@omgbase/oqx
Generic Object Query eXpression engine for JavaScript.
OQX is a small query language for querying ordinary in-memory JavaScript objects and collections — arrays of records, nested relations, recursive trees — with a readable, declarative syntax. This package is the generic collection kernel: the OQX language semantics separated from any particular data model, exposed as a JavaScript tagged template.
import { oqx } from "@omgbase/oqx";
const people = [
{ name: "Bob", id: 124, title: "Engineer",
jobs: [{ employer: "Globocorp", start_date: "1984/05/01", end_date: "1990/01/01" },
{ employer: "Globocorp", start_date: "2001/03/01" }] },
// …
];
const company = "Globocorp";
const employees = oqx`
name, id, title
from ${people}
where jobs exists { employer == ${company} && !end_date }
`;
// → [{ name: "Bob", id: 124, title: "Engineer" }, …] (current Globocorp employees)
Why a tagged template
Interpolations cross the host/OQX boundary as typed value bindings, never as
source text — prepared-statement semantics. A ${…} in from position is the
collection being queried; a ${…} in a predicate is an ordinary host value.
Because values are never spliced into the query text, they cannot alter the
grammar and there is no injection surface. The compiled query is cached by the
template's identity and re-runs with fresh bindings each call.
Language tutorial
A query has, in spirit, the shape below — but at the top level the clauses are
order-flexible, so you can lead with the projection (SQL-style) or with
from, whichever reads better:
[ [select] projection ] name, id, title: label
from <collection> from ${people}
[ where <predicate> ] where age >= 18 && jobs exists { !end }
[ order by <expr> … ] order by age desc, name
[ follow <relation> … ] follow children { depth 4 }
The examples below all use this dataset:
const people = [
{ name: "Bob", id: 124, title: "Engineer", active: true, age: 41, city: "NYC",
jobs: [{ employer: "Globocorp", start: "1984", end: "1990" },
{ employer: "Globocorp", start: "2001" }] },
{ name: "Alice", id: 7, title: "Director", active: true, age: 52, city: "SF",
jobs: [{ employer: "Initech", start: "1999", end: "2005" },
{ employer: "Globocorp", start: "2010", end: "2015" }] },
{ name: "Carol", id: 55, title: "Analyst", active: false, age: 29, city: "NYC",
jobs: [{ employer: "Globocorp", start: "2020" }] },
];
1. Source: from
Every query reads from a source collection. In the tagged template the source is normally an interpolated value; it may also be a named root or a navigation (see data context).
oqx`name from ${people}`;
// [{ name: "Bob" }, { name: "Alice" }, { name: "Carol" }]
2. Projection (select)
List the fields to keep. With no projection you get the raw rows unchanged.
oqx`name, id from ${people}`;
// [{ name: "Bob", id: 124 }, { name: "Alice", id: 7 }, { name: "Carol", id: 55 }]
oqx`from ${people} where active`; // no projection → whole objects
// [ <Bob>, <Alice> ]
A projection item can be:
- a bare field —
name; - a dotted navigation, keyed by its last segment —
meta.slugproduces{ slug: … }; - an alias / value expression —
label: name,decade: age / 10; - a nested collection —
current: jobs collect { … }(see §6).
oqx`label: name, decade: age / 10 from ${people} where name == "Bob"`;
// [{ label: "Bob", decade: 4.1 }]
An item that is not a plain navigation — a call, arithmetic, a comparison — has
no natural key, so it must be aliased (n: size(jobs)), unless the projection is
in values mode (next).
The select keyword is optional and works in any position — select name from …
is identical to name from … (and hosts select distinct, §6).
values — scalar projection. Ordinarily every row projects to a record. Add
values after a projection of exactly one item to get the value itself:
oqx`name values from ${people}`; // ["Bob", "Alice", "Carol"]
oqx`name.upper() values from ${people} where age < 30`; // ["CAROL"] (no alias needed)
oqx`${people} first { name values where age > 50 }`; // "Alice"
values is a result-shape mode, not a consumer: it works in the top-level
projection and inside any collect / first / single block, and composes with
distinct (select distinct employer values from ${jobs} is the distinct set of
employers as strings, not { employer } records). An alias, if present, is
ignored; a lift (^name:) cannot be combined with it.
