Schemas

Schemas define the structure and validation rules for entity types in your workspace. They provide consistency and ensure data integrity across your business data.

What schemas do

Schemas specify:

• Which fields are available for an entity type
• Which fields are required vs optional
• The expected data type for each field

Validation and flexibility

Entities follow an open data model in the entity graph itself. Cchema validation occurs when you build your workspace (using firm build or any command that builds the workspace). At build time, Firm validates each entity against its schema.

The validation rules are:

• Fields in the schema must match the defined types - A field marked as boolean cannot contain a number
• Required fields must be present - If a field is marked required = true, the entity must have it
• Entities can have fields not defined in their schema - Schemas define minimum requirements, not maximum constraints

This gives you structure where you need it, while allowing flexibility for additional custom data.

Example

schema task {
    field {
        name = "name"
        type = "string"
        required = true
    }

    field {
        name = "completed"
        type = "boolean"
        required = true
    }
}

task design_homepage {
    name = "Design new homepage"
    completed = false
    custom_priority = "high"  # Not in schema, but allowed
}

This entity is valid because:

• It has all required fields (name and completed)
• Those fields have the correct types
• The extra custom_priority field is allowed

Default schemas

When you run firm init, you get default schemas for common entity types like person, organization, task, and project. See the Quick start guide to learn more about initializing a workspace.