1. dialects
prorm
  • prorm documentation
  • Known test gaps
  • Architecture
  • Core concepts
  • Database types & coverage
  • Getting started
  • Going further
  • compliance
    • Compliance
    • The security toolkit: `prorm audit`
    • Checklists by regulation
    • Declaring personal data
    • Evidence bundles
    • Evidence
    • Frameworks: `@Security`
    • Jurisdictions
    • Platform policies
    • Protecting data
    • The regulation dataset
    • Residency and cross-border transfers
    • Retention & integrity
    • Status
    • Subject rights
  • decorators
    • prorm with decorators
    • Models with decorators
    • Querying a decorated model
    • Relations with decorators
  • diagrams
    • Diagram generators
    • Chen diagram
    • Class diagram
    • Dependency diagram
    • ER diagram
    • Flow diagram
    • From your models to a diagram
    • Gantt diagram
    • Index diagram
    • Migration diagram
    • Model diagram
    • Package diagram
    • Crow’s-foot diagram
    • Schema documentation
    • Sequence diagram
    • State diagram
    • Tree diagram
  • dialects
    • SQL dialects
    • AlloyDB Dialect
    • AlloyDB Omni Dialect
    • Amazon Athena Dialect
    • Aurora DSQL Dialect
    • Amazon Aurora MySQL Dialect
    • Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL Dialect
    • Azure Database for MySQL Dialect
    • Azure Database for PostgreSQL Dialect
    • Azure SQL Database Dialect
    • Azure SQL Managed Instance Dialect
    • Google BigQuery Dialect
    • Citus Dialect
    • ClickHouse dialect
    • Cloud Authentication (`cloud-auth`)
    • Cloud SQL for SQL Server Dialect
    • Cloud SQL for MySQL Dialect
    • Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL Dialect
    • CockroachDB Dialect
    • Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL Dialect
    • CrateDB Dialect
    • Cloudflare D1 Dialect
    • Databricks dialect
    • IBM Db2 Dialect
    • Dolt Dialect
    • Apache Doris Dialect
    • Druid Dialect
    • DuckDB Dialect
    • Exasol dialect
    • Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse Dialect
    • Firebird Dialect
    • Greenplum Dialect
    • SAP HANA Dialect
    • MySQL HeatWave Dialect
    • Azure Data Explorer (Kusto) Dialect — T-SQL
    • MariaDB Dialect
    • Materialize Dialect
    • MonetDB Dialect
    • MotherDuck Dialect
    • Microsoft SQL Server Dialect
    • MySQL Dialect
    • Neon Dialect
    • OceanBase Dialect
    • openGauss Dialect
    • Oracle Dialect
    • Oracle Autonomous Database Dialect
    • ParadeDB Dialect
    • PolarDB Dialect
    • PostgreSQL Dialect
    • Presto Dialect
    • QuestDB Dialect
    • Aurora RDS Data API Dialect (`rdsdata`)
    • Amazon RDS for Db2 Dialect
    • Amazon RDS for MariaDB Dialect
    • Amazon RDS for SQL Server Dialect
    • Amazon RDS for MySQL Dialect
    • Amazon RDS for Oracle Dialect
    • Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Dialect
    • Amazon Redshift
    • Amazon Redshift Data API Dialect
    • RisingWave Dialect
    • rqlite Dialect
    • SingleStore Dialect
    • Snowflake Dialect
    • Google Cloud Spanner Dialect
    • Spanner (PostgreSQL interface) Dialect
    • SQLite Dialect
    • StarRocks Dialect
    • Supabase Dialect
    • Azure Synapse Analytics (dedicated SQL pool)
    • Teradata Dialect
    • TiDB Dialect
    • TimescaleDB Dialect
    • Trino Dialect
    • Turso / libSQL Dialect
    • Vertica dialect
    • Vitess Dialect
    • Yellowbrick Dialect
    • YugabyteDB Dialect
  • guides
    • Access rules and behaviour profiles
    • ArangoDB (AQL)
    • Associations
    • Audit levels and escalation
    • Audit logging
    • In the browser
    • Bulk operations
    • Caching
    • Capabilities, tiers and team roles
    • CLI
    • Cloudflare
    • Compliance & data protection
    • Connection Pooling & Performance
    • Security in the console
    • Couchbase: structured N1QL queries
    • Data types
    • Decorators
    • Eager loading
    • Enums and constants
    • Error handling & error types
    • Extensions
    • External fields
    • Foreign data wrappers
    • Graph databases
    • Hooks & lifecycle events
    • Indexes & constraints
    • InfluxDB: structured Flux pipelines
    • klock-errors
    • klock — the `.klock` file
    • Local databases (`prorm db up`)
    • Structured log search — Splunk, Graylog, Papertrail, Sumo Logic
    • Logging
    • Grafana Loki: structured LogQL queries