$value — the current item. Every scope has a current value; $value is
that exact value, whatever its type (an object row or a plain scalar). Bare names
still navigate it (name ≡ $value.name), so $value matters exactly where
there is nothing to navigate: collections of numbers or strings, or handing the
whole row somewhere. Together with values this makes scalar collections
first-class:
const scores = [10, 60, 70, 45];
oqx`$value values from ${scores} where $value > 50`; // [60, 70]
oqx`$value values from ${scores} order by $value desc`; // [70, 60, 45, 10]
const players = [{ name: "Ann", scores: [10, 60, 70] }, { name: "Ben", scores: [45] }];
oqx`name, big: scores collect { $value values where $value > 50 } from ${players}`;
// [{ name: "Ann", big: [60, 70] }, { name: "Ben", big: [] }]
oqx`employee: $value from ${people} where name == "Bob"`; // [{ employee: <Bob> }]
Inside a nested block $value is the inner item; the enclosing row is ^$value
(§3). At the root scope (before any row) it is absent.
entries(x) and $key — records to collections, explicitly. A plain object
is not iterable: from ${obj} is one row (the object). entries(obj)
converts it into a collection of entries, and inside such a scope the current
item is the property's value — $value and bare names read it — while
$key is the property's key:
const settings = { theme: "dark", fontSize: 14, autosave: true };
oqx`key: $key, value: $value from entries(${settings})`;
// [{ key: "theme", value: "dark" }, { key: "fontSize", value: 14 }, { key: "autosave", value: true }]
oqx`$key values from entries(${settings}) where $value != "dark"`; // ["fontSize", "autosave"]
const flags = { beta: { on: true }, legacy: { on: false } };
oqx`$key values from entries(${flags}) where on`; // ["beta"] (bare `on` reads the value)
oqx`name, on: entries(prefs) collect { $key values where $value } from ${users}`; // as a nested receiver
oqx`name from ${users} where entries(prefs) exists { where $key == "dark" && $value }`;
entries(array) yields numeric index keys, a Map yields its entries, and
absence/scalars yield nothing. $key exists only in an entry scope — an
ordinary row or array element has no implicit index; entries(arr) is how you
ask for one. As a plain value (not a source) entries(x) is an array of
{ key, value } records.
3. Predicates (where)
where filters rows. The predicate language has comparisons (== != < <= > >=),
boolean operators (&& || !) with grouping ( ), membership (in), arithmetic
(+ - * / %), and bare truthiness. The where keyword is optional when the
leading expression is clearly a predicate.
const min = 40;
oqx`name from ${people} where age >= ${min}`; // → Bob, Alice
oqx`name from ${people} where city in ${["SF", "LA"]}`; // → Alice
oqx`name from ${people} where !active`; // → Carol
Equality is typed and strict (5 == "5" is false); a comparison against an
absent (null/undefined) field is simply false rather than an error.
String literals may be double- or single-quoted ("NYC" / 'NYC') and
support backslash escapes: \n, \t, \r, \0, and \<any other char>
for that character itself (\", \', \\). An unterminated string is a lex
error. Note that inside the oqx tagged template JavaScript resolves its own
escapes first (the template's cooked strings are what OQX lexes), so \\n in
your source reaches OQX as \n. Usually you don't need any of this —
interpolate the host value instead (where name == ${name}).
