PostgresCrudDialect doesn't serialize custom @json types (typeDefs)

[uzarsalan]

Bug Description

When using custom types with @json attribute in ZenStack v3 beta with PostgreSQL, UPDATE operations fail with PostgreSQL error 22P02 (invalid_text_representation).

Environment

• ZenStack version: 3.0.0-beta.27
• Database: PostgreSQL (Supabase)
• ORM: @zenstackhq/orm with Kysely

Schema

type InlineButton {
    id            String
    text          String
    callback_data String?
    url           String?
    message       String?
    type          String?
}

type BotButton {
    id             String
    label          String
    action         String
    enabled        Boolean
    order_index    Int
    message        String
    inline_buttons InlineButton[]?  // Nested custom type
}

model bot_settings {
    id           Int         @id @default(autoincrement())
    setting_key  String      @unique
    menu_buttons BotButton[] @json  // Array of custom type
    @@schema("crm")
}

Root Cause

Found in @zenstackhq/orm/dist/index.js:

SqliteCrudDialect (lines 1530-1531) - handles typeDefs correctly:

if (this.schema.typeDefs && type in this.schema.typeDefs) {
  return JSON.stringify(value);  // ✅ Custom types are serialized
}

PostgresCrudDialect (lines 1285-1304) - missing typeDefs check:

transformPrimitive(value, type, forArrayField) {
  if (Array.isArray(value)) {
    return value.map((v) => this.transformPrimitive(v, type, false));
  } else {
    return match3(type)
      .with("Json", () => {
        if (typeof value === "string" || typeof value === "number" || typeof value === "boolean") {
          return JSON.stringify(value);
        } else {
          return value;  // ❌ Objects returned without serialization
        }
      })
      .otherwise(() => value);
  }
}

When updating menu_buttons with nested inline_buttons, each BotButton object passes through the map function and ends up in the "Json" branch where objects are returned as-is (without JSON.stringify). Kysely then sends JavaScript objects to PostgreSQL, which expects a JSON string for JSONB columns.

Suggested Fix

Add typeDefs check to PostgresCrudDialect.transformPrimitive():

transformPrimitive(value, type, forArrayField) {
  if (value === void 0) return value;
  
  // Add this check (same as SqliteCrudDialect):
  if (this.schema.typeDefs && type in this.schema.typeDefs) {
    return JSON.stringify(value);
  }
  
  // ... rest of existing code
}

Reproduction

1. Create a model with nested custom @JSON types (type containing array of another type)
2. Try to update the field with nested data
3. PostgreSQL throws error 22P02

Workaround

Currently using raw SQL to bypass the issue, but this loses RLS/access control benefits of ZenStack.

[ymc9]

Thanks for filing it @uzarsalan . Right now v3 code lives in https://github.com/zenstackhq/zenstack-v3. It's best to file issues over there for better tracking. Thank you!

[ymc9]

The issue is caused by a quirk in the "pg" package about JSON array handling. I've made a fix similar to what you suggested @uzarsalan but still limiting it to array values. Will include the fix in the upcoming build.

[ymc9]

Fixed in beta.31