Stacks Notifications

Stacks Notifications

Multi-channel notification system with 5 channel types: email, SMS, chat, push, and database.

Key Paths

• Core package: storage/framework/core/notifications/src/
• Main entry: storage/framework/core/notifications/src/index.ts
• Drivers: storage/framework/core/notifications/src/drivers/
• Database driver: storage/framework/core/notifications/src/drivers/database.ts
• Configuration: config/notification.ts
• Notification model: storage/framework/defaults/app/Models/Notification.ts

Package Exports

import {
  useChat,
  useEmail,
  useSMS,
  useDatabase,
  useNotification,
  notification,
  DatabaseNotificationDriver,
} from '@stacksjs/notifications'

// Types
import type { CreateNotificationOptions, DatabaseNotification } from '@stacksjs/notifications'

Channel Factories

Each factory returns the underlying driver module for that channel.

// Email -- defaults to 'mailtrap', returns @stacksjs/email driver
const emailDriver = useEmail('ses')
const emailDriver = useEmail('sendgrid')
const emailDriver = useEmail('mailgun')
const emailDriver = useEmail('mailtrap')
const emailDriver = useEmail('smtp')

// SMS -- defaults to 'twilio', returns @stacksjs/sms driver
const smsDriver = useSMS('twilio')
const smsDriver = useSMS('vonage')

// Chat -- defaults to 'slack', returns @stacksjs/chat driver
const chatDriver = useChat('slack')
const chatDriver = useChat('discord')
const chatDriver = useChat('teams')

// Database -- returns DatabaseNotificationDriver object
const dbDriver = useDatabase()

// Auto-detect by type -- dispatches to the correct factory
const driver = useNotification('email', 'ses')
const driver = useNotification('sms', 'twilio')
const driver = useNotification('chat', 'slack')
const driver = useNotification('database')

// Default (uses config.default, falls back to 'email' + 'mailtrap')
const driver = notification()

useNotification() reads config/notification.ts for the default type. If no default is set, it throws 'No default notification type set in config/notification.ts'.

The channel drivers are re-exports from their respective packages:

• email driver: @stacksjs/email
• sms driver: @stacksjs/sms
• chat driver: @stacksjs/chat
• push driver: @stacksjs/push

Database Notification Driver

The DatabaseNotificationDriver provides CRUD operations for notifications stored in the notifications database table using Kysely query builder.

Send a Notification

const db = useDatabase()

const notification = await db.send({
  userId: 1,
  type: 'order.shipped',
  data: { orderId: 42, trackingNumber: 'ABC123' },
})
// Returns the created DatabaseNotification with auto-generated id, timestamps

send() inserts a row into the notifications table with:

• user_id from options.userId
• type from options.type
• data -- JSON.stringify'd from options.data
• read_at set to null
• created_at and updated_at set to current ISO timestamp

Query Notifications

// All notifications for a user, ordered by created_at desc
const all = await db.getUserNotifications(userId)

// Only unread (where read_at is null), ordered by created_at desc
const unread = await db.getUnreadNotifications(userId)

// Count of unread notifications
const count = await db.unreadCount(userId)

Mark as Read

// Mark a single notification as read (sets read_at to current timestamp)
await db.markAsRead(notificationId)

// Mark all unread notifications for a user as read
await db.markAllAsRead(userId)

markAllAsRead() only updates rows where read_at is null.

Delete Notifications

// Delete a single notification by ID
await db.deleteNotification(notificationId)

// Delete all notifications for a user
await db.deleteAllNotifications(userId)

DatabaseNotification Interface

interface DatabaseNotification {
  id: number
  user_id: number
  type: string          // e.g., 'order.shipped', 'payment.received'
  data: string          // JSON stringified -- parse with JSON.parse() when reading
  read_at: string | null  // ISO timestamp or null if unread
  created_at: string    // ISO timestamp
  updated_at: string | null  // ISO timestamp
}

CreateNotificationOptions Interface

interface CreateNotificationOptions {
  userId: number
  type: string
  data: Record<string, any>
}

Notification Model Fields

The Notification model at storage/framework/defaults/app/Models/Notification.ts maps the database notification inbox used by DatabaseNotificationDriver:

• user_id comes from the belongsTo: ['User'] relationship
• type is an application event name such as order.shipped
• data is a JSON string containing the notification payload
• readAt maps to the nullable read_at column
• created_at and updated_at come from useTimestamps

The model uses useApi for its CRUD API and seeds 30 records by default. It must stay aligned with notificationsTableSql() in storage/framework/core/database/src/notification-tables.ts. Outbound transport attempts belong in a separate delivery-log model and table. Do not add email, SMS, or provider-specific delivery columns to the inbox model.

CLI Commands

• buddy make:notification [name] -- scaffold a new notification

config/notification.ts

import type { NotificationConfig } from '@stacksjs/types'

export default {
  default: 'email',
} satisfies NotificationConfig

The default field controls which channel type useNotification() and notification() use when no type is specified. Valid values: 'email', 'sms', 'chat', 'database'.

Architecture

The notifications package is a thin aggregation layer. Each channel delegates to its own dedicated package:

• Email channel (useEmail) -- re-exports @stacksjs/email (configured via config/email.ts)
• SMS channel (useSMS) -- re-exports @stacksjs/sms (configured via config/sms.ts)
• Chat channel (useChat) -- re-exports @stacksjs/chat (configured via config/services.ts)
• Push channel -- re-exports @stacksjs/push
• Database channel (useDatabase) -- built-in driver using @stacksjs/database

The driver modules (drivers/email.ts, drivers/sms.ts, etc.) are single-line re-exports: export * as email from '@stacksjs/email', export * as sms from '@stacksjs/sms', etc.

Gotchas

• The data field in database notifications is stored as a JSON string -- always JSON.parse() when reading
• read_at is null for unread notifications -- use this to filter unread
• The database driver uses Kysely's query builder with as any type casts on table/column names since the notifications table is dynamically referenced
• Channel-specific configuration (SMTP credentials, Twilio keys, Slack tokens) lives in each channel's own config file, not in config/notification.ts
• useNotification() throws if config.default is not set in config/notification.ts
• The notification() function (without arguments) is a shorthand for useNotification() with defaults
• The nexmo driver is a legacy alias for vonage in the SMS drivers index