Ranges. A Ruby-style range lo..hi (inclusive) or lo...hi (exclusive high
end) is a value, used most often as the right side of in. Either bound may be
omitted for an open-ended range (..hi, lo..). Bounds compare with the same
ordering rules as </<=, so ranges work over numbers and over ISO-8601
date/time strings alike:
oqx`name from ${people} where age in 40..50`; // 40 ≤ age ≤ 50
oqx`name from ${people} where age in 40...50`; // 40 ≤ age < 50 (excludes 50)
oqx`name from ${people} where age in 40..`; // 40 and up
oqx`name from ${people} where age in ..29`; // up to and including 29
oqx`label from ${events} where on in "2026-01-01".."2026-03-31"`; // dates in Q1
Bounds may be interpolated (where age in ${lo}..${hi}). A range membership is
not pushed into a storage backend — it is finished in-memory over the rows the
backend returns — so it always evaluates by the rules above.
When a range arrives as string data rather than as a literal, range(s)
coerces it: where "2026-02-14" in range(window) reads window's string
("2026-01-01..2026-01-31") as a range and tests coverage. A bare field stays a
plain string (window == "…" compares text) — range(...) is the explicit
opt-in, so a value that merely looks rangey is never silently reinterpreted. A
non-range string yields an absent range, so x in range(bad) is just false.
Interpolations are always values, never syntax. where name == ${x} compares
against the value of x; a string in x can't inject operators or identifiers.
Scoping: bare names are local, ^ reaches out. A bare identifier resolves
against the current row only. If the row lacks that property the value is
absent — it never falls through to an enclosing row. To correlate with an
enclosing scope you say so explicitly with ^name ("exactly one scope out";
^^name for two, and so on):
const accounts = [
{ owner: "x", budget: 100, orders: [{ amount: 50 }, { amount: 150 }] },
{ owner: "y", budget: 200, orders: [{ amount: 250 }] },
];
oqx`owner from ${accounts} where orders exists { amount > ^budget }`;
// [{ owner: "x" }, { owner: "y" }] — `^budget` is the enclosing account's budget
oqx`owner from ${accounts} where orders exists { amount > budget }`;
// [] — a bare `budget` is the ORDER's own budget: absent, so `>` is false
Every reference is therefore decidable from the query text alone. Adding a
budget field to the order rows later cannot change what ^budget means, and a
typo can't silently capture an outer field. Present-but-falsy values (null,
false, 0, "") are read like any other local value — there is no "absent, so
look outward" rule to trip over — and ^ always reads exactly N scopes out
(one past the root is absent, not the nearest match).
A .member access always navigates the value on its left. Named roots (see
data context) live on the
root scope, one out from a top-level row: ^people from a person row, ^^people
from a row nested one level deeper. A receiver may start with ^ too, which is
how a nested consumer runs over a named root or an enclosing row's relation:
execute("name, peers: ^people collect { name where city == ^city && name != ^name } from people", { people });
Correlated subqueries. Because inner and outer rows often share names, the
explicit ^ is what makes correlation unambiguous — e.g. each person's
siblings, where both the person and the candidates have a parent:
const family = [
{ name: "Ada", parent: "Pat" },
{ name: "Ben", parent: "Pat" },
{ name: "Cy", parent: "Sam" },
];
oqx`
name,
siblings: ${family} collect { name where parent == ^parent && name != ^name }
from ${family}
`;
// [{ name: "Ada", siblings: [{ name: "Ben" }] },
// { name: "Ben", siblings: [{ name: "Ada" }] },
// { name: "Cy", siblings: [] }]
Here parent is the inner candidate's parent while ^parent is the outer
person's. (^ in an expression reads one scope out; the same ^ as a
select-item prefix — ^name: … in §7 — binds one scope out. Both mean "one
scope out.") A value bound into a scope by a lift is read there as a bare name,
like a row property.
4. Built-in functions
Methods on a value: contains, startsWith, endsWith, matches (regex),
size, lower, upper. Free functions: list(x) (coerce to an array), size(x),
has(x), range(s) (§3), entries(x) (§2).
oqx`name from ${people} where title.startsWith("Eng")`; // → Bob
oqx`name from ${people} where title.lower() == "director"`; // → Alice
oqx`name from ${people} where has(age) && !has(nickname)`; // present vs absent
oqx`name from ${people} where tags.contains("admin")`; // array membership
has(x)is true whenxis present — anything other thannull/undefined.has(0),has(""), andhas(false)are all true; use bare truthiness (where active) when you mean truthy..contains(v)works on strings (substring) and arrays (an element equal tovunder OQX's strict equality); on anything else it is false..size()/size(x)is the length of a string or array, the key count of an object, and 0 for absent;.matches(re)compiles its argument as a JavaScriptRegExp.