    • MCP server
    • Migrate — the data transfer subsystem
    • Migrations & Schema Sync
    • Models from an existing database
    • Defining models
    • Multiple databases
    • OrientDB, Neptune and TigerGraph
    • Passwords
    • Importing a Prisma schema
    • Structured PromQL and MetricsQL
    • Query firewall
    • QueryInterface
    • Query operators reference
    • Query optimization
    • Composing find options with `pipe()` and `Q`
    • Query safety: the fail-closed WHERE guard
    • Querying
    • Raw Queries & Query Building
    • Read replicas
    • Schema diffing & migration generation
    • Views, triggers & other schema objects
    • Scopes & default scopes
    • Seeders
    • SPARQL / RDF triplestores
    • SQL constants
    • SQL features
    • SQL function builders
    • SQLite advanced features
    • StoreKey — a prod-orm database as the storage
    • Streaming results
    • Terraform
    • Transactions & Isolation Levels
    • Type mapping: legacy and modern
    • TypeScript types
    • Database users, roles & privileges
    • Validation & constraints
    • Virtual & Computed Fields
    • Writing docs
  • javascript
    • prorm in JavaScript
    • Models in JavaScript
    • Querying in JavaScript
    • Relations in JavaScript
  • runbooks
    • Operational runbooks
    • Connection failures
    • Credential rotation
    • Failover
    • Incident checklist
    • Deploying klock v2
    • Migration rollback
  • running-databases
    • Running databases in Docker
    • Running prorm under Bun in Docker
    • Running Cassandra in Docker with prorm
    • Running ClickHouse in Docker with prorm
    • Running CockroachDB in Docker with prorm
    • Running prorm under Deno in Docker
    • Running Elasticsearch in Docker with prorm
    • Running MariaDB in Docker with prorm
    • Running MongoDB in Docker with prorm
  • prorm control plane
    • Introduction
    • Authentication
    • Errors
    • Getting started
      • Service
        • Is it up
        • This description
    • Account
      • Sign-up and verification
        • Create an account
        • Exchange credentials for a token
        • Verify with the emailed code
        • Verify by clicking the emailed link
        • Name the parent or guardian
        • What a consent link is about
        • Give consent for a child's account
        • Ask the parent or guardian again
        • Send a new code and link
      • Family
        • Everyone this account is responsible for
        • One child, in detail
        • Turn a limit on or off
      • Profile
        • Who am I
        • Change the account
        • Every address on the account
        • Add an address
        • Confirm an address with the code mailed to it
        • Mail a fresh code to an unconfirmed address
        • Make an address primary
        • Remove an address
        • What this caller may do
    • Security
      • Sessions
        • Everywhere this account is signed in
        • Sign out everywhere else
        • Sign one out
        • A token for the CLI on a named machine
        • A token for the customer console, from the staff one
        • Park a sign-in for the CLI to collect
        • The CLI collecting its sign-in
        • The team's members' live sessions
        • Sign a member's session out
        • Sign an account out everywhere
        • Everywhere the account is signed in
        • Sign an account's session out
      • Single sign-on
        • Begin a single sign-on
        • The provider's return
        • Link the signed-in account to a team's provider
        • Which team an address signs in to
        • The team's single sign-on, as a member sees it
        • Set the team's OpenID Connect provider up, or change it
        • Remove the provider
        • The team's domain claims and the DNS record each needs
        • Prove a claimed domain
      • MFA and passwords
        • Start enrolling a second factor
        • Prove the app has it
        • Remove the second factor
        • Ask for a reset link
        • Set a new password with the emailed token
      • Klock
        • Open a device-bound klock session
        • Check in, for the next grant
        • Step up the session asking
        • Rotate the device key
        • Freeze a session
        • Unfreeze a session
        • A guest grant
        • The revocation feed
        • The published keyset
