# @adonisjs/lucid-slugify > Generate and persist unique slugs in your database via Lucid models Latest version **4.0.0** (published 2026-06-25) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads ## Install ```sh npm install @adonisjs/lucid-slugify pnpm add @adonisjs/lucid-slugify yarn add @adonisjs/lucid-slugify bun add @adonisjs/lucid-slugify ``` ## Health **Score 70/100 (B)** — status: active. Positive: has types; esm support; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high quality score. Warnings: low downloads. ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Version | 4.0.0 | | Published | 2026-06-25 | | First published | 2018-02-24 | | Weekly downloads | 0 | | License | MIT | | TypeScript types | bundled | | Module format | ESM + CommonJS | | Node | >=24.0.0 | | Dependencies | 1 | | Unpacked size | 45.4 KB | | Known vulnerabilities | 0 | | Install scripts | no | | Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) | | GitHub stars | 121 | | Author | Harminder Virk | | Maintainers | romainlanz, virk, julien-r44 | | Keywords | lucid, slug, unique-slugs | ## Links - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@adonisjs/lucid-slugify - Repository: https://github.com/adonisjs/lucid-slugify - Homepage: https://github.com/adonisjs/lucid-slugify#readme - Issues: https://github.com/adonisjs/lucid-slugify/issues - npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/@adonisjs/lucid-slugify ## Dependencies (1) - [nanoid](https://npm.io/package/nanoid.md) ^5.1.3 ## Alternatives - [@sindresorhus/slugify](https://npm.io/package/@sindresorhus/slugify.md) — 3.7M weekly downloads - [solid-js](https://npm.io/package/solid-js.md) — 2.7M weekly downloads - [expo-glass-effect](https://npm.io/package/expo-glass-effect.md) — 2.5M weekly downloads - [nanoassert](https://npm.io/package/nanoassert.md) — 780.8K weekly downloads - [@ffmpeg/ffmpeg](https://npm.io/package/@ffmpeg/ffmpeg.md) — 529.5K weekly downloads ## Recent versions - 4.0.0 (latest) — 2026-06-25 - 3.0.0-beta.0 (beta) — 2025-03-09 - 3.0.0-0 (next) — 2024-03-20 - 1.0.3 (legacy) — 2018-06-18 - 3.0.0 — 2025-03-09 - 2.2.1 — 2022-08-13 - 2.2.0 — 2022-05-22 - 2.1.5 — 2022-04-08 - 2.1.4 — 2022-03-03 - 2.1.3 — 2021-08-30 - 2.1.2 — 2021-08-20 - 2.1.1 — 2021-07-04 - 2.1.0 — 2021-06-25 - 2.0.1 — 2021-06-23 - 2.0.0 — 2021-06-23 - … 3 more at https://npm.io/package/@adonisjs/lucid-slugify/versions ## README # @adonisjs/lucid-slugify > Use Lucid models to create URL-safe unique slugs and persist them in the database.
[![gh-workflow-image]][gh-workflow-url] [![npm-image]][npm-url] ![][typescript-image] [![license-image]][license-url] ## Introduction Generating slugs is easy, but keeping them unique is hard. This package abstracts the hard parts and gives you a simple API to create and persist unique slugs to the database. Lucid slugify exports the `@slugify` decorator, which you can use on the model fields to mark them as slugs and define the source fields from which the slug should be generated. Under the hood, the decorator registers `beforeCreate` and `beforeUpdate` hooks to compute the slug and persist it to the database. In the following example, we mark the `slug` field as the slug and compute its value using the `title` field. We also use the [dbIncrement](#dbincrement) strategy to keep slugs unique. ```ts import { PostSchema } from '#database/schema' import { slugify } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify' export default class Post extends PostSchema { @slugify({ strategy: 'dbIncrement', fields: ['title'], }) declare slug: string } ``` ## Installation and usage You can install the `@adonisjs/lucid-slugify` package from the npm packages registry. Ensure your application uses `@adonisjs/core@7` and `@adonisjs/lucid@22`. ```sh npm i @adonisjs/lucid-slugify ``` ```sh yarn add @adonisjs/lucid-slugify ``` ```sh pnpm add @adonisjs/lucid-slugify ``` Once done, you can mark a field as a slug using the `@slugify` decorator. Make sure to specify the source field(s) from which the slug should be generated. ```ts import { PostSchema } from '#database/schema' // 👇 Import decorator import { slugify } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify' export default class