Waterline ORM

Waterline is the datastore-agnostic ORM/ODM used by Sails.js. It provides a normalized API for interacting with any supported database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, SQLite, Redis) using a consistent query language.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Defining Sails.js models (attributes, types, validations, associations)
• Writing Waterline queries (find, create, update, destroy, count, etc.)
• Using criteria objects with operators (contains, startsWith, in, nin, <, >, !=, or, and)
• Setting up associations (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many)
• Handling query errors (.intercept(), .tolerate(), E_UNIQUE)
• Working with transactions, streaming, aggregation, or collection manipulation
• Configuring datastores and model settings

Rules

Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and code examples:

• rules/getting-started.md – Core concepts, model definition, datastores, configuration
• rules/query-language.md – WHERE operators, criteria modifiers, or/and, sort, limit, skip, select, omit
• rules/model-methods.md – find, findOne, findOrCreate, create, update, destroy, and their variants
• rules/associations.md – one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many, populate, cross-datastore
• rules/attributes-and-validations.md – Types, validation rules, columnName, protect, encrypt, defaultsTo
• rules/lifecycle-callbacks.md – beforeCreate, beforeUpdate, afterCreate, customToJSON
• rules/error-handling.md – .intercept(), .tolerate(), E_UNIQUE, UsageError, AdapterError
• rules/transactions.md – getDatastore().transaction(), .usingConnection(), leased connections
• rules/aggregation-and-streaming.md – count, sum, avg, stream, eachRecord, eachBatch
• rules/collections-and-advanced.md – addToCollection, removeFromCollection, replaceCollection, archive, native, meta