        • What this control plane supports
      • Devices
        • Your devices, or a team's
        • Approve a new device's pairing code
        • One device
        • Rename a device
        • Revoke a device
        • Suspend a device
        • Reinstate a suspended device
        • Wipe a device
        • Ask a device to rotate its key
        • The team's members' devices
        • Revoke a member's device
        • An account's devices
        • Revoke an account's device
        • Wipe an account's device
        • The device fleet
      • Access rules and behaviour
        • The access rules that bear on you
        • Add an access rule
        • This request, as the rules see it
        • One access rule
        • Remove an access rule
        • The behaviour profiles that bear on you
        • Add or change a behaviour profile
        • The profile presets
        • Your behaviour findings
        • Acknowledge a finding
        • One behaviour profile
        • Remove a behaviour profile
        • The team's access rules
        • Add a team access rule
        • Remove a team access rule
        • The team's behaviour profiles
        • Add or change a team behaviour profile
        • Remove a team behaviour profile
        • What the team's profiles caught
        • Acknowledge a team finding
      • Recovery and lockdown
        • Ask for a recovery link
        • Recover access with the emailed code
        • Is the account locked down
        • Lock the account down
        • Release a lockdown
        • Lock a member down
        • Release a member's lockdown
      • MCP tokens
        • Make a delegated token for one MCP client
        • The account's delegated tokens
        • Revoke a delegated token
        • What a delegated token may do now
        • Run one MCP tool with a delegated token
        • Run a device-signed MCP tool call relayed by the MCP Worker
      • Kerberos
        • Give the team its own Kerberos realm
        • The team's realm
        • Remove the team's realm
    • Logging and monitoring
      • Audit log
        • What has been done to the account
        • What has happened to this account
        • The account's audit trail
      • Operations
        • Everything that has been asked of this database
        • One, with its steps
        • Stop it
        • Put a failed one back in the queue
        • Every operation, across all accounts
      • Metrics and events
        • Every measurement, for a graph
        • Who did what to it
    • Billing
      • Plans and pricing
        • What the plans allow
        • The rate card
        • What one database would cost
        • What this account is paying for, itemised
      • Subscriptions and invoices
        • What this month's invoice will say
        • What this account is on
        • What it has been charged
        • Start a Stripe Checkout session
        • Open the customer portal
        • Stripe's events
        • Buy more connection pools
      • Team billing
        • The team's billing account
        • What the team has been charged
        • What this month's invoice will say
        • The team's cards
        • Add a card, through a Stripe-hosted setup session
        • Make a card the team's default
        • Remove a card
        • Start the team paying
        • Open the Stripe portal on the team's customer
        • Change the team's plan
        • Who receives the team's bills
        • How the team pays for transfers
    • Support
      • Support chat
        • My conversations
        • Start a conversation
        • Every support conversation, open first
        • A ticket for the socket
        • One conversation, with who is in it and who is connected
        • Rename a group; open or close a support conversation
        • The lines, oldest first
        • Say something
        • Add somebody
        • Mark read
    • Administration
      • Users
        • Every account
        • One account, with everything hanging off it
        • Grant or revoke admin
        • Verify an account by hand
        • Lock or unlock sign-in
        • Allow or hold provisioning
        • Send the verification mail again
        • Set the plan by hand
      • Platform
        • Every database and store, across all accounts
        • The counts worth putting on a dashboard
      • Staff and permissions
        • What kind of admin the caller is, and which scopes they hold
