Project Setup

Embed ArcFlow in any project type. The API is the same across Node.js, Python, and Rust — in-memory for tests, persistent for production, no configuration files required.

Node.js / Express / Fastify#

import { open } from 'arcflow'
 
// Open once at startup, share across request handlers
const db = open('./data/graph')
 
app.get('/api/people', (req, res) => {
  const result = db.query("MATCH (n:Person) RETURN n.name, n.age")
  res.json(result.rows.map(r => r.toObject()))
})
 
app.post('/api/people', (req, res) => {
  const { name, age } = req.body
  db.mutate("CREATE (n:Person {name: $name, age: $age})", { name, age })
  res.json({ ok: true })
})
 
// Graceful shutdown
process.on('SIGTERM', () => {
  db.close()
  process.exit(0)
})

Testing#

import { openInMemory } from 'arcflow'
 
describe('my graph logic', () => {
  let db
 
  beforeEach(() => {
    // Fresh in-memory graph per test — fast, no cleanup needed
    db = openInMemory()
  })
 
  it('creates and queries nodes', () => {
    db.mutate("CREATE (n:Person {name: 'Alice'})")
    const result = db.query("MATCH (n:Person) RETURN n.name")
    expect(result.rows[0].get('name')).toBe('Alice')
  })
})

TypeScript configuration#

The SDK ships with full type definitions. No extra @types/ packages needed.

// tsconfig.json — no special config required
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true
  }
}

Monorepo setup (pnpm / turborepo)#

// packages/my-app/package.json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "arcflow": "workspace:*"
  }
}

If using pnpm with file: protocol during local dev, the .node binary may not sync on rebuild. Workaround:

# Manually copy the built .node binary into your node_modules
cp <built-binary>.node node_modules/arcflow/arcflow.<platform>.node

Environment setup#

# Optional: disable Metal GPU if module load hangs during development
export ARCFLOW_METAL_FORCE_UNAVAILABLE=true

Data directory conventions#

my-project/
├── data/
│   └── graph/                    # ArcFlow data directory
│       ├── worldcypher.snapshot.json   # Graph snapshot (auto-managed)
│       └── wal/                  # Write-ahead log (auto-managed)
├── src/
│   └── ...
└── package.json

Add to .gitignore:

data/graph/

Project Setup

Node.js / Express / Fastify#

Testing#

TypeScript configuration#

Monorepo setup (pnpm / turborepo)#

Environment setup#

Data directory conventions#

See Also#

Project Setup

Node.js / Express / Fastify#

Testing#

TypeScript configuration#

Monorepo setup (pnpm / turborepo)#

Environment setup#

Data directory conventions#

See Also#