DSL Syntax

The Radiant DSL is a declarative language for defining backend schemas and configuration. This page covers the complete grammar — tokens, block structure, value types, and comments.

File Convention

Radiant DSL files use the .radiant extension and live in the radiant/ directory of your project. You can split your schema across multiple files — the compiler merges them:

radiant/
  config.radiant         # config {} block
  users.radiant          # collection users { ... }
  todos.radiant          # collection todos { ... }
  settings.radiant       # global settings { ... }

All .radiant files in the radiant/ directory (including subdirectories) are discovered and compiled together.

Top-Level Blocks

A .radiant file contains zero or more top-level blocks in any order:

config {
  // framework-wide configuration
}

collection <name> {
  // a data collection (table/document)
}

global <name> {
  // a singleton document (e.g. site settings)
}

• config — appears once across all files. Defines security, monitoring, API prefix, etc.
• collection <name> — defines a data model. The name becomes the database table and API route.
• global <name> — defines a singleton document. Useful for site-wide settings.

Properties

Inside each block, you write properties as key-value pairs:

propertyName: value

Property names can be identifiers (name, email) or keywords used as property names (config, collection, fields). Values can be:

Value Types

Value	Syntax	Example
String	"..."	"hello world"
Number	integer or decimal	42, -3.14
Boolean	true / false	true
Identifier	bare word	text, boolean
Function call	name(args)	relationship("users"), select("low", "high")
Array	[a, b, c]	["jwt", "session"]
Object	{ key: value }	{ enabled: true, path: "/health" }
Environment	env("VAR", default)	env("JWT_EXPIRY", "15m")

Examples

// String
prefix: "/api"

// Number
maxBodyBytes: 1048576

// Boolean
enabled: true

// Identifier (field type)
title: text

// Function call (field type with arguments)
author: relationship("users")

// Array
strategies: ["jwt", "session"]

// Object (nested block)
jwt: {
  accessTokenExpiry: "15m"
  refreshTokenExpiry: "7d"
}

// Environment variable with default
accessTokenExpiry: env("JWT_EXPIRY", "15m")

Array Suffix

Any value can be suffixed with [] to mark it as an array:

tags: text[]         // array of text values
permissions: text[]   // array of strings

Decorators

Decorators are metadata annotations attached to properties (typically fields). They start with @:

email: email @unique
bio: text @optional
role: text @default("user")
status: text @unique @optional

Multiple decorators can be chained. See the Decorators page for the full list.

Comments

Line comments start with // and continue to the end of the line:

// This is a comment
collection users {
  auth: true  // this collection has auth enabled
  fields: {
    name: text
    // email must be unique across all users
    email: email @unique
  }
}

Comments are preserved by the formatter and used as leading comments in the output.

Related Pages

• Config Block — All properties allowed inside config {}
• Collections — All properties allowed inside collection {}
• Field Types — All field types and their usage
• Decorators — @unique, @optional, @default, and more
• Environment Variables — The env() function