        • The admin presets
        • Every admin, and the scopes each resolves to
        • Make an account an admin of a kind
        • Change an admin's kind, or a custom admin's scopes
        • Revoke admin
      • Team administration
        • Every team, with its owner and size
        • One team in full — members with their accounts, and projects
        • Hand the team to another member
        • Put an account in the team, active at once
        • Change a member's role
        • Remove a member
      • Assumed identities
        • Assume an identity — act as a customer account
        • The identities the caller holds open
        • End an assumed identity
      • Support inbox
        • The platform's addresses
        • Add a platform address
        • One address, with its counts
        • Change an address's label, routing, or whether it accepts mail
        • Remove an address that holds no mail
        • Make, adopt or repair the address's routing rule
        • Every admin's personal address, made where missing
        • File a raw message, as if it had arrived
        • The inbox
        • One message, whole
        • Mark a message
        • Hand a message to an admin, or take it back
        • Leave an internal note
        • Reply, from the address the message came to
        • What is waiting
    • Databases
      • Databases
        • Data stores
          • Every data store on the account
          • Provision a data store
          • Change a data store that is already running
          • One data store
          • Deprovision it
          • Report what it is using
          • How to reach a data store
        • Connections and credentials
          • The api keys on a database
          • Issue a key
          • Revoke a key
          • The engine users we created
          • Create a user inside the database
          • Give a user a new password
          • Drop a user
          • How the database is reached
          • Set how it is reached
          • Revoke every api key on it
          • How to connect to it
          • The ssh keys that open its bastion
          • Add a key, or have one made
          • The private half of a generated key, once
          • Revoke an ssh key
        • Schema and objects
          • The SQL objects we put in it
          • Create one, and apply it
          • What is in the database, as the engine reports it
          • One table
          • What it would run, without running it
          • Redefine an object in place
          • Drop it
          • The extensions installed in it
        • Migrations
          • A plan compiled to statements, recording nothing
          • The migrations recorded for it
          • Record one
          • Apply everything recorded and not yet run
          • Apply everything pending, oldest version first
        • Lifecycle
          • Grow or shrink it
          • Stop it accepting connections
          • Start it again
          • Move it to another region
        • Backups and replicas
          • Take a backup
          • The backups it has
          • Restore one into it
          • What has been restored into it, and from where
          • Its read copies
          • Add one
        • Policies
          • The catalog
          • One policy
          • What this database is held to
          • Switch a policy on, or change its knobs
          • Switch it off
          • Mark the policies reviewed
          • Evaluate the periodic policies now
          • Who is behind a credential
        • Passwordless
          • The database's passwordless sessions
          • Issue a passwordless session (v1)
          • Revoke a passwordless session
          • Bind a session to a device key
          • Issue a v2 session for a host to bind
          • Redeem an enrolment ticket on the host
          • Check a passwordless credential
          • Run one described query under a passwordless credential
        • Database roles
          • The database's roles
          • Define a role
          • One role
          • Change what a role permits
          • Delete a role, and revoke every key granted it
          • Grant a role, which mints a key
          • Who holds a role
          • The api keys bound to a role
        • Pools
          • A database's connection pools, and how busy each is
          • Open another pool
          • Rename a pool or change its size
