Database Introspection

Kysely provides powerful introspection capabilities that allow you to examine your database schema at runtime. You can retrieve metadata about tables, views, columns, and constraints using the introspection property of your Kysely instance.

Overview

Database introspection is useful for:

Generating documentation
Building dynamic queries based on schema structure
Validating database migrations
Creating schema visualization tools
Runtime type checking and validation

Basic Usage

Here's a simple example of how to retrieve table metadata:

import { Kysely, PostgresDialect } from 'kysely'
import { Pool } from 'pg'
 
async function inspectDatabase() {
  const db = new Kysely({
    dialect: new PostgresDialect({
      pool: new Pool({
        connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
      }),
    }),
  })
 
  const tables = await db.introspection.getTables()
  console.log('Database tables:', tables)
}

Available Methods

The introspection API provides several methods to examine different aspects of your database schema:

Getting Table Information

// Get all tables and views
const tables = await db.introspection.getTables()
 
// Get a specific table
const userTable = await db.introspection.getTable('users')
 
// Get only tables (excluding views)
const onlyTables = await db.introspection.getTables({ withViews: false })

Getting Column Information

// Get all columns for a specific table
const columns = await db.introspection.getColumns('users')
 
// Get a specific column
const emailColumn = await db.introspection.getColumn('users', 'email')

Understanding the Metadata

TableMetadata Interface

The TableMetadata interface provides detailed information about tables and views:

interface TableMetadata {
  // Name of the table or view
  name: string
 
  // Schema name (e.g., 'public' in PostgreSQL)
  schema: string
 
  // Whether this is a view rather than a table
  isView: boolean
 
  // Comments/descriptions from the database
  comment?: string
}

ColumnMetadata Interface

The ColumnMetadata interface describes individual columns:

interface ColumnMetadata {
  // Column name
  name: string
 
  // SQL data type (e.g., 'varchar', 'integer')
  dataType: string
 
  // Maximum length for string columns
  maxLength?: number
 
  // Is the column nullable?
  isNullable: boolean
 
  // Has a default value?
  hasDefaultValue: boolean
 
  // Column comment/description
  comment?: string
}

Advanced Usage Examples

Generating Schema Documentation

async function generateSchemaDoc() {
  const tables = await db.introspection.getTables()
 
  let documentation = '# Database Schema\n\n'
 
  for (const table of tables) {
    documentation += `## ${table.name}\n`
    if (table.comment) {
      documentation += `${table.comment}\n`
    }
 
    const columns = await db.introspection.getColumns(table.name)
    documentation += '\n### Columns\n\n'
 
    for (const column of columns) {
      documentation += `- ${column.name} (${column.dataType})`
      if (column.comment) {
        documentation += `: ${column.comment}`
      }
      documentation += '\n'
    }
    documentation += '\n'
  }
 
  return documentation
}

Validating Schema Changes

async function validateSchema(expectedTables: string[]) {
  const tables = await db.introspection.getTables()
  const tableNames = tables.map((t) => t.name)
 
  const missingTables = expectedTables.filter(
    (name) => !tableNames.includes(name),
  )
 
  if (missingTables.length > 0) {
    throw new Error(`Missing tables: ${missingTables.join(', ')}`)
  }
}

Dynamic Query Building

async function buildDynamicQuery(
  tableName: string,
  filters: Record<string, any>,
) {
  // Validate table exists
  const table = await db.introspection.getTable(tableName)
  if (!table) {
    throw new Error(`Table ${tableName} does not exist`)
  }
 
  // Get valid columns
  const columns = await db.introspection.getColumns(tableName)
  const columnNames = new Set(columns.map((c) => c.name))
 
  // Filter out invalid columns
  const validFilters = Object.entries(filters)
    .filter(([key]) => columnNames.has(key))
    .reduce(
      (obj, [key, value]) => ({
        ...obj,
        [key]: value,
      }),
      {},
    )
 
  // Build query
  return db.selectFrom(tableName).selectAll().where(validFilters)
}

Best Practices

Cache Introspection Results
- Introspection queries can be expensive
- Cache results when possible, especially in production
- Invalidate cache after schema migrations
Error Handling
- Always handle cases where tables or columns might not exist
- Consider schema changes that might happen during runtime
Performance Considerations
- Limit introspection calls in hot paths
- Use specific methods (getTable, getColumn) instead of fetching all metadata
- Consider implementing a schema cache layer

Dialect Support

Different SQL dialects may provide different levels of introspection support. Always check the documentation for your specific dialect:

PostgreSQL: Full support for all introspection features
MySQL: Supports basic table and column introspection
SQLite: Limited introspection capabilities

For complete details on available methods and interfaces, refer to the DatabaseIntrospector and TableMetadata documentation.

Database Introspection

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