Anything not in these tables is an eval error (unknown function 'f(…)' /
unknown method '.m(…)') — see custom functions
for adding your own.
5. Consumers
A consumer shapes a result set. There are six:
| Consumer | Returns |
|---|---|
collect |
an array (the default) |
exists |
a boolean — one or more rows |
none |
a boolean — zero rows (the complement of exists) |
count |
a number |
first |
one record, or null |
single |
one record, or null; throws if more than one matches |
The bare from … form is always collect. To reduce the whole query with a
different consumer, use the directive form <source> <consumer> { <body> } — note
this is not SQL: count from people would project a field called count, whereas
a real reduction is a directive:
oqx`${people} exists { where active }`; // true
oqx`${people} count { where active }`; // 2
oqx`${people} first { name where age > 50 }`; // { name: "Alice" }
(Inside a consumer block a bare identifier projects — count { active } selects
a field named active; write count { where active } to filter.)
6. Nested collections and relations
The same consumers work as postfix directives over a relation of the current
row — <relation> <consumer> { <body> } — both in where and in a projection.
In where, an exists { … } tests non-emptiness and count { … } <op> N compares
cardinality:
oqx`name from ${people} where jobs exists { !end }`; // has a current job → Bob, Carol
oqx`name from ${people} where jobs count {} >= 2`; // ≥2 jobs → Bob, Alice
oqx`name from ${people} where jobs none { where end }`; // no past job → Carol
none { … } is exactly !… exists { … }, kept as its own word because the
cardinality is the point. It is also how you say "every": all members active is
members none { where !active } — there is deliberately no all { … }, whose
block would have to mean something different from every other consumer's.
In a projection, collect yields a nested array; first / single yield one
nested record:
oqx`name, current: jobs collect { employer where !end } from ${people} where name == "Bob"`;
// [{ name: "Bob", current: [{ employer: "Globocorp" }] }]
oqx`name, firstJob: jobs first { employer } from ${people} where name == "Alice"`;
// [{ name: "Alice", firstJob: { employer: "Initech" } }]
A relation is just an expression evaluated on the row and coerced to a collection,
so nested blocks compose to any depth and can navigate dotted paths
(author.books collect { … }).
distinct dedups the rows a consumer sees by their projected value, so
counts and collections are over distinct projections rather than raw rows. Spell
it after the consumer (count distinct { … }) or inside via select distinct:
oqx`from ${jobs} select distinct employer`; // distinct employers
oqx`n: jobs collect distinct { select employer } from ${people}`; // per person, unique employers
oqx`name from ${people} where jobs count distinct { select employer } == 1`; // worked at exactly one employer
An empty projection dedups by row identity (count distinct { } = distinct rows).
7. Lifts (^)
Sometimes you want to filter by a nested collection and keep a value from it.
A ^name: item inside a collect { … } that sits directly in the top-level
where does both: it filters (non-empty) and binds name into the outer
projection as a per-row array.
