Zonai

Zonai is a Dart backend-as-a-service framework that turns schema definitions into a complete REST API. Write your tables, rules, and business logic in Dart — Zonai handles the HTTP layer, the database, and the auth system.

It is designed for Dart and Flutter developers who want to build a production-quality backend without wiring together boilerplate.

Start Here#

1. Installation — what to install, and how to get the zonai binary
2. Quick Start — create a project, add tables, call the API, open the dashboard, build for production
3. Project Structure — which files are required, which are optional, and what to commit

Write a table, get an API#

Define a table in Dart:

final class TaskTable extends Table<Task> {
  TaskTable(super.$)
    : id = $.id('id', (s) => s.id, fromString: TasksId.new, generate: TasksId.generate),
      title = $.text('title', (s) => s.title),
      isComplete = $.boolean('is_complete', (s) => s.isComplete),
      createdAt = $.createdAt('created_at', (s) => s.createdAt),
      updatedAt = $.updatedAt('updated_at', (s) => s.updatedAt);

  // …
}

final tasks = table('tasks', TaskTable.new);

Every endpoint below is served for it — no handlers to write. The only other things a table needs are a rules file (tables start closed) and an applied migration:

POST   /db          create        GET  /db/stream        live single row
GET    /db          read          GET  /db/stream/list   live list
PATCH  /db          update        GET  /db/stream/count  live count
DELETE /db          delete
GET    /db/list     list          POST /auth/sign-up     from an AuthTable
GET    /db/count    count         POST /auth/sign-in

And live UI is a subscription, not a timer:

client.db.listen
    .list(body: StreamListBody(table: 'tasks'), fromJson: Task.fromJson)
    .listen((tasks) => setState(() => _tasks = tasks));

What You Get Out of the Box#

• A REST API for every table — create, read, update, delete, list, count, and live stream endpoints, served from your schema. No handler code.
• Authentication — password, one-time passcode, and magic-link sign-in by mixing a trait into an auth table. Sessions and logout included.
• Authorization rules — checked before any SQL runs. A denied request gets 403 with zero database access. Tables start closed.
• Dart client — zonai_client wraps auth, db (including db.listen streams), photos, and email; zonai gen client adds typed per-table APIs.
• Email and push — SMTP with Mustache templates, and push through FCM or APNs, sent from lifecycle hooks. See Push Overview.
• Cron jobs and rate limits — cron-syntax jobs with full database access; per-table, per-operation throttling.
• Admin dashboard — every server serves a UI at /_ with metrics, cron status, and a table browser/editor. See Dashboard Overview.
• One deployable folder — zonai build produces build/ with the server binary, compiled workers, and migrations. Copy it to a server of the target OS and architecture and run ./zonai serve --release.

How It Works#

Your Dart sources compile into workers — compiled programs for config, rules, operations, extensions, rate limits, and crons — that the zonai server calls over IPC. Each HTTP request passes through an ordered pipeline:

HTTP Request
  → Rate Limit
  → Rules
  → Operations
  → SQLite
  → Extensions
  → Response

Nothing is interpreted at request time; all logic is compiled Dart. See How a Request is Processed and Workers.

During development zonai dev and zonai serve watch your sources and recompile the affected worker when you save.

Browse the Docs#

Press ⌘K to search every page, or start from a section:

What Zonai Is Not#

• Not a full application framework — Zonai is an API server (no HTML rendering). Use zonai_client (or raw HTTP) from Flutter/Dart apps
• Not a managed cloud service — you host it yourself, anywhere that runs a macOS, Linux, or Windows binary
• Not a general-purpose ORM — it is opinionated about how APIs are structured and uses SQLite as its database

For LLMs and coding agents#

A curated docs index, starting with the minimum needed to run Zonai, lives at /llms.txt. Inside a Zonai project, run ./zonai ai to install project-local assistant rules (Cursor, Claude, Copilot, Windsurf, Cline).