create-pg-app

A modern CLI for modular PostgreSQL development.

create-pg-app Scaffold a fully-configured Postgres app in seconds with modules, migrations, testing, and workspace setup.

✨ Features

• 📦 Postgres Module System — Reusable, composable database packages with dependency management, per-module plans, and versioned releases
• 🔄 Deterministic Migration Engine — Version-controlled, plan-driven deployments with rollback support and idempotent execution enforced by dependency and validation safeguards.
• 📊 Recursive Module Resolution — Recursively resolves database package dependencies (just like npm) from plan files or SQL headers, producing a reproducible cross-module migration graph.
• 🏷️ Tag-Aware Versioning - Deploy to @tags, resolve tags to changes, and reference tags across modules for coordinated releases
• 🐘 Portable Postgres Development — Rely on standard SQL migrations for a workflow that runs anywhere Postgres does.
• 🚀 Turnkey Module-First Workspaces — create-pg-app init delivers a ready-to-code Postgres workspace with CI/CD, Docker, end-to-end testing, and modern TS tooling.

🚀 Quick Start

Install & Setup

# Install create-pg-app globally
npm install -g create-pg-app

# Start local Postgres (via Docker) and export env vars
create-pg-app docker start
eval "$(create-pg-app env)"

Tip: Already running Postgres? Skip the Docker step and just export your PG* vars.

Create a Workspace and Install a Package

# 1. Create a workspace
create-pg-app init --workspace
cd my-app

# 2. Create your first module
create-pg-app init
cd packages/your-module

# 3. Install a package 
create-pg-app install @pgpm/faker

# 4. Deploy everything
create-pg-app deploy --createdb --database mydb1
psql -d mydb1 -c "SELECT faker.city('MI');"
>  Ann Arbor

🛠️ Commands

Getting Started

• create-pg-app init - Initialize a new module
• create-pg-app init --workspace - Initialize a new workspace

Development Setup

• create-pg-app docker start - Start PostgreSQL container (via Docker)
• create-pg-app docker stop - Stop PostgreSQL container
• create-pg-app env - Print PostgreSQL environment variables for shell export

Database Operations

• create-pg-app deploy - Deploy database changes and migrations
• create-pg-app verify - Verify database state matches expected migrations
• create-pg-app revert - Safely revert database changes

Migration Management

• create-pg-app migrate - Comprehensive migration management
• create-pg-app migrate init - Initialize migration tracking
• create-pg-app migrate status - Check migration status
• create-pg-app migrate list - List all changes
• create-pg-app migrate deps - Show change dependencies

Module Management

• create-pg-app install - Install database modules as dependencies
• create-pg-app extension - Interactively manage module dependencies
• create-pg-app tag - Version your changes with tags

Packaging and Distribution

• create-pg-app plan - Generate deployment plans for your modules
• create-pg-app package - Package your module for distribution

Utilities

• create-pg-app add - Add a new database change
• create-pg-app remove - Remove a database change
• create-pg-app export - Export migrations from existing databases
• create-pg-app clear - Clear database state
• create-pg-app kill - Clean up database connections
• create-pg-app analyze - Analyze database structure
• create-pg-app rename - Rename database changes
• create-pg-app admin-users - Manage admin users

💡 Common Workflows

Starting a New Project and Adding a Change

# 1. Create workspace
create-pg-app init --workspace
cd my-app

# 2. Create your first module
create-pg-app init
cd packages/new-module

# 3. Add some SQL migrations to sql/ directory
create-pg-app add some_change

# 4. Deploy to database
create-pg-app deploy --createdb

Working with Existing Projects

# 1. Navigate to your module
cd packages/your-module

# 2. Install a package 
create-pg-app install @pgpm/faker

# 3. Deploy all installed modules
create-pg-app deploy --createdb --database mydb1
psql -d mydb1 -c "SELECT faker.city('MI');"
>  Ann Arbor

Testing a create-pg-app module in a workspace

# 1. Install workspace dependencies
pnpm install

# 2. Enter the packages/<yourmodule>
cd packages/yourmodule

# 3. Test the module in watch mode
pnpm test:watch

Database Operations

create-pg-app deploy

Deploy your database changes and migrations.

# Deploy to selected database
create-pg-app deploy

# Create database if it doesn't exist
create-pg-app deploy --createdb

# Deploy specific package to a tag
create-pg-app deploy --package mypackage --to @v1.0.0

# Fast deployment without transactions
create-pg-app deploy --fast --no-tx

create-pg-app verify

Verify your database state matches expected migrations.

# Verify current state
create-pg-app verify

# Verify specific package
create-pg-app verify --package mypackage

create-pg-app revert

Safely revert database changes.

# Revert latest changes
create-pg-app revert

# Revert to specific tag
create-pg-app revert --to @v1.0.0

Migration Management

create-pg-app migrate

Comprehensive migration management.

# Initialize migration tracking
create-pg-app migrate init

# Check migration status
create-pg-app migrate status

# List all changes
create-pg-app migrate list

# Show change dependencies
create-pg-app migrate deps

Module Management

create-pg-app install

Install create-pg-app modules as dependencies.

# Install single package
create-pg-app install @pgpm/base32

# Install multiple packages
create-pg-app install @pgpm/base32 @pgpm/faker

create-pg-app extension

Interactively manage module dependencies.

create-pg-app extension

create-pg-app tag

Version your changes with tags.