oqx`
name, currentEmployers
from ${people}
where jobs collect { ^currentEmployers: employer where !end }
`;
// [{ name: "Bob", currentEmployers: ["Globocorp"] },
// { name: "Carol", currentEmployers: ["Globocorp"] }]
Multi-level lifts (^^, ^^^). The caret count is how many scopes the value
binds out — ^ to the immediate enclosing projection, ^^ two out, and so on
(the mirror image of the ^-read in §3). When a deeper lift fires repeatedly as
an intermediate collection fans out, its values flatten-append into one flat
list at the target scope — "every matching value from the subtree, N scopes out":
const departments = [
{ name: "Eng", teams: [{ id: "t1", members: [{ name: "Ada" }, { name: "Ben" }] },
{ id: "t2", members: [{ name: "Cy" }] }] },
{ name: "Sales", teams: [{ id: "t3", members: [{ name: "Dee" }] }] },
];
oqx`
name, teamIds, allMembers
from ${departments}
where teams collect { ^teamIds: id where members collect { ^^allMembers: name } }
`;
// [{ name: "Eng", teamIds: ["t1", "t2"], allMembers: ["Ada", "Ben", "Cy"] },
// { name: "Sales", teamIds: ["t3"], allMembers: ["Dee"] }]
^teamIds (one out) and ^^allMembers (two out) bind to the same department row
at once. Because accumulation happens as each intermediate collection is
iterated, the intermediate scopes must be collect/count bodies (which iterate
fully), not a short-circuiting exists.
8. Ordering
order by <expr> [asc|desc], comma-separated for tie-breaks. Absent values sort
last.
oqx`name from ${people} where city == "NYC" order by age desc`;
// [{ name: "Bob" }, { name: "Carol" }]
8b. Bounding: limit / offset
limit N and offset N bound the row set after where, order by, and
distinct, and before the consumer reduces it — so they mean the same thing
under every consumer: count { … limit 5 } is at most 5, first { … offset 1 }
is the second row, exists { offset 2 } asks for a third. They work at the top
level and inside any block, and N may be a literal, a ${…} binding, or an
outer reference — limit ^n reads the enclosing row's n, as ^ does everywhere
inside { … }; it must be a non-negative integer.
oqx`name values from ${people} order by age desc limit 2`; // ["Alice", "Bob"]
oqx`name values from ${people} order by age desc offset 1 limit 1`; // ["Bob"]
oqx`name, latest: jobs collect { employer values order by start desc limit 1 } from ${people}`;
oqx`name from ${people} where jobs exists { offset 1 }`; // has a second job
A storage adapter that pushes the whole query may translate them to SQL
LIMIT/OFFSET; the shipped SqliteTable leaves them to the residual.
9. Recursion: follow
follow <relation> turns a query into a bounded recursive traversal: the where
selects the seed rows, and follow walks a relation from each reached row. It's
fully duck-typed — the relation is any expression yielding successors; a row that
lacks it is simply a leaf.
const tree = [{ id: "root", children: [
{ id: "a", children: [{ id: "a1", children: [] }] },
{ id: "b", children: [] },
]}];
oqx`id, depth: $depth from ${tree} follow children order by $depth, id`;
// [{ id: "root", depth: 1 }, { id: "a", depth: 2 }, { id: "b", depth: 2 }, { id: "a1", depth: 3 }]
Reached rows expose recursion intrinsics in select / order by:
$depth (1-based), $leaf (no successors), $frontier (there is unfollowed
graph beyond — a boundary or the depth cap), $ordinal (a deterministic 1..N
rank over the walk, ordered by depth then path), and $stop
("interior" / "leaf" / "frontier" / "depth" / "cycle", precedence
cycle > frontier > depth > leaf > interior — only interior rows expand). Options
go in a trailing block:
oqx`id, stop: $stop from ${tree} follow children { depth 2 } order by $ordinal`;
// a1 is never reached; a and b report stop:"depth"
The intrinsics belong to the reached row's own scope like any other name: inside
a nested block (kids: children collect { … }) a bare $depth is absent, and
the occurrence's depth is ^$depth.
The walk is per-path: a node reached by N distinct paths yields N
occurrences, and revisiting an identity already on the current path is admitted
once as $stop == "cycle" and never re-expanded, so cycles terminate without
runaway. follow distinct collapses occurrences to reached nodes (the minimal
(depth, path) per identity).
The block accepts: where <succ> (which successors keep participating),
frontier <pred> (cut a relation that could continue), depth <n> (1–8), and
by <expr> (the identity used for cycle detection + distinct — default .id
or the object reference). Give follow a stable identity (.id or by) when
your relation returns fresh objects rather than shared references.
