tsctl - Terraform-like CLI for Typesense

A declarative infrastructure-as-code CLI for managing Typesense collections, aliases, synonyms, and curations.

Features

• Declarative configuration: Define your Typesense schema in TypeScript config files
• Plan/Apply workflow: See what will change before applying
• State management: State stored in Typesense itself—no external dependencies
• Type-safe: Full TypeScript support with autocomplete and validation
• Import existing: Import existing Typesense resources into managed state

Installation

npm install -g tsctl
# or
npx tsctl

Quick Start

1. Initialize a project

tsctl init

This creates:

• tsctl.config.ts - Your infrastructure definition
• .env - Connection settings

2. Configure connection

Edit .env:

TYPESENSE_HOST=localhost
TYPESENSE_PORT=8108
TYPESENSE_PROTOCOL=http
TYPESENSE_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

3. Define your schema

Edit tsctl.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from "tsctl";

export default defineConfig({
  collections: [
    {
      name: "products",
      fields: [
        { name: "name", type: "string" },
        { name: "description", type: "string", optional: true },
        { name: "price", type: "float" },
        { name: "category", type: "string", facet: true },
        { name: "tags", type: "string[]", facet: true, optional: true },
      ],
      default_sorting_field: "price",
    },
  ],
  aliases: [
    {
      name: "products_live",
      collection: "products",
    },
  ],
});

4. Plan changes

tsctl plan

Output:

Typesense Plan:

  + collection.products (create)
      + name: "products"
      + fields: [...]

  + alias.products_live (create)
      + name: "products_live"
      + collection: "products"

Summary:
  2 to create, 0 to update, 0 to delete, 0 unchanged

5. Apply changes

tsctl apply

Commands

Command	Description
tsctl init	Initialize a new project
tsctl validate	Validate config file
tsctl plan	Show planned changes
tsctl apply	Apply changes to Typesense
tsctl destroy	Destroy all managed resources
tsctl import	Import existing resources
tsctl state list	List managed resources
tsctl state show	Show full state JSON
tsctl state clear	Clear state (keeps resources)
tsctl env list	List available environments
tsctl env show	Show current environment config
tsctl drift	Detect changes made outside of tsctl
tsctl migrate	Blue/green migration for collections

Global Options:

• --env <name> - Use environment-specific .env.<name> file

Configuration Files

tsctl supports multiple configuration file formats and locations. Files are searched in the following order:

File	Format
package.json	"tsctl" property
.tsctlrc	JSON or YAML
.tsctlrc.json	JSON
.tsctlrc.yaml / .tsctlrc.yml	YAML
.tsctlrc.js / .tsctlrc.cjs / .tsctlrc.mjs	JavaScript
.tsctlrc.ts / .tsctlrc.cts / .tsctlrc.mts	TypeScript
tsctl.config.js / tsctl.config.cjs / tsctl.config.mjs	JavaScript
tsctl.config.ts / tsctl.config.cts / tsctl.config.mts	TypeScript
tsctl.config.json	JSON
tsctl.config.yaml / tsctl.config.yml	YAML
typesense.config.*	Legacy (all formats)

Examples

TypeScript (recommended):

// tsctl.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "tsctl";

export default defineConfig({
  collections: [{ name: "products", fields: [...] }],
});

JSON:

// tsctl.config.json
{
  "collections": [{ "name": "products", "fields": [...] }]
}

YAML:

# tsctl.config.yaml
collections:
  - name: products
    fields:
      - name: title
        type: string

package.json:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "tsctl": {
    "collections": [{ "name": "products", "fields": [...] }]
  }
}

Configuration Reference

Collections

{
  name: "products",
  fields: [
    {
      name: "title",
      type: "string",        // Required
      optional: true,        // Allow null/missing
      facet: true,           // Enable faceting
      index: true,           // Index for search (default: true)
      sort: true,            // Enable sorting
      infix: true,           // Enable infix search
      locale: "en",          // Language for stemming
      stem: true,            // Enable stemming
      store: true,           // Store original value
      num_dim: 384,          // Vector dimensions
      vec_dist: "cosine",    // Vector distance metric
      reference: "users.id", // JOINs
      range_index: true,     // For numeric range queries
    },
  ],
  default_sorting_field: "created_at",
  token_separators: ["-", "/"],
  symbols_to_index: ["#", "@"],
  enable_nested_fields: true,
}

Field Types

• string, string[] - Text
• int32, int32[], int64, int64[] - Integers
• float, float[] - Decimals
• bool, bool[] - Booleans
• geopoint, geopoint[] - Coordinates
• object, object[] - Nested objects
• auto - Auto-detect type
• string* - Auto-embedding
• image - Image embedding

