Register a model

admin.register("User");
admin.register("Post", { listDisplay: ["title", "author", "published"] });

The first argument is the model or entity name in your ORM — PascalCase, exact. The second argument is optional. Every key on it is optional.

register is synchronous. It stores intent. Validation and default-filling happen in mount.

Zero config

admin.register("User") still works. At mount the library picks:

Concern	Default
Display label	First unique string among name, title, label, username, slug, email; else any unique string; else first string; else the id
List columns	Display field first, then other non-id scalars, up to 6, then createdAt if present
Search	Non-id string scalars (not FK scalars)
Filters	None — configure listFilter explicitly
Sort	createdAt descending, or the id
Page size	50
Permissions	Any authenticated admin
URL slug	Simple English plural (User → users, Category → categories)

Reach for the second argument when those defaults are wrong — not before.

The step-by-step for putting this in your server file is Wire it into your app. That page walks through the same register() object as the published example.

What you can customize

admin.register("Post", {
  listDisplay: ["title", "author", "published", "createdAt"],
  listFilter: ["published", "createdAt"],
  searchFields: ["title", "content"],
  defaultSort: { field: "createdAt", direction: "desc" },
  perPage: 25,
  displayField: "title",
  pluralName: "posts",
  fields: {
    content: { readOnly: true },
  },
  permissions: {
    delete: ["SUPER_ADMIN"],
  },
  scope: async (adminUser) =>
    adminUser.isSuperAdmin
      ? {}
      : { tenantId: adminUser.tenantId ?? "__no_tenant__" },
});

Full table: register() reference.

Validation at mount

These throw with the available names so a typo does not become a silent empty column:

• Model does not exist in the adapter’s introspected models
• listDisplay / fields / displayField names that are not on the model
• searchFields that are not strings
• listFilter fields that are not filterable
• register() after mount()
• mount() twice

Composite primary keys and models with no id are skipped with a warning across all adapters. They cannot be registered in this release.

Only registered models appear

A model in the schema is invisible to the admin until you register it. The Prisma example has Tenant and AdminAuditLog in the schema and never registers them — so they never show in the sidebar.