Cheat-sheet
name, alias: expr, nested: rel collect { … } projection (select optional)
from ${source} source collection
where a == b && rel exists { … } || !c predicate tree + nested ops
where rel none { … } zero rows (≡ !rel exists { … }; "all" = none over the complement)
where x in lo..hi / lo...hi / ..hi / lo.. range membership (incl. / excl. / open-ended)
where x in range(field) coerce a string field to a range, then test coverage
name the CURRENT row's field only (never climbs)
$value the current item itself (a scalar row, or the whole object)
from entries(obj) … $key / $value a record's properties as a collection (key + value; bare names read the value)
<expr> values scalar projection: the value, not a { name: value } record
^name / ^^name read an enclosing row's field (exactly N scopes out); ^$value = the enclosing row
^name: expr / ^^name: expr lift/export a value N scopes out (flatten-append)
^rel collect { … } / ^^root exists { … } nested consumer over an enclosing row's relation / a named root
entries(rel) exists { … } a free-function call may be a receiver
order by expr desc, expr2 ordering
limit n / offset n bound the row set (after where/order/distinct, before the consumer)
follow rel { where … frontier … depth n by … } recursion ($depth/$stop/$leaf/$frontier)
${source} <collect|exists|none|count|first|single> { … } whole-query consumer
Data context: string queries and named roots
When you don't need interpolation, execute runs a plain string query against a
data context of named roots:
import { execute } from "@omgbase/oqx";
execute("name from people where age >= 18", { people });
// `from people` resolves the `people` root
parse(source) returns a reusable AST and run(query, { values, roots }) returns
the full discriminated result ({ consumer, … }).
Architecture: adapting to other storage & query systems
OQX is layered so it can be the front-end for query systems far beyond in-memory
objects. The parsed Query AST is the host-agnostic IR; execution is pluggable.
Query AST ─┬─ InMemoryEngine(DataContext) tier 1/2 — drive any data model
└─ PlannedEngine(QueryPlanner) tier 3 — push work into a store
└─ finishes the residual on the in-memory engine
Everything obeys one scalar-semantics contract (the semantics export): typed/strict
equality (5 == "5" is false), absent operands make ordering comparisons false,
CEL-style in, absent-last sort order. Any backend that can't reproduce a rule
in its native language must leave that fragment as an in-memory residual rather
than approximate it. The conformance suite verifies this.
Tier 2 — a custom DataContext (bind any data model)
The engine never touches host objects directly; it asks a DataContext to
resolve named roots, read properties/relations, coerce results to rows, and
compute identity. Implement it to query an ORM graph, a remote API, or lazily
loaded relations — the query semantics stay in OQX. Name resolution is simple
for a context: a bare field, a .field segment, and a ^field outer
reference each become one get(row, key) against exactly the row of the scope
they name, so a computed relation only needs get to know about it:
import { parse, run } from "@omgbase/oqx";
const graph = {
root: (name) => name === "tree" ? [nodes.get(1)] : undefined,
get: (row, key) => key === "children" ? row.childIds.map(id => nodes.get(id)) : row[key],
toRows: (v) => v == null ? [] : Array.isArray(v) ? v : [v],
identity: (row) => row.id, // for follow dedup
};
run(parse("id, depth: $depth from tree follow children"), { context: graph });
Custom functions and methods
DataContext has two optional hooks, callFunction(name, args) for free
functions (f(x)) and callMethod(name, recv, args) for methods (x.m()).
Each returns a CallResult: { handled: true, value } to answer, or
{ handled: false } to decline. The engine does not consult the builtin
table itself — DefaultContext is what does that. So a context that omits
these hooks, or handles only its own names without deferring, loses
entries(), size(), has(), range(), .contains(), and the rest: the
engine throws OqxError("unknown function 'size(…)'", "eval"). (The graph
context above has exactly this limitation.) Delegate whatever you don't
recognize:
import { DefaultContext, parse, run } from "@omgbase/oqx";
const builtins = new DefaultContext(); // or: semantics.BUILTIN_FUNCTIONS[name]
const ctx = {
...graph,
callFunction(name, args) {
if (name === "age") return { handled: true, value: yearsSince(args[0]) };
return builtins.callFunction(name, args); // entries/size/has/range keep working
},
callMethod(name, recv, args) {
if (name === "slug") return { handled: true, value: slugify(recv) };
return builtins.callMethod(name, recv, args);
},
};
run(parse("id from tree where age(born) > 18 && title.slug() == 'x'"), { context: ctx });
The simplest route is to extends DefaultContext and super.callFunction(...)
in the fallthrough. Custom calls are never pushed down by the shipped planners;
they always run in the residual.