          • Close a pool
        • Data plane
          • Run a query against a database
          • Several statements, in order, over one connection
          • Is this database answering
          • What the proxy itself is holding
        • Transfers
          • The strategies this account's tier may use
          • Price a transfer without creating it
          • The account's transfer jobs, newest first
          • Create a transfer job
          • One job, and whether its certificate holds
          • Cancel an unfinished job
          • Start a created job, confirming its price
          • Report a job's status (the runner, or the owner's side of a local run)
        • Every database on the account
        • Provision a database
        • Change a database that is already running
        • One database
        • Deprovision it
        • Read or write it
        • Report what it is using
        • The engines this API will provision
        • Where a managed database can be put
    • Teams
      • Teams
        • Members
          • Who is on it
          • Invite somebody
          • Accept an invitation
          • Change somebody's role
          • Remove somebody
        • Projects
          • The projects a team runs
          • Start one
          • Rename a project, or move its environment
          • Delete a project
          • One project, and what is in it
          • Put a database or store in it
          • What is in a project
          • Take one out
        • The teams this account is on
        • Start one
        • The twelve roles, and what each may do
        • Rename a team
        • Close a team
        • One team
        • Hand the team to somebody else
        • Leave a team
    • Schemas
      • Error
      • ValidationErrors
      • Token
      • PolicyCategory
      • PolicySeverity
      • PolicyAction
      • PolicyTrigger
      • PolicyParam
      • Policy
      • PolicyCatalog
      • PolicyAssignment
      • PolicyOutcome
      • PolicyFiring
      • CredentialTrace
      • Relation
      • Restrictions
      • ChildSummary
      • SignupRequest
      • SigninRequest
      • UpdateMeRequest
      • User
      • Address
      • GeoPoint
      • D1Region
      • Usage
      • UsageReport
      • Resource
      • Database
      • DataStore
      • NewDatabase
      • NewDataStore
      • QueryRequest
      • DatabasePrivilege
      • ApiKey
      • DbUser
      • Access
      • AccessRequest
      • DatabaseObject
      • NewDatabaseObject
      • NewMigration
      • SchemaOperation
      • Migration
      • Operation
      • Session
      • AdminPowers
      • Admin
      • AuditEntry
      • TeamRole
      • Conversation
      • ChatMessage
      • TeamSso
      • Team
      • TeamMember
      • SshKey
      • ConnectionInfo
      • InboxAddress
      • InboxMailbox
      • InboxMessageSummary
      • InboxMessage
      • InboxNote
      • Page
      • Quote
      • Plan
      • ApiError
      • CapabilityRefusal
      • KlockErrorCode
      • PageWindow
      • SessionView
      • KlockStepUpRequest
      • KlockOpenRequest
      • KlockOpenedSession
      • UpdateMeResult
      • CapabilitiesView
      • SessionLimits
      • Device
      • DeviceListed
      • DeviceTeamRef
      • DeviceCommand
      • DeviceAuditLine
      • DeviceActionRequest
      • StaffActionRequest
      • ManagedSession
      • SessionRevoked
      • AccessRule
      • AccessRuleRequest
      • BehaviourProfile
      • BehaviourProfileRequest
      • BehaviourProfileSaved
      • BehaviourFinding
      • BehaviourFindingAck
      • StepUpProof
      • Removed
      • MemberLockdownRequest
      • McpClient
      • McpDelegatedView
      • McpToolCall
      • McpForwardRequest
      • PasswordlessScope
      • RoleScope
      • PasswordlessSession
      • PasswordlessTlsMaterial
      • PasswordlessKerberosMaterial
      • ServiceDeviceKeys
      • ServiceSession
      • DatabaseRole
      • TransferEndpoint
      • TransferJobRequest
      • TransferQuote
      • TransferStrategy
      • TransferJob
      • TransferJobAccess
      • Pool
      • PoolAllowance
      • BillingSubscription
      • Invoice
      • BillingContact
      • PaymentMethod
      • UpcomingCharges
      • TeamBilling
      • TeamKerberosRealm
      • TeamSsoDomain
      • TeamSsoResponse
      • StoreConnection
      • BatchFailure
      • ProxyStatus
  1. dialects

