Date, Array, Object | Instance check | { created: Date } | | Function | Any callable | { handler: Function } | | Primitives | Exact value | { status: 'active' } | | RegExp | Pattern match | { email: /^.+@.+$/ } | | [Schema] | Array of type | { tags: [String] } | | { key: Schema } | Object shape | { user: { name: String } } | | or(a, b, ...) | Any match | or(String, Number) | | and(a, b, ...) | All match | and(Date, { toJSON: Function }) | | optional(s) | Nullable | optional(String) | | tuple(a, b) | Fixed array | tuple(Number, Number) | | discriminated(schemas, key) | Tagged union | discriminated([{ type: 'a' }, { type: 'b' }], 'type') |

Special Symbols

import { $keys, $values, $strict } from 'ascertain';

const schema = {
  [$keys]: /^[a-z]+$/,   // Validate all keys
  [$values]: Number,      // Validate all values
  [$strict]: true,        // No extra properties
};

Type Casting

Parse strings into typed values (environment variables, query params):

import { as } from 'ascertain';

as.number('42')        // 42
as.number('3.14')      // 3.14
as.number('0xFF')      // 255 (hex)
as.number('0o77')      // 63 (octal)
as.number('0b1010')    // 10 (binary)
as.number('1e10')      // 10000000000

as.boolean('true')     // true
as.boolean('1')        // true

as.time('500ms')       // 500
as.time('30s')         // 30000
as.time('5m')          // 300000
as.time('2h')          // 7200000
as.time('1d')          // 86400000

as.date('2024-12-31')  // Date object
as.array('a,b,c', ',') // ['a', 'b', 'c']
as.json('{"x":1}')     // { x: 1 }
as.base64('dGVzdA==')  // 'test'

Invalid values return TypeError for deferred validation:

const config = {
  port: as.number(process.env.PORT),  // TypeError if invalid
  host: as.string(process.env.HOST),
};

// Errors surface with clear paths
ascertain({ port: Number, host: String }, config);
// → TypeError: "Invalid value undefined, expected a string"

Patterns

Batch Validation

Compile once, validate many:

const validateUser = compile(userSchema);

const results = users.map((user, i) => {
  if (validateUser(user)) {
    return { index: i, valid: true };
  }
  return { index: i, valid: false, error: validateUser.issues[0].message };
});

Discriminated Unions

Use discriminated() for efficient tagged union validation. Instead of trying each variant like or(), it checks the discriminant field first and only validates the matching variant:

import { compile, discriminated } from 'ascertain';

const messageSchema = discriminated([
  { type: 'email', address: String },
  { type: 'sms', phone: String },
  { type: 'push', token: String },
], 'type');

const validate = compile(messageSchema);

validate({ type: 'email', address: '[email protected]' }); // true
validate({ type: 'sms', phone: '123456' });                // true
validate({ type: 'push', token: 123 });                    // false
validate({ type: 'unknown' });                             // false

Discriminant values must be string, number, or boolean literals.

Conditional Rules

Use or() and and() for complex conditions:

const schema = {
  type: or('email', 'sms'),
  // Conditional: email requires address, sms requires phone
  contact: or(
    and({ type: 'email' }, { address: String }),
    and({ type: 'sms' }, { phone: String }),
  ),
};

Schema Composition

Build schemas from reusable parts:

const addressSchema = {
  street: String,
  city: String,
  zip: /^\d{5}$/,
};

const personSchema = {
  name: String,
  address: addressSchema,
};

const companySchema = {
  name: String,
  headquarters: addressSchema,
  employees: [personSchema],
};

Versioned Schemas

Version schemas as modules:

// schemas/user.v1.ts
export const userSchemaV1 = { name: String, email: String };

// schemas/user.v2.ts
export const userSchemaV2 = {
  ...userSchemaV1,
  phone: optional(String),
  createdAt: Date,
};

// api/handler.ts
import { userSchemaV2 } from './schemas/user.v2';
const validate = compile(userSchemaV2);

Config Validation

Validate only what each module needs:

import { createValidator, as } from 'ascertain';

const config = {
  app: { name: as.string(process.env.APP_NAME), port: as.number(process.env.PORT) },
  db: { host: as.string(process.env.DB_HOST), pool: as.number(process.env.DB_POOL) },
  cache: { ttl: as.time(process.env.CACHE_TTL) },
};

const validate = createValidator(config);

// Each module validates only what it needs
const { db } = validate({
  db: { host: String, pool: Number },
});

db.host;   // string - validated and typed
db.pool;   // number - validated and typed
// db.xxx  // TypeScript error - property doesn't exist

// cache not validated = not accessible
// cache.ttl  // TypeScript error - cache not in returned type

Compile Options

By default compile() stops at the first validation error (fastest for invalid data). Pass { allErrors: true } to collect all errors:

import { compile } from 'ascertain';

const schema = { name: String, age: Number, active: Boolean };

// First-error mode (default) - stops at first failure
const validate = compile(schema);
if (!validate({ name: 123, age: 'bad', active: 'no' })) {
  console.log(validate.issues.length); // 1
  console.log(validate.issues[0].path); // ['name']
}

// All-errors mode - collects every failure
const validateAll = compile(schema, { allErrors: true });
if (!validateAll({ name: 123, age: 'bad', active: 'no' })) {
  console.log(validateAll.issues.length); // 3
}

Standard Schema

Wrap a schema for Standard Schema v1 compliance, enabling interoperability with tRPC, TanStack Form, and other ecosystem libraries:

import { standardSchema, or, optional } from 'ascertain';

const userValidator = standardSchema({
  name: String,
  age: Number,
  role: or('admin', 'user'),
  email: optional(String),
});

// Use as regular validator (throws on error)
userValidator({ name: 'Alice', age: 30, role: 'admin' });

// Use Standard Schema interface (returns result object)
const result = userValidator['~standard'].validate(unknownData);
if (result.issues) {
  console.log(result.issues);
} else {
  console.log(result.value);
}

Complete Example

import { compile, or, optional, and, tuple, $keys, $values, $strict, as } from 'ascertain';

const schema = {
  id: Number,
  name: String,
  email: /^[^@]+@[^@]+$/,
  status: or('active', 'inactive', 'pending'),
  role: optional(or('admin', 'user')),

  profile: {
    bio: optional(String),
    avatar: optional(String),
  },

  settings: {
    [$keys]: /^[a-z_]+$/,
    [$values]: or(String, Number, Boolean),
    [$strict]: true,
  },

  coordinates: optional(tuple(Number, Number)),
  createdAt: and(Date, { toISOString: Function }),

  retries: as.number(process.env.MAX_RETRIES),
  timeout: as.time(process.env.TIMEOUT),
};

const validate = compile(schema);
if (!validate(data)) {
  console.error(validate.issues);
}

License

MIT - Ivan Zakharchanka