Tier 3 — a QueryPlanner (pushdown + planning)
A planner translates as much of a query as it can into its store's native query
and returns the produced rows plus a residual Query for the rest. The
in-memory engine finishes the residual, so a planner can be as partial as it
likes and stay correct. Two adapters ship:
IndexedCollection— hash-indexes a collection and answers equality predicates from the index instead of scanning, leaving other predicates as residual.@omgbase/oqx/sqlite— real pushdown to anode:sqlitedatabase: the flat query core (scan + translatable conjunctive predicates,LIMITfor unorderedfirst/single) becomes SQL;matches(), nested consumer ops,follow, etc. fall back to the in-memory residual.
import { parse, PlannedEngine } from "@omgbase/oqx";
import { SqliteTable } from "@omgbase/oqx/sqlite";
const planner = new SqliteTable(db, "emp", { columns: ["id", "name", "dept", "level"] });
new PlannedEngine(planner).run(parse('name from emp where dept == "eng" && level >= 5'), []);
// → `dept`/`level` pushed to SQL; anything untranslatable finishes in-memory
This is the seam an omgbase adapter uses: its existing OQX→SQL compiler (docs/
blocks/nodes, the relations table, $ intrinsics, WITH RECURSIVE for follow)
becomes a QueryPlanner, while oqx contributes the parser, IR, semantics
contract, and residual executor.
Exports
Everything below is exported from @omgbase/oqx (src/index.ts); the SQLite
adapter lives on the @omgbase/oqx/sqlite subpath.
Running queries
oqx(default export and named) — the tagged template. Returns the consumer-shaped value: an array forcollect, a boolean forexists/none, a number forcount, a record ornullforfirst/single.parse(source)— a query string → reusableQueryAST (anOqxErrorwithstage: "lex" | "parse"on bad input).execute(source, roots?)— parse and run a string against named roots ({ people }), returning the consumer-shaped value.run(query, opts?)— run a parsedQuery, returning the fullOqxResult.opts.valuesare the positional${…}bindings; then exactly one ofopts.engine(anyEngine, e.g. aPlannedEngine),opts.context(aDataContext, run on the in-memory engine), oropts.roots(plain-object named roots →DefaultContext). Default: an emptyDefaultContext.runQuery(query, values, roots)— the lower-level calloqx/executeuse: in-memory over aDefaultContext(roots)(rootsmay beundefined).OqxResult— the discriminated resultrunreturns:type OqxResult = | { consumer: "collect"; rows: unknown[] } | { consumer: "exists"; exists: boolean } | { consumer: "none"; none: boolean } | { consumer: "count"; count: number } | { consumer: "first"; row: unknown | null } | { consumer: "single"; row: unknown | null };
Errors
OqxError— the one error class for every failure.error.stageis"lex" | "parse" | "eval"so you can branch without matching messages;error.messagecarries the detail (position for lex/parse errors, the offending name or count for eval errors). Eval errors include: unknown function/method, a non-integer or negativelimit/offset, andsingle { … }matching more than one row (zero rows isnull, not an error — usefirstwhen zero-or-one is expected and you don't care to assert).