Spanner (PostgreSQL interface) Dialect

Overview#

A Spanner database is created with one of two SQL dialects, fixed for life:
GoogleSQL — the existing spanner dialect — or
PostgreSQL. SpannerPostgresDialect is for the second: PostgreSQL syntax
and $n parameters over Spanner's storage, type system and schema rules.
PropertyValue
Dialect namespannerpg
ExtendsPostgresDialect
Driverpg, through PGAdapter
Default hostlocalhost
Default port5432 (PGAdapter's default)
Cloud SDKnone
Local runtimePGAdapter in front of the Spanner emulator

Quick start#

Install#

$ npm install ts-prorm-orm pg
$ pnpm add ts-prorm-orm pg
$ yarn add ts-prorm-orm pg
$ bun add ts-prorm-orm pg
pg is the same driver the postgres dialect uses. pg-copy-streams is optional: only the features that need it load it.

Connect#

import { Prorm } from 'ts-prorm-orm';

export const db = new Prorm({
  dialect: 'spannerpg',
  host: 'localhost', // PGAdapter
  database: 'my-database',
});

Define a model#

import { DataTypes } from 'ts-prorm-orm';

const User = db.define('User', {
  id: { type: DataTypes.INTEGER(), primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true },
  email: { type: DataTypes.STRING(255), allowNull: false, unique: true },
  name: { type: DataTypes.STRING(100) },
});

await db.sync(); // CREATE TABLE — see Generated SQL below

Query#

import { Op } from 'ts-prorm-orm';

await User.create({ email: 'ada@example.com', name: 'Ada' });

const page = await User.findAll({
  where: { name: { [Op.like]: 'A%' } },
  order: [['id', 'ASC']],
  limit: 20,
  offset: 40,
});

Generated SQL#

Each block is the statement the model call above it hands the dialect's query(), captured with the driver stubbed out. The model layer inlines the values.

Create table#

db.sync() for the model in the Quick start:
CREATE TABLE

Insert, update and delete#

await User.create({ email: 'ada@example.com', name: 'Ada' });
await User.update({ name: 'Grace' }, { where: { email: 'ada@example.com' } });
await User.destroy({ where: { id: 1 } });

Upsert#

await User.upsert({ id: 1, email: 'ada@example.com', name: 'Ada Lovelace' });
upsert() also reads the row by primary key before and after the write, to return the instance.

Pagination#

await User.findAll({
  where: { name: { [Op.like]: 'A%' } },
  order: [['id', 'ASC']],
  limit: 20,
  offset: 40,
});

Transaction#

await db.transaction(async (t) => {
  await User.create({ email: 'grace@example.com', name: 'Grace' }, { transaction: t });
  await User.update({ name: 'Grace Hopper' }, { where: { email: 'grace@example.com' }, transaction: t });
});
[!WARNING] No savepoints
Nested transactions need savepoints, and spannerpg has none. Run the work in a single transaction, or restructure it so nothing nests.
Type mapping for the portable descriptors: STRING → varchar(255), auto-increment INTEGER → bigint, BOOLEAN → boolean, DATE → timestamptz, UUID → uuid, JSON → jsonb. The type comparison lines the major engines up side by side.

Connection: PGAdapter first#

There are two ways to reach a PostgreSQL-dialect database. This dialect
supports PGAdapter:
PGAdapter is Google's proxy that speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol to
the client and gRPC to Spanner. Google lists node-postgres among its
supported drivers. To this library it is a PostgreSQL server, so the
connection pool, transactions, streaming and $n binding are inherited from
PostgresDialect with no changes.
The client library (@google-cloud/spanner with
databaseDialect: POSTGRESQL) needs no sidecar, but exposes Spanner's
session/transaction API, not a SQL connection. Supporting it means
re-implementing connect, query, transactions and result decoding — what the
GoogleSQL spanner dialect already does — so it is left for later.
# sidecar: java -jar pgadapter.jar -p my-project -i my-instance -d my-database
docker run -d -p 5432:5432 \
  -v $HOME/key.json:/key.json \
  gcr.io/cloud-spanner-pg-adapter/pgadapter \
  -p my-project -i my-instance -d my-database -c /key.json -x
const d = new SpannerPostgresDialect({ database: 'my-database' });
// host 'localhost', port 5432; username/password are not used for authorization
PGAdapter authenticates to Google Cloud itself (Application Default Credentials
or -c <key file>), accepts connections from localhost only unless started
with -x (inside a container), and uses the IAM permissions of that principal.

