4. Configuration & environment#

Everything starts in damat.config.ts. defineConfig gives you a typed config; projectConfig configures the server/DB/logging, and modules registers each module by id.

import { defineConfig } from "@damatjs/framework";

export default defineConfig({
  projectConfig: {
    databaseUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL ?? "",
    redisUrl: process.env.REDIS_URL,
    nodeEnv: "development",
    loggerConfig: {
      level: "debug",
      format: "pretty",       // "json" | "pretty" | "simple"
      timestamp: true,
      prefix: "server",
    },
    http: {
      port: Number(process.env.PORT) || 6543,
      host: process.env.HOST || "0.0.0.0",
      corsConfig: process.env.FRONTEND_CORS,
    },
  },
  // `modules` is an OBJECT keyed by module id (not an array):
  modules: {
    user: {
      resolve: "./src/modules/user",   // path to the module's folder
      id: "user",
    },
  },
});

Heads up: older docs showed modules as an array — it is now a keyed object { [id]: { resolve, id } }. When you install a module with damat module add, this block is updated for you.

See @damatjs/framework → config internals for the full ProjectConfig/HttpConfig type reference.

Environment variables#

Env loading (@damatjs/load-env) cascades, so local overrides win:

.env.{environment}.local   ← highest priority
.env.{environment}
.env.local
.env                       ← lowest

Common variables (see the default backend's .env.example for the full set):

Modules declare their own env vars in module.json; damat module add syncs them into .env.example for you (see Authoring a module).

The mental model#

Damat has four layers you compose — models, services, modules, and routes/workflows. If you haven't read it yet, Concepts explains how they fit together and how the framework wires them at startup.