Defining vars

Vars are settings that exist exactly once: the site name, default SEO text, a maintenance switch. Where a model holds a list of records, a vars group holds a single object. Editors change it in the admin panel, and your templates read it.

What vars are for

Use vars for values that describe the whole site, and a model for anything you have many of.

Use vars for	Use a model for
Site name and tagline	Blog posts
Contact details	Team members
Default SEO title and description	Products
Feature toggles	Pages

Defining a group

Create a file in src/vars/ with makeVars():

// src/vars/general.ts
import { makeVars, text, boolean } from "@njinlabs/njin";
import z from "zod";

const general = makeVars("general", {
  name: "General",
  schema: z.object({
    siteName: text({ label: "Site name" }, (z) => z.default("My Site")),
    maintenanceMode: boolean({ label: "Maintenance mode" }, (z) => z.default(false)),
  }),
});

export default general;

makeVars(prefix, config) takes:

Option	Required	What it does
`prefix` (first argument)	Yes	The name of the group: its API path (`/api/vars/general`) and the name of the global you use in templates
`name`	Yes	The label shown in the admin panel
`schema`	Yes	A `z.object()` of fields. They use the same helpers as a model's fields. See Field types
`draftable`	No	Keeps a live copy apart from the one being edited. See Drafts and languages
`i18n`	No	Lets fields hold one value per language. See Drafts and languages

Give every field a .default(...). get() always returns a complete object, even before anything has been saved, and the defaults are what fill it in.

A vars group has no id, createdAt or createdBy. It has only your fields and an updatedAt, which is null until the first save.

Registering a group

export default defineConfig({
  vars: [() => import("./src/vars/general")],
});

Restart the dev server after changing config.ts. The group now has:

GET and PUT on /api/vars/{prefix}
A settings screen in the admin panel
A global in templates, named after the prefix: await general.get()
Its schema under vars in GET /api/schema