PanelJS now supports MikroORM

PanelJS now has a third data adapter. @paneljs/mikroorm turns the metadata from an initialized MikroORM instance into the same schema JSON used by the Prisma and TypeORM adapters.

The result is intentionally familiar: Express remains the HTTP layer, register("User") still decides what operators can access, and the React admin and guarded API do not change.

Mount an initialized ORM

Pass the result of await MikroORM.init() to the adapter:

import { MikroORM } from "@mikro-orm/postgresql";
import { createAdmin } from "paneljs";
import { mount } from "@paneljs/express";
import { mikroormAdapter } from "@paneljs/mikroorm";

const orm = await MikroORM.init({
  clientUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  entities: appEntities,
});

const admin = createAdmin({
  adapter: mikroormAdapter({ orm }),
  auth: { getCurrentUser },
});

admin.register("User");
admin.register("Post");
await mount(app, admin);

Entity class names and EntitySchema names are the register names. The adapter reads live metadata, so there is no second schema file to ship.

Writes do not wait for flush

PanelJS forks an entity manager for each operation. It reads with find and findOne, then writes immediately with insert, nativeUpdate, and nativeDelete. Admin requests do not depend on a host request context eventually calling flush().

Lists, search, filters, relation display fields, forms, permissions, tenant scope, lifecycle hooks, audit events, and bulk actions all use the same core behavior as the other adapters.

Built-in login

Built-in /admin/login is supported. Add the auth entities to the ORM configuration and use built-in auth mode:

import { builtInAuthEntities, mikroormAdapter } from "@paneljs/mikroorm";

const orm = await MikroORM.init({
  clientUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  entities: [...appEntities, ...builtInAuthEntities({ identifier: "email" })],
});

const admin = createAdmin({
  adapter: mikroormAdapter({ orm }),
  auth: { mode: "built-in", identifier: "email" },
});

Create the first operator with the ORM-neutral createsuperuser command. The config exports the initialized adapter and matching auth settings.

Install

From an existing Express + MikroORM app:

npx paneljs@latest init --framework express --orm mikroorm --yes

That adds paneljs, @paneljs/express, @paneljs/mikroorm, and @mikro-orm/core ^6.4.0 when it is missing. Your app still supplies its matching v6 database driver.

Full install: Express + MikroORM. Adapter details: MikroORM adapter.