What differs from Postgres#

SpannerPostgresDialect extends PostgresDialect (postgres) and
overrides 35 of its methods (Object.getOwnPropertyNames(SpannerPostgresDialect.prototype),
computed by the scratch test); everything else is inherited unchanged.
AreaOverridden
TypescolumnSql, createEnumType, getDataTypeSql
DDL and schemaaddIndex, buildCreateIndexSql, buildCreateSequenceSql, buildCreateTableStatements, createDomain, createExtension, createForeignDataWrapper, createForeignServer, createForeignTable, createMaterializedView, createPartialIndex, createPartitionedTable, createProcedure, createSavepointSQL, createSequence, createStoredProcedure, createTable, createTrigger, dropExtension, dropSequence, dropTrigger, renameColumn
IntrospectioncheckName
OthercommentColumn, commentTable, constraintSql, defaultSql, id, nullFilter, onDelete, releaseSavepointSQL, rollbackToSavepointSQL

Types#

Model typeSpanner column
STRING(n) / TEXT / ENUMvarchar(n) (n ≤ 2,621,440) / text / varchar(255)
TINYINT … BIGINTbigint (Spanner's only integer; int is an alias for int8)
FLOAT / DOUBLEreal / double precision
DECIMAL(p,s)numeric — precision/scale are not accepted in DDL
BOOLEAN / BLOB / UUIDboolean / bytea / uuid
DATE / 'DATETIME' / 'TIMESTAMP'timestamptz (no timestamp without time zone)
DATEONLYdate
JSON / JSONBjsonb
ARRAY(T)T[] (one dimension)
Refused by name: CHAR, TIME, multi-dimensional arrays, and every
extension type (HSTORE, CITEXT, geometry, ranges, INET, VECTOR as a
PostgreSQL type, …).

Tables#

Every Spanner table has a primary key. createTable() builds it as a table
constraint (column order, or options.primaryKey), and sends one statement at
a time — Spanner DDL is not transactional:
db.dialect.buildCreateTableStatements(
  'albums',
  {
    singer_id: { type: DataTypes.BIGINT, primaryKey: true },
    album_id: { type: DataTypes.BIGINT, primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true },
    title: { type: DataTypes.STRING(200), unique: true },
    created_at: { type: DataTypes.DATE },
  },
  {
    interleave: { parent: 'singers', onDelete: 'CASCADE' },
    ttl: { days: 30, column: 'created_at' },
  },
);
// CREATE TABLE "albums" ("singer_id" bigint NOT NULL,
//   "album_id" bigint GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY (BIT_REVERSED_POSITIVE) NOT NULL,
//   "title" varchar(200), "created_at" timestamptz, PRIMARY KEY ("singer_id", "album_id"))
//   INTERLEAVE IN PARENT "singers" ON DELETE CASCADE TTL INTERVAL '30 days' ON "created_at"
// CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "albums_title_key" ON "albums" ("title")
Auto-increment is an identity column backed by a bit-reversed positive
sequence: values are positive and unique but deliberately not sequential
(so inserts do not hot-spot one split). It works without the database's
spanner.default_sequence_kind option, which serial would require.
Interleaving: interleave: { parent, onDelete } emits INTERLEAVE IN PARENT (a child row needs its parent row); enforceParent: false emits
INTERLEAVE IN (same physical layout, no check, no ON DELETE). The
parent's key must be a prefix of the child's.
TTL: ttl: { days, column } — a whole number of days on a timestamp
column.
UNIQUE is an index: Spanner's CREATE TABLE has no unique constraint,
so unique columns, UNIQUE constraints and uniqueKeys become CREATE UNIQUE INDEX statements.
Foreign keys take only ON DELETE CASCADE | NO ACTION; no ON UPDATE.
Limits checked before sending: names 1–128 characters, ≤ 1,024 columns,
≤ 16 key columns (including a parent's).