Post extends PostSchema { // 👇 Use it on a column @slugify({ fields: ['title'], }) declare slug: string } ``` The decorator computes the slug only when the column does not already have a value. If you assign a value to the slug column manually, your value is left untouched. ## Uniqueness of slug In the previous example, if two posts are created with the same `title`, they will have the same `slug` value. This won't be a problem if you are the only author of your blog since you can always rename titles or might never write two articles with the same title. However, if it's a community blog or forum, the chances of creating two or more posts with the same title are quite high. You can use one of the following strategies to prevent duplicate slugs even when the titles are the same. ### dbIncrement The `dbIncrement` strategy performs a select query to find similar slugs and appends a counter when a duplicate slug is found. Given you have a database table with the following slugs: - Creating a post with `slug=hello-world` will result in `hello-world-6`. - Similarly, creating a post with `slug=introduction-to-social-auth` will result in `introduction-to-social-auth-5`. ``` +----+-----------------------------+-------------------------------+ | id | title | slug | +----+-----------------------------+-------------------------------+ | 1 | Hello world | hello-world | | 2 | Hello world | hello-world-5 | | 3 | Hello world | hello10world | | 4 | Hello world | hello-10-world | | 5 | Introduction to social auth | introduction-to-social-auth | | 6 | Introduction to social auth | introduction-to-social-auth-4 | | 7 | Hello world | hello-world-2 | | 8 | Hello world fanny | hello-world-fanny | | 9 | Hello world | post-hello-world | | 10 | Hello world | post-11am-hello-world11 | | 11 | Hello world | post-11am-hello-world | | 12 | Introduction to social auth | introdUction-to-Social-auTH-1 | +----+-----------------------------+-------------------------------+ ``` This strategy uses the same database connection as the model being persisted and works with PostgreSQL, MySQL (including 5.7), SQLite, and SQL Server. Using it with any other dialect throws the [`E_UNSUPPORTED_DB_DIALECT`](#errors) exception. ### shortId The `shortId` strategy appends a **10-character short id** to the slug to make it unique. This strategy does not perform any additional database queries. ```ts export default class Post extends PostSchema { @slugify({ strategy: 'shortId', fields: ['title'], }) declare slug: string } ``` ``` +----+-------------+------------------------+ | id | title | slug | +----+-------------+------------------------+ | 1 | Hello world | hello-world-yRPZZIWGgC | +----+-------------+------------------------+ ``` ### No strategy When you do not specify a strategy, the slug is generated and persisted as-is, without any uniqueness guarantees. This is the default behavior and is suitable when the source fields are already unique (for example, a SKU or an email address). ## Updating slugs By default, slugs are not updated when you update a model instance, and this is how it should be when slugs are used to look up a record, as changing a slug will result in a broken URL. However, if slugs are not primarily used to look up records, you may want to update them. You can enable updates by using the `allowUpdates` flag. ```ts export default class Post extends PostSchema { @slugify({ strategy: 'dbIncrement', fields: ['title'], allowUpdates: true, // 👈 }) declare slug: string } ``` When updates are enabled, the slug is recomputed only when one of the source `fields` has been modified. If you mutate the slug column manually, your value takes precedence and the slug is not recomputed. You may also pass a function to `allowUpdates` to decide at runtime whether the slug should be updated for a given model instance. ```ts @slugify({ fields: ['title'], allowUpdates: (post) => post.status === 'draft', }) declare slug: string ``` ## Null values and slug generation The `slugify` decorator does not generate slugs when the value of one or more source fields is `undefined` or `null`. ## Available options Following is the list of available options accepted by the `@slugify` decorator.
{
"fields":

