Bookshelf Relations

Bookshelf Relations is a Bookshelf.js plugin for applying nested relation changes while saving a model.

It lets API payloads insert, update, attach, detach, and remove related records through the parent Bookshelf model. The plugin supports belongsTo, belongsToMany, hasOne, and hasMany relations and is used by Ghost model code that accepts relational data such as tags, authors, and related settings.

Requirements

• Node.js ^18.12.1 || ^20.11.1 || ^22.13.1
• Bookshelf >=1.1.0

Install

pnpm add bookshelf-relations

or

npm install bookshelf-relations --save

Usage

Transactions

Use Bookshelf transactions when inserting, updating, or deleting models with nested relation data. Updating relations requires additional database queries, so transactions keep the parent model and related records from being partially written if one query fails.

Options

hook	type	default	description
autoHook	Boolean	true	The plugin takes over everything for you and hooks into the Bookshelf workflow.
allowedOptions	Array	-	An array of allowed model options the plugin passes on when executing Bookshelf queries.
unsetRelations	Boolean	true	The plugin will unset the relations after they are detected (e.g. model.unset('tags')). If you are disabling "autoHook", you manually need to unset the relations.
editRelations	Boolean	true	If false value is passed in the plugin will not edit the properties of related models unless specified otherwise on model-level relationshipConfig through editable flag.
extendChanged	String	-	Define a variable name and Bookshelf-relations will store the information which relations were changed.
attachPreviousRelations	Boolean	false	An option to attach previous relations. Bookshelf-relations attaches this information as _previousRelations on the target parent model.
hooks	Object	-	belongsToMany: Hook into the process of updating belongsToMany relationships. Example: hooks: {belongsToMany: {after: Function, before: Function}}

Take a look at the plugin configuration in Ghost.

Hooks

Hooks can be defined globally on the plugin options as described above, or they can be defined on a model-by-model basis. A model hook will replace a global hook if present - only one of them will run.

Hooks should have a structure like so:

hooks: {
    belongsToMany: {
        before() {},
        after() {}
    }
}

The hooks we support are:

• belongsToMany
  • before / beforeRelationCreation
  • after / afterRelationCreated

Either name can be used but the shorter name will be preferred if both exist.

Automatic

The plugin will automatically deal with relationships upserts and cascading deletions through hasMany relationships. It's required to register your relationships in Bookshelf before you can use bookshelf-relations, see this example.

1. Register the plugin.

    bookshelf.plugin(require('bookshelf-relations'), options);

2. Define your relationships on each model.

    bookshelf.Model.extend({
        relationships: ['tags', 'news']
    }, {...});

To opt-out of automatic child record deletion for hasMany relationships it's possible to define per-relationship config:

    bookshelf.Model.extend({
        relationships: ['tags', 'news', 'events'],
        relationshipConfig: {
            events: {
                destroyRelated: false
            }
        }
    });

To opt-in for automatic relation editing pass in editable flag in per-relationship config:

    bookshelf.Model.extend({
        relationships: ['tags', 'news', 'events'],
        relationshipConfig: {
            tags: {
                editable: true
            }
        }
    });

Manual

You manually need to call the plugin to update relationships. It's required to register your relationships in Bookshelf before you can use bookshelf-relations, see this example.

1. Register the plugin.

    bookshelf.plugin(require('bookshelf-relations'), options);

2. Manually call bookshelf-relations.

    bookshelf.manager.updateRelations({
        model: model,
        relations: {tags: [...]},
        pluginOptions: {options}
    });

Notations

// will detach & remove all existing relations
model.set('tags', []);

// will check if "test" exists and if not, it will insert the target tag
// will remove all previous relations if exist
model.set('tags', [{slug: 'test'}]);

Development

• pnpm install to install dependencies with the pinned package manager
• pnpm test to run tests and lint
• pnpm lint to run oxlint and oxfmt checks
• pnpm coverage to run test coverage
• NODE_ENV=testing-mysql pnpm test to run tests with MySQL
• pnpm perf to run a performance test

Publish

Use pnpm ship to prepare a release. Publishing to npm runs from .github/workflows/publish.yml on main when package.json changes, using npm trusted publishing with provenance.

Copyright & License

Copyright (c) 2013-2026 Ghost Foundation - Released under the MIT license.