Indexes#

db.dialect.buildCreateIndexSql('albums', 'by_title', ['singer_id', 'title'], {
  include: ['year'],
  interleaveIn: 'singers',
  where: { title: { [Op.ne]: null } },
});
// CREATE INDEX "by_title" ON "albums" ("singer_id", "title") INCLUDE ("year")
//   INTERLEAVE IN "singers" WHERE "title" IS NOT NULL
Spanner has no partial indexes except null filtering: a where is accepted
only if it compiles to "col" IS NOT NULL [AND …] over indexed columns.
Access methods (USING is for vector indexes only) and expression indexes are
refused.

Sequences#

db.dialect.buildCreateSequenceSql({ name: 'ids', skipRange: [1, 1000], startCounterWith: 50 });
// CREATE SEQUENCE "ids" BIT_REVERSED_POSITIVE SKIP RANGE 1 1000 START COUNTER WITH 50
await db.dialect.nextSequenceValue('ids'); // SELECT nextval('ids')
startWith, incrementBy, minvalue, maxvalue, cycle, cache,
temporary, replace and ownedBy are refused. startCounterWith sets the
internal counter, which is bit-reversed before a value is returned — it is not
the first value. dropSequence has no CASCADE.

What it refuses#

Asked forWhy
TriggersNot supported
CREATE EXTENSIONNo extensions
CREATE TYPE / CREATE DOMAIN, stored procedures / functionsNo user-defined types, functions, operators or procedures
Foreign data wrappersNot supported
SAVEPOINT (and nested transactions)Not supported
Partial indexes other than IS NOT NULLNot supported
COMMENT ON (tables, columns, comment option)Not in Spanner DDL
Materialized views, partitioned tables, INHERITS, tablespacesNot in Spanner DDL
Renaming a columnALTER TABLE has no RENAME COLUMN
A table with no primary keyRequired

Caveats / not verified#

Only the PGAdapter path is implemented; the @google-cloud/spanner client
path (databaseDialect: POSTGRESQL) is not.
Google's overview page still lists SERIAL as unsupported, while the data
types page documents serial types as identity aliases once
spanner.default_sequence_kind is set. The dialect avoids the question by
emitting explicit identity columns.
LISTEN/NOTIFY, ON CONFLICT, RETURNING, row locking and isolation
levels are inherited from PostgresDialect unchanged; their support through
PGAdapter was not checked.
Tests assert SQL strings only; nothing runs against PGAdapter.

References#

PostgreSQL interface
The PostgreSQL language in Spanner
Data types
DDL
PGAdapter · Start PGAdapter
Quotas and limits

Capabilities#

Computed from the code — capabilitiesOf() (src/transaction-support.ts),
whereSupportOf() (src/query-builders/expression-render.ts),
sqlObjectCapabilitiesOf() (src/sql-objects/capabilities.ts) and the
builders — by the scratch test described in the
capability matrix.
Capabilityspannerpg
Transactions atomicyes
Savepointsno — a nested transaction() throws
Isolationup to SERIALIZABLE
Transaction modesread-only yes; deferrable yes; constraint deferral yes
RETURNINGRETURNING on INSERT
UpsertINSERT … ON CONFLICT (…) DO UPDATE
JSON columnjsonb (JSONB → jsonb)
Vector columnrefused — The VECTOR type is not supported on Spanner (PostgreSQL interface). Spanner supports bigint, real, double precision, numeric, boolean, bytea, date, timestamptz,
Array columnbigint[]
WHERE builder62 operator keys; $and/$or/$not; $exists: yes; $in subquery: yes; expression operands: yes
SQL objectsfamily unknown: triggers no; procedures no; functions no; materialized views no; sequences no; enums check; RLS no
StreamingqueryStream() present; LISTEN present; createExtension() present

See also#

All dialects — the family tree and the capability matrix
postgres — the parent dialect this one extends
Modified at 2026-10-04 00:40:16
Previous
Google Cloud Spanner Dialect
Next
SQLite Dialect
Built with