--- title: Scaffold a resource description: Write the model, migration, pages, validator, policy and tests a resource needs to be listed, read, created, changed and deleted, with one sdxc scaffold command. section: title: The sdxc command order: 2 order: 3 lastUpdated: 2026-10-19 --- `sdxc scaffold [field ...]` writes everything a resource needs to be listed, read, created, changed and deleted through pages, each piece where [`sdxc make`](/docs/sdxc/generate-files) would put it, with its test, declared and mapped: ```bash sdxc scaffold post title body:text views:integer ``` Apply the migration and the resource is live: ```bash sdxc run db migrate sdxc routes -c posts ``` Then open `/posts` in `bun dev`. ## What it writes For `sdxc scaffold post`: | File | What it is | | ---------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | `app/models/post.ts` | the `Post` model, a column per field, as `ctx.models.post` | | `database/migrations/_CreatePosts.sql` | the `CREATE TABLE` for `posts`, numbered like the chain | | `database/factories/post.ts` | a factory for tests | | `app/http/validators/post.ts` | the form's validator | | `app/policies/post.ts` | who may list, show, create, update and delete | | `resources/views/posts/form.tsx` | the form the new and edit pages share | | `app/http/controllers/posts/*.tsx` | `index`, `new`, `show`, `edit` and `destroy` | | `app/test/database.ts` | the in-memory database the tests use, when the project lacks one | Every table also gets `id`, `created_at` and `updated_at`, so a field may not use those names: ```text -- Creates the posts table the Post model reads and writes. CREATE TABLE "posts" ( "id" TEXT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, "title" TEXT NOT NULL, "body" TEXT NOT NULL, "views" INTEGER NOT NULL, "created_at" INTEGER NOT NULL, "updated_at" INTEGER NOT NULL ); ``` It edits the files that make the pages answer: the model registry in `app/models/index.ts`, the routes in `routes/web.ts`, their mapping in the router initializer, the sitemap's decisions, and every `resources/locales/*.json`, which take each label and title under `posts`: ```text posts: { index: get("/posts"), new: form("/posts/new"), show: get("/posts/:id"), edit: form("/posts/:id/edit"), destroy: post("/posts/:id/destroy"), }, ``` When the generated code imports an `@sdxc` package `package.json` lacks, such as `@sdxc/uuid` for the ids or `@sdxc/validate` for the form, the scaffold adds it at your release and prints the install command to run. ## Fields Each field is `name` or `name:type`, either with a trailing `?` to make it nullable. Quote a `?` field in zsh, which reads `?` as a pattern: ```bash sdxc scaffold event name starts_at 'ends_at?' contact_email website ``` A bare name takes its type from its name, by the first of these rules that matches, and an explicit type always wins, as in `email:string`: | A bare name like | Type | Stored as | Edited with | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | -------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | `author_id`, ending in `_id` | `references` | a foreign key | refused by `scaffold`, see below | | `published_at`, ending in `_at` | `timestamp` | an integer, epoch ms | a date-and-time field, read as UTC | | `born_on`, `due_date`, `birthday` | `date` | `YYYY-MM-DD` as text | a date field | | `is_public`, `has_paid`, starting `can_`, `should_`, `was_`, `allow_`; `published`, `active`, `enabled`, `archived`, `featured`… | `boolean` | `0` or `1` | a checkbox | | `view_count`, `price_cents`; `position`, `quantity`, `age`, `rank`, `priority`, `score`, `year`… | `integer` | an integer | a number field | | `email`, `contact_email` | `email` | text | an email field | | `website_url`, `website`, `homepage` | `url` | text | a URL field, checked with `URL.canParse` | | `body`, `description`, `content`, `notes`, `bio`, `summary`, `excerpt`, `message`… | `text` | text | a text area | | anything else | `string` | text | a text field | The rules read the name's words, so `published_at` is a timestamp and `published` a box, and a camelCase name such as `publishedOn` becomes the column `published_on`. An `email` field gets no unique index; add one in the migration when the column must be unique. A nullable field is nullable everywhere it appears: the column is `.nullable()`, the form field is optional and a blank answer is stored as `null`, the MCP tool's input takes `null`, and the command's flag is optional. A required field is required in all of them. Some fields are refused, naming the spec, before anything is written: - `id`, `created_at` and `updated_at`, which every table already has, and a name given twice. - A nullable `boolean`: a box is ticked or not, so drop the `?`. - A scaffold with no field, or whose fields are all nullable: a form must have one field to fill. - Any name holding `password`, unless it ends in `hash` or `digest`: a scaffolded form would store what the visitor typed. - `references`, and a bare `*_id`: the scaffold writes no pages for a reference yet. Write it as `author_id:string`, or add it afterwards with [`sdxc make model`](/docs/sdxc/make-model#fields), which writes a foreign key from the same field. ## Names and plurals The name is singular, such as `post` or `blog-post`, and holds no folders. The table, URLs, folders and locale key take the plural: `post` becomes `posts` and `category` becomes `categories`. Pass `--plural` for any other plural: ```bash sdxc scaffold person name email --plural people ``` ## MCP tools and app commands Two flags add more ways in: - `--mcp` writes the MCP tools `list_posts`, `get_post`, `create_post`, `update_post` and `delete_post` in `app/mcp/tools/posts/`, each with its input schema, declared in `app/mcp/tools/index.ts` and mapped in the MCP initializer. - `--command` writes the app commands `posts list`, `posts show `, `posts create` with a flag per field, and `posts delete ` in `app/commands/posts/`, so `sdxc run posts create --title Hello …` works. ## Who may do what The policy the pages ask is yours to tighten. As written, it lets an anonymous visitor take every action and a signed-in actor take every one, so the pages work the moment the migration is applied: ```ts {% title="app/policies/post.ts" %} const ANONYMOUS_ACTIONS: ReadonlySet = new Set([ "list", "show", "create", "update", "delete", ]); ``` Remove the actions an anonymous visitor should not take before you deploy. A page the policy refuses answers 403. ## Tests The generated tests pass as written: they apply your migrations to the in-memory database and drive the pages through the router, the tools through `/mcp` and the commands through the app's command line. `--no-test` skips them for one run, and `make.tests: false` skips them everywhere. ## Taken names and dry runs Everything is planned in a staged copy of the project before anything is written, so the declarations build on one another and a refusal anywhere leaves the project as it was. A file that already exists, or a locale that already has the plural's key, stops the command: ```text app/models/post.ts already exists; sdxc scaffold leaves it as it is ``` `--dry-run` prints every file in full and every edit as a diff, and writes nothing. An edit that cannot be placed, such as a router laid out differently, is printed for you to make, as `sdxc make` does. Once it writes, the `format` command from your configuration runs over every file it wrote or edited. ## Change what it writes The scaffold's stubs are named `scaffold.*.stub`, one per file, such as `scaffold.controller.index.stub` and `scaffold.model.stub`. Copy them into `make.stubs` and edit the ones you want to change: ```bash sdxc make stubs scaffold ``` ## Where to go next - [Generate files](/docs/sdxc/generate-files) — add one more file to a scaffolded resource, or a migration for a changed model with `--from-model`. - [Run your app's commands](/docs/sdxc/run-app-commands) — `sdxc run db migrate` and the commands `--command` adds. - [Model your tables](/docs/data-and-background-work/data-models) — the model the scaffold writes.