An array of source fields to use for generating the slug. The value of multiple fields is concatenated using the config.separator property. This is the only required option.

"strategy":

The strategy to use for keeping slugs unique. It can be one of the pre-existing strategy names ("dbIncrement" or "shortId") or a factory function that returns a custom strategy implementation. Defaults to no uniqueness handling.

"allowUpdates":

A boolean to enable updates, or a function that receives the model instance and returns a boolean. Updates are disabled by default.

"maxLength":

The maximum length for the generated slug. The final slug value can be slightly over the defined maxLength in the following scenarios.

No max length is applied by default.

  • When completeWords is set to true.
  • When using the dbIncrement strategy. The counter value is appended after trimming the value for the maxLength.
"completeWords":

A boolean that forces to complete the words when applying the maxLength property. Completing words will generate a slug larger than the maxLength. So, keep some buffer between the maxLength property and the database storage size.

Complete words are disabled by default.

"separator":

The separator to use for creating the slug. A dash - is used by default.

"transformer":

A custom function to convert non-string source values to a string before they are slugified. It receives the model instance, the field name, and the field value, and must return a string.

By default, booleans are converted to "1" or "0", Date values are converted using date.toJSON(), and everything else is converted using String(value).

}
### Generating slugs from multiple fields When you specify more than one field, their values are concatenated using the `separator` (in the order they are defined) and the result is slugified. ```ts @slugify({ fields: ['seriesName', 'title'], separator: '-', }) declare slug: string ``` ### Customizing the transformer The `transformer` is handy when a source field holds a rich data type that should not be stringified using the default rules. ```ts @slugify({ fields: ['title', 'publishedAt'], transformer: (post, field, value) => { if (field === 'publishedAt' && value instanceof DateTime) { return value.toFormat('yyyy-MM-dd') } return String(value) }, }) declare slug: string ``` ## Using custom strategies Custom strategies can be used if you want to handle the uniqueness of slugs yourself. A strategy must implement the [`SlugifyStrategyContract`](#slugifystrategycontract) interface. ```ts import { LucidRow } from '@adonisjs/lucid/types/model' import { SlugifyStrategyContract } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify/types' export class MyCustomStrategy implements SlugifyStrategyContract { maxLengthBuffer: number = 0 async makeSlugUnique(modelInstance: LucidRow, field: string, value: string) { return value } } ``` The `makeSlugUnique` method receives the following arguments. - `modelInstance`: Reference to the model instance that will be persisted in the database. - `field`: The name of the field for which the unique slug will be created. - `value`: The base value to convert to a unique value. Once you have created the strategy, you can use it with the `@slugify` decorator by registering it as a factory function. The factory receives the model class, the property name, and the resolved decorator config, allowing you to build the strategy with the same configuration. ```ts export default class Post extends PostSchema { @slugify({ strategy: (model, propertyName, config) => { return new MyCustomStrategy() }, fields: ['title'], }) declare slug: string } ``` The built-in strategy classes are also exported, so you can reuse or extend them from a factory function. ```ts import { DbIncrementStrategy, ShortIdStrategy } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify/strategies' ``` ## Self creating slugs The default implementation used by Lucid slugify for creating slugs works great with English words. However, if you are using Non-Latin alphabets, replace the implementation for creating slugs with a custom one. You can override the static `slugify` method on the `Slugifier` class. The following code has to be executed only once (for example, inside a service provider). ```ts import { Slugifier } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify' /** * Make sure to install the "transliteration" package */ import { slugify } from 'transliteration' Slugifier.slugify = function (value, options) { return slugify(value, { separator: options.separator, lowercase: options.lower, }) } ``` ## API reference ### Entry points | Import path | Exports | | ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `@adonisjs/lucid-slugify` | [`slugify`](#slugify-config) decorator, [`Slugifier`](#slugifier) class, [`errors`](#errors) | | `@adonisjs/lucid-slugify/strategies` | `DbIncrementStrategy`, `ShortIdStrategy` | | `@adonisjs/lucid-slugify/types` | `SlugifyConfig`, `SlugifierConfig`, [`SlugifyStrategyContract`](#slugifystrategycontract) | ### slugify(config) A property decorator that marks a Lucid model column as a slug. It registers `beforeCreate` and `beforeUpdate` hooks on the model to compute and persist the slug. ```ts import { slugify } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify' @slugify({ fields: ['title'], strategy: 'dbIncrement' }) declare slug: string ``` See [Available options](#available-options) for the complete list of accepted config properties. ### Slugifier The class that powers slug generation. You usually do not interact with it directly — the `@slugify` decorator creates and manages a `Slugifier` instance per slug field for you. The one member relevant to end-users is the static `slugify` method, which converts a string into a URL-safe slug. Override it to plug in a custom slugification routine (see [Self creating slugs](#self-creating-slugs)). ```ts Slugifier.slugify(value: string, options: { separator: string; lower: boolean }): string ``` ### SlugifyStrategyContract The interface that every strategy (built-in or custom) implements. ```ts interface SlugifyStrategyContract { /** * The number of characters the strategy may add to the slug to make it * unique. The slugifier reserves this many characters when applying the * `maxLength` option, so the final value stays within the column size. */ maxLengthBuffer: number /** * Convert the computed slug value into a unique value that is safe to * persist to the database. */ makeSlugUnique(modelInstance: LucidRow, field: string, value: string): Promise | string } ``` ### errors The package exports its exceptions under the `errors` namespace. ```ts import { errors } from '@adonisjs/lucid-slugify' errors.E_UNSUPPORTED_DB_DIALECT ``` | Exception | Raised when | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `E_UNSUPPORTED_DB_DIALECT` | The `dbIncrement` strategy is used with a database dialect it does not support. | ## Contributing One of the primary goals of AdonisJS is to have a vibrant community of users and contributors who believe in the principles of the framework. We encourage you to read the [contribution guide](https://github.com/adonisjs/.github/blob/main/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md) before contributing to the framework. ## Code of Conduct To ensure that the AdonisJS community is welcoming to all, please review and abide by the [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/adonisjs/.github/blob/main/docs/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). ## License AdonisJS Lucid slugify is open-sourced software licensed under the [MIT license](LICENSE.md). 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