Introducing JSails

JSails is a data layer first, and a runtime second. It pairs TypeORM's Active Record model with the pieces a real web app actually needs — filesystem routing, a static export, server components, jobs, auth, and deployment — while staying deliberately not a complete MVC framework.

The idea

Most frameworks either hand you a bespoke everything, or leave you to assemble orphaned libraries into a coherent app. JSails takes a third path: it keeps the maintained libraries you already trust (TypeORM, Zod, BullMQ, Socket.IO, Preact, Hono) and layers a small, opinionated shell over the seams between them.

The result is a framework that is explicit about what it owns and what it reuses:

Active Record data on top of TypeORM, with a portable schema model and a migration history the framework owns.
Filesystem routes — pages and API modules discovered lexically, statically exportable with a single command.
Server components — Livewire-style signed, stateless state with backend actions, no stranded server-side UI store.
First-party plugins for auth, jobs, cache, mail, filesystem, flags, notifications, and more, all behind one extension seam.

What sets it apart

Three things, in order:

Migrations that are scalar and linear. Definitions are operations, diffed against model metadata — rollback is the exact inverse of what you applied, not a best-effort guess.
Everything is a plugin. The core is just the loader and a handful of contract seams; the reference implementations are replaceable default plugins. The same mechanism powers a marketplace for third-party plugins.
Deployment is generated, not hand-rolled. Jamal (our TypeScript reimplementation of Kamal + Sail) plans and executes releases — including database and Valkey accessories, on-demand TLS, and server hardening — from one config file.

Why this site exists

jsails.com is itself built with JSails. The docs you're reading are hand-written markdown rendered at build time by our own static export, through Shiki syntax highlighting and Pagefind search. No database, no server — a static site you can deploy anywhere.

That's the dogfood test, and it passes.

Start here

jsails create my-app --install
cd my-app
npm run dev

Read Getting Started, or jump straight to the Data Layer.

More is coming — jobs and queues, deeper server-component patterns, and the first-party admin panel. Stay tuned.