vania-dart/framework

Vania

Vania

A fast, simple, and unapologetically batteries-included backend framework for Dart.

pub package docs license

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Dart is a great language for writing servers — it's fast, it AOT-compiles to a single binary, and if you already ship Flutter you know it. What it has been missing is the boring, unglamorous infrastructure every real backend ends up needing: routing, validation, an ORM, migrations, auth, sessions, a job of a CLI to tie it all together.

Vania is that infrastructure. If you've written Laravel, most of it will feel familiar. If you haven't, it should still feel obvious.

Quick start

dart pub global activate vania_cli
vania create my_api
cd my_api
vania serve

Your server is on http://localhost:8000, and vania serve reloads it whenever you save a Dart file.

What an app looks like

A route file:

import 'package:vania/route.dart';

class TodosRoute extends Route {
  @override
  String? get prefix => 'api';

  @override
  void register() {
    super.register();

    Router.get('/todos', todoController.index);
    Router.post('/todos', todoController.store);
    Router.get('/todos/{id}', todoController.show).whereInt('id');
    Router.put('/todos/{id}', todoController.update).whereInt('id');
    Router.delete('/todos/{id}', todoController.destroy).whereInt('id');
  }
}

A controller:

class TodoController extends Controller {
  Future<Response> store(Request req) async {
    await req.validate({'title': 'required|string|max_length:255'});

    final todo = await Todo().query().insertGetId({
      'title': req.input('title'),
    });

    return Response.json(todo, 201);
  }
}

And the entrypoint, which is the whole bootstrap:

void main(List<String> args) async {
  await Application().initialize(config: config);
}

The database layer

Vania's ORM, query builder, migrations, seeders, and relations all live in the core package. Drivers are thin — they translate the shared contract to a real connection and nothing more. In practice that means your application code imports one thing:

import 'package:vania/database.dart';

and the driver name appears exactly once, in main.dart:

registerMysqlDriver();   // or registerPostgresqlDriver() / registerMongodbDriver()

Swapping MySQL for PostgreSQL is a one-line change. Models, relations (hasMany, belongsTo, belongsToMany, and the full morph family), migrations, and query-builder calls come along unchanged, because none of them ever belonged to the driver in the first place.

final users = await User()
    .query()
    .where('active', '=', true)
    .orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
    .paginate(perPage: 20);

Packages

Core ships what every server needs. Everything else is opt-in — add the package, register its provider, done.

Package	What it gives you
vania	HTTP server, router, middleware, validation, ORM, migrations, sessions, views, mail
vania_cli	Project scaffolding, generators, migrations, serve, build
vania_mysql	MySQL driver
vania_postgresql	PostgreSQL driver
vania_mongodb	MongoDB driver and document query builder
vania_auth	JWT and personal access tokens, guards, hashing, revocation
vania_redis	Redis client, cache driver, pub/sub, Lua scripting, pooling
vania_websocket	WebSockets with channels, rooms, presence, broadcasting
vania_graphql	GraphQL execution, HTTP transport, subscriptions
vania_grpc	gRPC server and client
vania_swagger	OpenAPI 3.0 generation and Swagger UI
vania_elasticsearch	Elasticsearch client, query builder, bulk indexing

CLI

vania create <name>          Create a new project
vania serve                  Run with hot reload
vania build                  Compile to a native executable
vania route:list             List registered routes
vania key:generate           Generate APP_KEY into .env

vania make:controller        vania make:model
vania make:middleware        vania make:provider
vania make:migration         vania make:migration-alter
vania make:mail              vania make:auth

vania migrate                Run pending migrations
vania migrate:seed           Run seeders
vania db:seed                Create and register a seeder

Examples

Runnable projects, smallest first:

• counter — the smallest thing that serves a request
• todos — a feature-modular REST API
• basic_authentication — tokens, guards, protected routes
• ddd_wallet — domain-driven layering on a real schema
• websocket_chat · graphql_api · grpc_greeter
• swagger_api · redis_cache · elasticsearch_search

Documentation

Full docs live at vdart.dev/docs. The source is in docs/ — start with installation, then directory structure and configuration.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. If you're fixing a bug, a failing test that reproduces it is the fastest way to get the fix merged.

License

MIT © Vania contributors — see LICENSE.