Introduction

Welcome to PalJS - your comprehensive toolkit for building GraphQL APIs with Prisma.

Important: Choosing the Right Tool

Production vs Learning

For Production Applications: Use only the @paljs/plugins package with PrismaSelect. It provides secure, optimized field selection while you maintain full control over your GraphQL API.

For Learning & Prototyping: The code generators (Generator, Nexus, Admin) are perfect for quickly scaffolding APIs and learning Prisma + GraphQL patterns. They expose full Prisma operations and are not recommended for production use in large applications.

What is PalJS?

PalJS provides two distinct solutions:

Production: PrismaSelect Plugin

The @paljs/plugins package contains PrismaSelect — a production-ready utility that:

Analyzes GraphQL queries and generates optimized Prisma select/include objects
Only fetches the fields actually requested — no over-fetching
Prevents N+1 query issues automatically
Works with any GraphQL framework (Apollo, Yoga, etc.)
Gives you full control over what operations are exposed

typescript

import { PrismaSelect } from '@paljs/plugins';
 
const resolvers = {
  Query: {
    users: async (_, args, { prisma }, info) => {
      const select = new PrismaSelect(info).value;
      return prisma.user.findMany({ ...args, ...select });
    },
  },
};

Learning & Prototyping: Code Generators

The generator packages help you learn Prisma + GraphQL patterns quickly:

@paljs/generator — Native Prisma generator that creates GraphQL schemas, types, and admin UI
@paljs/nexus — Nexus plugin for Prisma integration
@paljs/admin — React admin UI components

These are ideal for:

Learning how Prisma and GraphQL work together
Building proof-of-concept applications
Creating demo or example projects
Rapid admin interface scaffolding

Why not for production?

The generators expose full Prisma operations (create, update, delete, etc.) directly through GraphQL. In production, you typically want fine-grained control over:

Which operations are exposed
Input validation and authorization
Business logic and data transformations

For production, write your own resolvers and use PrismaSelect for query optimization.

Quick Start

For Production (PrismaSelect)

Then use in your resolvers:

typescript

import { PrismaSelect } from '@paljs/plugins';
 
// In your resolver
const select = new PrismaSelect(info).value;
return prisma.user.findMany({ ...args, ...select });

See the Plugins documentation for full details.

For Learning (Generator)

Add to your Prisma schema:

prisma

generator paljs {
  provider = "paljs-generator"
  output   = "./generated/paljs"
}

Create paljs.config.ts:

typescript

import { defineConfig } from '@paljs/generator/config';
 
export default defineConfig({
  generateGraphQL: true,
  generateTypes: true,
});

Generate with prisma generate.

See the Generator documentation for full details.

Package Overview

Package	Use Case	Badge
@paljs/plugins	Production applications	Production Ready
@paljs/generator	Learning, prototyping	Learning
@paljs/nexus	Learning Nexus + Prisma	Learning
@paljs/admin	Internal tools, admin panels	Internal Tools

Next Steps

PrismaSelect (Production) — Start here for production apps
Generator (Learning) — Quick scaffolding for learning
Configuration — Learn all defineConfig() options
Upgrade Guide — Migrating from v8 to v9

Command Palette