Project-as-code for a Directus v9 backend

In practice, turning Directus into the backbone of a production backend takes a fair amount of setup before a project becomes productive. is the projen template we built to automate that plumbing around directus. By default it targets is a GPL fork of Directus v9 we maintain on GitHub. It does what Directus 9 did: an open-source (GPL-3 license) CMS that, with the right discipline, can stand in for a full custom backend (API, admin UI, permissions, schema), with business logic added as extensions (hooks, endpoints, operations, custom UI panels).

Bootstrap a new project

npx projen new --from @wbce/projen-d9

This creates a .projenrc.js and synthesizes the project.

What you get

The user-facing surface of the template is .projenrc.js:

import { D9Project } from '@wbce/projen-d9';

import { D9ExtensionType } from '@wbce/projen-d9-extension';



const project = new D9Project({

  name: 'my-backend',

  defaultReleaseBranch: 'main',

});



project.addExtension('audit-log', [D9ExtensionType.HOOK]);



project.synth();

npx projen synthesizes everything else (Dockerfile, docker-compose, extension folder, build pipeline, GitHub workflows). (set
githubConfig: false to disable)

A standardized compose stack

With a single CLI command, you can spin up a fully working local Directus environment (database, cache, and API) ready for development. It mirrors a production setup, including caching and geospatial capabilities.

The compose file is built with projen's DockerCompose construct:

• 
  database: postgis/postgis:13-master in order to enable geospatial functionality


• 
  cache: redis:6
  


• 
  directus: built from the local Dockerfile. EXTENSIONS_AUTO_RELOAD=true is set, so re-running npx projen build-extensions is enough to pick up edits with no container restart.

Bind mounts:

• ./uploads -> /app/uploads


• 
  ./extensions -> /app/extensions (the extension tree that build-extensions writes into)


• 
  ./.env.local -> /app/.env.local (so secrets stay out of the image and git versioning)

Extensions as a pnpm workspace

addExtension(name, types, options?)adds an ExtensionFolder to the parent project. Each addExtension creates a D9ExtensionProject with three quirks:

1. Its package.json gets the directus:extension field correctly configured.


2. Its build task is rewritten to compile and then deposit the output in the right subfolder of extensions/
   


3. If any of the types are UI extensions (INTERFACE, DISPLAY, LAYOUT, MODULE, PANEL), vue is added as a devDep automatically.

Because every extension is its own package in a real pnpm workspace, we can share packages between extensions :

// A shared library, no extension types

project.addExtension('shared', []);



// Other extensions depend on it via workspace:

const myHook = project.addExtension('audit-log', [D9ExtensionType.HOOK]);

myHook.addDeps('shared@workspace:');

And

Links

• npm package: (GPL-3.0)


• d9: (GPL-3.0)


• projen: projen.io
  

Issues and PRs welcome.