Engines and contexts
Engine—{ run(query, bindings): OqxResult }; whatrun({ engine })accepts.InMemoryEngine—new InMemoryEngine(context?); the reference engine over aDataContext(tier 1/2).DataContext— the tier-2 interface:root,get,toRows,identity, plus optionalcallFunction/callMethod(above).CallResult—{ handled: boolean; value?: unknown }, returned by those hooks.DefaultContext—new DefaultContext(roots?); plain-object access,.ididentity, and the builtin function/method tables.semantics— the scalar-contract module (equals,relate,arith,membership,truthy,compareForSort,sizeOf,toList,coerceCollection, ranges:makeRange/isRange/rangeCovers/parseRangeString, entries:makeEntry/isEntry/entriesOf, and theBUILTIN_FUNCTIONS/BUILTIN_METHODStables). A backend reproducing a rule natively must match these.
Planning (tier 3)
QueryPlanner—{ plan(query, params): Plan | null }. Returnnullto decline a query entirely (full in-memory fallback).Plan—{ rows(): Iterable; residual: Query; context?: DataContext }: the rows the store produced, the query to finish over them, and optionally a context for navigating those rows' relations.PlannedEngine—new PlannedEngine(planner, fallbackContext?); anEnginethat runs the planner and finishesplan.residualon the in-memory engine overplan.rows()(exposed as theROWS_ROOTroot).Planner helpers, used together inside
plan():partitionPushable(where, canPush)splits the top-levelwhereconjunction intopushedexpressions (those yourcanPushaccepts) and aresidualwhere-tree;asEquality(expr)recognizesfield == const(either order) as{ field, value };isConst(expr)/constValue(expr, params)tell a literal-or-binding from a row-dependent expression and evaluate it against the query bindings; andresidualQuery(query, residualWhere)rebuilds the query to scanROWS_ROOTwith the pushed predicates dropped and projection / order / consumer / bounds intact. A planner typically: checksquery.sourcenames its table (and declinesfrom/follow), partitions thewhere, translatespushedinto its native query usingconstValuefor parameters, then returns{ rows, residual: residualQuery(query, residual) }.IndexedCollection—new IndexedCollection(rootName, rows, indexFields); aQueryPlannerthat hash-indexesrowsonindexFieldsand answersfield == valuepredicates on them from the index, leaving the rest residual:import { parse, run, IndexedCollection, PlannedEngine } from "@omgbase/oqx"; const planner = new IndexedCollection("people", people, ["city", "title"]); const engine = new PlannedEngine(planner); run(parse('name from people where city == "NYC" && age > 30'), { engine }); // city probe from the index; `age > 30` finished in-memory over the candidatesSqliteTable(from@omgbase/oqx/sqlite) —new SqliteTable(db, tableName, options)over anode:sqliteDatabaseSync.SqliteTableOptions:columns: string[]— the columns that map to bare OQX fields; only these are pushable (any other identifier stays residual).jsonColumns?: string[]— columns whose stored text isJSON.parsed back into the row (for nested relations kept as JSON).map?: (raw) => row— a custom raw-SQL-row → query-row mapper (overridesjsonColumns).
Types
- Every AST node type from
src/ast.tsis re-exported (Query,Subquery,Where,Expr,OpNode,SelectItem,OrderSpec,Follow, …) for planners that walk the IR.
Requirements
No runtime dependencies. The package is ESM-only (there is no require
condition in exports; Node 22.12+ can require() an ES module natively).
- Main entry (
@omgbase/oqx): compiled ES2022 ESM.engines.nodesays>=22.13.0, but nothing in the main entry needs it — Node 18+ works in practice. @omgbase/oqx/sqlite: importsnode:sqlite, which is available without a flag from Node 22.13 (behind--experimental-sqlitein 22.5–22.12). This is the reason for theenginesfloor.- Developing the repo:
npm testruns the.tssuite directly through Node's type stripping, unflagged from Node 22.18 (and all of 24).npm run typechecktypechecks;npm run buildemitsdist/.
Relationship to omgbase
This is tier 1 (the in-memory object/collection interpreter) of the OQX implementation tiers. The language kernel here is host-agnostic; richer hosts (e.g. omgbase's docs/blocks/nodes with index pushdown) layer data-model vocabulary and execution capabilities on top of the same surface syntax.