PHI

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Introduction

Phi is a high-performance, type-safe ORM framework for Go. Inspired by Prisma, Phi uses your schema.prisma file as the single source of truth to generate strongly-typed Go clients, database migrations, and index-optimized SQL queries.

Core Features & Philosophy

1. Prisma Schema as Single Source of Truth

Define your data models, enums, indices, and relation constraints in standard Prisma Schema language (schema.prisma). Phi parses your schema and generates all Go structs, field helpers, and DDL migrations automatically.

2. 100% Compile-Time Type Safety

Say goodbye to string-based column names and dynamic maps in query logic. Phi generates explicit field accessors for every model attribute:

// Fully type-safe builder: invalid field types or misspelled columns fail at compile-time!
users, err := db.User.FindMany(
    user.Role.EQ(phi.UserRole_ADMIN),
    user.LoginCount.GTE(10),
).Exec(ctx)

3. Zero-Allocation Query Building

Phi is built from the ground up for speed. Query builders construct AST nodes directly into SQL strings without runtime reflection or heavy memory allocations during query assembly.

4. Dual Dialect Support (PostgreSQL & SQLite)

Write one unified Go codebase that works seamlessly across PostgreSQL and SQLite. Phi handles dialect differences (such as native PostgreSQL ENUMs vs. SQLite TEXT + CHECK constraints) transparently.

5. Production-Ready Tooling

  • Extension Hooks: Middleware hooks for intercepting, mutating, or caching queries (Create, Read, Update, Delete).
  • Transactions: Closure-based transactions with panic recovery and automatic rollback.
  • Forward-Only Migrations: Goose-compatible migration generator powered by the Atlas DDL engine.

Acknowledgements

Phi stands on the shoulders of incredible open-source projects across the Go and database ecosystems:

  • prisma-client-go: The primary inspiration for bringing Prisma's developer experience, schema syntax, and query ergonomics to Go.
  • Atlas: Powers Phi's declarative migration engine under the hood for DDL schema calculation and database diffing.
  • Goose: The standard format used for generating versioned, forward-only .sql migration files.
  • Ent: Inspiration for ergonomic, zero-allocation Go query client designs and domain error inspection patterns.