# Tag latest change
create-pg-app tag v1.0.0

# Tag with comment
create-pg-app tag v1.0.0 --comment "Initial release"

# Tag specific change
create-pg-app tag v1.1.0 --package mypackage --changeName my-change

Packaging and Distribution

create-pg-app plan

Generate deployment plans for your modules.

create-pg-app plan

create-pg-app package

Package your module for distribution.

# Package with defaults
create-pg-app package

# Package without deployment plan
create-pg-app package --no-plan

Utilities

create-pg-app export

Export migrations from existing databases.

create-pg-app export

create-pg-app kill

Clean up database connections and optionally drop databases.

# Kill connections and drop databases
create-pg-app kill

# Only kill connections
create-pg-app kill --no-drop

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

pgpm uses standard PostgreSQL environment variables (PGHOST, PGPORT, PGDATABASE, PGUSER, PGPASSWORD).

Quick setup (recommended):

eval "$(create-pg-app env)"

Manual setup (if you prefer):

export PGHOST=localhost
export PGPORT=5432
export PGDATABASE=myapp
export PGUSER=postgres
export PGPASSWORD=password

Supabase local development:

eval "$(create-pg-app env --supabase)"

Getting Help

Command Help

# Global help
create-pg-app --help

# Command-specific help
create-pg-app deploy --help
create-pg-app tag -h

Common Options

Most commands support these global options:

• --help, -h - Show help information
• --version, -v - Show version information
• --cwd <dir> - Set working directory

Related LaunchQL Tooling

🧪 Testing

• launchql/pgsql-test: 📊 Isolated testing environments with per-test transaction rollbacks—ideal for integration tests, complex migrations, and RLS simulation.
• launchql/supabase-test: 🧪 Supabase-native test harness preconfigured for the local Supabase stack—per-test rollbacks, JWT/role context helpers, and CI/GitHub Actions ready.
• launchql/graphile-test: 🔐 Authentication mocking for Graphile-focused test helpers and emulating row-level security contexts.
• launchql/pg-query-context: 🔒 Session context injection to add session-local context (e.g., SET LOCAL) into queries—ideal for setting role, jwt.claims, and other session settings.

🧠 Parsing & AST

• launchql/pgsql-parser: 🔄 SQL conversion engine that interprets and converts PostgreSQL syntax.
• launchql/libpg-query-node: 🌉 Node.js bindings for libpg_query, converting SQL into parse trees.
• launchql/pg-proto-parser: 📦 Protobuf parser for parsing PostgreSQL Protocol Buffers definitions to generate TypeScript interfaces, utility functions, and JSON mappings for enums.
• @pgsql/enums: 🏷️ TypeScript enums for PostgreSQL AST for safe and ergonomic parsing logic.
• @pgsql/types: 📝 Type definitions for PostgreSQL AST nodes in TypeScript.
• @pgsql/utils: 🛠️ AST utilities for constructing and transforming PostgreSQL syntax trees.
• launchql/pg-ast: 🔍 Low-level AST tools and transformations for Postgres query structures.

🚀 API & Dev Tools

• launchql/server: ⚡ Express-based API server powered by PostGraphile to expose a secure, scalable GraphQL API over your Postgres database.
• launchql/explorer: 🔎 Visual API explorer with GraphiQL for browsing across all databases and schemas—useful for debugging, documentation, and API prototyping.

🔁 Streaming & Uploads

• launchql/s3-streamer: 📤 Direct S3 streaming for large files with support for metadata injection and content validation.
• launchql/etag-hash: 🏷️ S3-compatible ETags created by streaming and hashing file uploads in chunks.
• launchql/etag-stream: 🔄 ETag computation via Node stream transformer during upload or transfer.
• launchql/uuid-hash: 🆔 Deterministic UUIDs generated from hashed content, great for deduplication and asset referencing.
• launchql/uuid-stream: 🌊 Streaming UUID generation based on piped file content—ideal for upload pipelines.
• launchql/upload-names: 📂 Collision-resistant filenames utility for structured and unique file names for uploads.

🧰 CLI & Codegen

• pgpm: 🖥️ PostgreSQL Package Manager for modular Postgres development. Works with database workspaces, scaffolding, migrations, seeding, and installing database packages.
• @launchql/cli: 🖥️ Command-line toolkit for managing LaunchQL projects—supports database scaffolding, migrations, seeding, code generation, and automation.
• launchql/launchql-gen: ✨ Auto-generated GraphQL mutations and queries dynamically built from introspected schema data.
• @launchql/query-builder: 🏗️ SQL constructor providing a robust TypeScript-based query builder for dynamic generation of SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and stored procedure calls—supports advanced SQL features like JOIN, GROUP BY, and schema-qualified queries.
• @launchql/query: 🧩 Fluent GraphQL builder for PostGraphile schemas. ⚡ Schema-aware via introspection, 🧩 composable and ergonomic for building deeply nested queries.

Disclaimer

AS DESCRIBED IN THE LICENSES, THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

No developer or entity involved in creating this software will be liable for any claims or damages whatsoever associated with your use, inability to use, or your interaction with other users of the code, including any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive or consequential damages, or loss of profits, cryptocurrencies, tokens, or anything else of value.