Database Options

EmDash supports multiple database backends. Choose based on your deployment target.

Overview

Database	Best For	Deployment
D1	Cloudflare Workers	Edge, globally distributed
PostgreSQL	Production Node.js	Any platform with Postgres
libSQL	Remote databases	Edge or Node.js
SQLite	Node.js, local dev	Single server

Cloudflare D1

D1 is Cloudflare’s serverless SQLite database. Use it when deploying to Cloudflare Workers.

astro.config.mjs

import { d1 } from "@emdash-cms/cloudflare";

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    emdash({
      database: d1({ binding: "DB" }),
    }),
  ],
});

Configuration

Option	Type	Default	Description
binding	string	—	D1 binding name from wrangler.jsonc
session	string	"disabled"	Read replication mode (see below)
bookmarkCookie	string	"__em_d1_bookmark"	Cookie name for session bookmarks

Setup

wrangler.jsonc

{
  "d1_databases": [
    {
      "binding": "DB",
      "database_name": "emdash-db"
    }
  ]
}

wrangler.toml

[[d1_databases]]
binding = "DB"
database_name = "emdash-db"

Note

EmDash runs migrations on D1 automatically on the first request after deployment. Wrangler provisions the D1 database itself on first deploy if it doesn’t already exist.

Read Replicas

D1 supports read replication to lower read latency for globally distributed sites. When enabled, read queries are routed to nearby replicas instead of always hitting the primary database.

EmDash uses the D1 Sessions API to manage this transparently. Enable it with the session option:

astro.config.mjs

import { d1 } from "@emdash-cms/cloudflare";

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    emdash({
      database: d1({
        binding: "DB",
        session: "auto",
      }),
    }),
  ],
});

Session Modes

Mode	Behavior
"disabled"	No sessions. All queries go to primary. Default.
"auto"	Anonymous requests read from the nearest replica. Authenticated users get read-your-writes consistency via bookmark cookies.
"primary-first"	Like "auto", but the first query always goes to the primary. Use for sites with very frequent writes.

How It Works

• Anonymous visitors get first-unconstrained — reads go to the nearest replica for the lowest latency. Since anonymous users never write, they don’t need consistency guarantees.
• Authenticated users (editors, authors) get bookmark-based sessions. After a write, a bookmark cookie ensures the next request sees at least that state.
• Write requests (POST, PUT, DELETE) always start at the primary database.
• Build-time queries (Astro content collections) bypass sessions entirely and use the primary directly.

Tip

Read replication must also be enabled on the D1 database itself via the Cloudflare dashboard or REST API. The session option only controls EmDash’s client-side session management.

Note

Anonymous visitors may see data that is a few seconds stale. For a CMS this is expected — content changes are not real-time, and if you have route caching enabled the response is already stale by definition.

libSQL

libSQL is a fork of SQLite that supports remote connections. Use it when you need a remote database without Cloudflare D1.

astro.config.mjs

import { libsql } from "emdash/db";

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    emdash({
      database: libsql({
        url: process.env.LIBSQL_DATABASE_URL,
        authToken: process.env.LIBSQL_AUTH_TOKEN,
      }),
    }),
  ],
});

Configuration

Option	Type	Description
url	string	Database URL (libsql://... or file:...)
authToken	string	Auth token for remote databases (optional for local)

Local Development

Use a local libSQL file during development:

database: libsql({ url: "file:./data.db" });

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is supported for Node.js deployments that need a full relational database.

astro.config.mjs

import { postgres } from "emdash/db";

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    emdash({
      database: postgres({
        connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
      }),
    }),
  ],
});

Configuration

You can connect with a connection string or individual parameters:

// Connection string
database: postgres({
  connectionString: "postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/emdash",
});

// Individual parameters
database: postgres({
  host: "localhost",
  port: 5432,
  database: "emdash",
  user: "emdash",
  password: process.env.DB_PASSWORD,
  ssl: true,
});

Option	Type	Description
connectionString	string	PostgreSQL connection URL
host	string	Database host
port	number	Database port
database	string	Database name
user	string	Database user
password	string	Database password
ssl	boolean	Enable SSL
pool.min	number	Minimum pool connections (default 0)
pool.max	number	Maximum pool connections (default 10)

Connection Pooling

The adapter uses pg.Pool under the hood. Tune pool size based on your deployment:

database: postgres({
  connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  pool: { min: 2, max: 20 },
});

Note

PostgreSQL requires the pg package. Install it as a dependency:

pnpm add pg

SQLite

SQLite with better-sqlite3 is the simplest option for Node.js deployments.

astro.config.mjs

import { sqlite } from "emdash/db";

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    emdash({
      database: sqlite({ url: "file:./data.db" }),
    }),
  ],
});

Configuration

Option	Type	Description
url	string	File path with file: prefix

File Path

The url must start with file::

// Relative path
database: sqlite({ url: "file:./data/emdash.db" });

// Absolute path
database: sqlite({ url: "file:/var/data/emdash.db" });

// From environment variable
database: sqlite({ url: `file:${process.env.DATABASE_PATH}` });

Note

SQLite requires a persistent filesystem. It does not work on platforms with ephemeral storage without additional configuration.

Migrations

EmDash runs migrations automatically on the first request, for every supported dialect (D1, SQLite, libSQL, PostgreSQL). Migrations are bundled with the emdash package and embedded into your build.

If the database is empty (no collections) and the setup wizard has not been completed, EmDash also applies a seed file on first boot. The seed is read from .emdash/seed.json, the path in package.json#emdash.seed, or seed/seed.json — whichever is found first — and inlined into the build at compile time. If none is present, a built-in default seed is used. Subsequent boots against an existing database leave its content alone.

Environment-Based Configuration

Use different databases per environment:

astro.config.mjs

import { sqlite, libsql, postgres } from "emdash/db";
import { d1 } from "@emdash-cms/cloudflare";

const database = import.meta.env.PROD ? d1({ binding: "DB" }) : sqlite({ url: "file:./data.db" });

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [emdash({ database })],
});

The choice can also key off an environment variable instead of the build mode:

const database = process.env.DATABASE_URL
  ? postgres({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL })
  : sqlite({ url: "file:./data.db" });