Aliases

{
  name: "products_live",
  collection: "products",
}

Synonyms

{
  id: "smartphone-synonyms",
  collection: "products",
  synonyms: ["phone", "mobile", "smartphone", "cell phone"],
}

For one-way synonyms (root word):

{
  id: "tv-synonym",
  collection: "products",
  root: "television",
  synonyms: ["tv", "telly", "television set"],
}

Overrides/Curations

{
  id: "pin-featured",
  collection: "products",
  rule: {
    query: "featured",
    match: "exact",
  },
  includes: [
    { id: "product-123", position: 1 },
    { id: "product-456", position: 2 },
  ],
}

Additional options:

{
  id: "boost-category",
  collection: "products",
  rule: {
    query: "shoes",
    match: "contains",
  },
  filter_by: "category:=footwear",
  sort_by: "popularity:desc",
  remove_matched_tokens: true,
  effective_from_ts: 1672531200,
  effective_to_ts: 1704067200,
}

API Keys

{
  description: "Search-only key for frontend",
  actions: ["documents:search"],
  collections: ["products", "categories"],
}

With expiration:

{
  description: "Temporary admin key",
  actions: ["*"],
  collections: ["*"],
  expires_at: 1735689600, // Unix timestamp
}

Note: API key values are only shown once when created. If you update an API key's configuration, a new key will be generated and the old one will be deleted.

State Management

State is stored in a special Typesense collection (_tsctl_state). This means:

• No external state storage needed
• State travels with your Typesense instance
• Easy backup/restore with Typesense snapshots

Import Existing Resources

If you have existing collections/aliases:

tsctl import

This will:

1. Scan your Typesense instance
2. Generate a tsctl.imported.config.ts file
3. Save the current state

Review the generated config, then rename it to tsctl.config.ts.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
TYPESENSE_HOST	localhost	Typesense host
TYPESENSE_PORT	8108	Typesense port
TYPESENSE_PROTOCOL	http	http or https
TYPESENSE_API_KEY	-	API key (required)

Multi-Environment Support

Manage multiple Typesense environments (development, staging, production) using environment-specific .env files.

Setup

Initialize with environment files:

tsctl init --with-environments

This creates:

• .env - Default/development settings
• .env.development - Development environment
• .env.staging - Staging environment
• .env.production - Production environment

Usage

Use the --env flag to target a specific environment:

# Plan changes against staging
tsctl plan --env staging

# Apply to production
tsctl apply --env production

# Import from development
tsctl import --env development

Environment Commands

# List available environments
tsctl env list

# Show current environment configuration
tsctl env show

# Show specific environment
tsctl --env production env show

How It Works

1. Base .env file is always loaded first
2. If --env <name> is specified, .env.<name> is loaded and overrides base values
3. State is stored per-Typesense-instance, so each environment has its own state

Drift Detection

Detect when resources have been modified outside of tsctl (e.g., via Typesense dashboard or API).

tsctl drift

Output shows:

• Modified: Resources changed outside of tsctl
• Deleted: Resources removed outside of tsctl
• Unmanaged: Resources that exist but aren't in your config

CI/CD Integration

The drift command exits with code 1 if drift is detected, making it useful for CI pipelines:

# In your CI pipeline
tsctl drift --env production || echo "Drift detected!"

JSON Output

For programmatic use:

tsctl drift --json

Blue/Green Migrations

Perform zero-downtime collection schema updates using the blue/green deployment pattern.

How It Works

1. Create a new versioned collection (e.g., products_1706486400000)
2. Index your data to the new collection
3. Switch the alias to point to the new collection
4. Cleanup the old collection when ready

Quick Migration

Full migration in one command:

tsctl migrate -a products_live -c tsctl.config.ts

Step-by-Step Migration

For more control, migrate in stages:

# Step 1: Create the new collection
tsctl migrate -a products_live -c tsctl.config.ts --create-only

# Step 2: Index your data to the new collection
# (use your own indexing process)

# Step 3: Switch the alias to the new collection
tsctl migrate -a products_live -c tsctl.config.ts --switch-only

# Step 4: Delete the old collection when ready
tsctl migrate -a products_live -c tsctl.config.ts --cleanup products_1706486400000

Options

Option	Description
-a, --alias <name>	Alias to migrate (required)
-c, --config <path>	Path to config file (required)
--collection <name>	Collection from config (if multiple)
--skip-delete	Keep old collection for rollback
--create-only	Only create new collection
--switch-only	Only switch alias
--cleanup <name>	Delete old collection

Rollback

If something goes wrong, switch the alias back:

# List collection versions
tsctl state list

# Manually switch alias back
# Edit your config to point to the old collection and run:
tsctl apply

Roadmap

• Collections
• Aliases
• Synonyms
• Overrides/Curations
• API Keys management
• Multi-environment support
• Drift detection
• Migration support (blue/green collections)

License

MIT