Step 2: Model and migration

This step makes the posts table with a Dart migration and a Post model for it.

1. Make the model and the migration

Stop dox s first with Ctrl+C. dox s restarts the server when a new file appears, and the server runs new migrations at start. So it would run the new migration before you add the columns.

dox make:model Post -m

This makes two files and updates one:

File	What it is
`lib/app/models/post/post.model.dart`	the model (new)
`db/migration/<date>_create_posts_table.dart`	the migration (new)
`db/migration/migrations.dart`	the list of all Dart migrations. Dox writes it. Do not edit it.

The template already has bin/migrate.dart. The dox migration:* commands run it.

2. Add the columns to the migration

Open the new file in db/migration. Add title and body:

db/migration/2026_10_22_205345_create_posts_table.dart

// ignore_for_file: file_names
import 'package:dox_migration/dox_migration.dart';

class CreatePostsTable extends Migration {
  @override
  Future<void> up(Schema schema) async {
    await schema.create('posts', (Table table) {
      table.id();
      table.string('title');
      table.text('body');
      table.timestamps();
    });
  }

  @override
  Future<void> down(Schema schema) async {
    await schema.dropIfExists('posts');
  }
}

table.id() makes an auto increment primary key on every database.
table.timestamps() makes created_at and updated_at. The model fills them.

3. Add the fields to the model

lib/app/models/post/post.model.dart

import 'package:dox_orm/dox_orm.dart';

part 'post.model.g.dart';

@DoxModel(table: 'posts')
class Post extends PostGenerator {
  @override
  List<String> get hidden => <String>[];

  @Column()
  String? title;

  @Column()
  String? body;
}

Every column field is nullable. A new Post() has no values yet. id, createdAt and updatedAt come from PostGenerator. You do not declare them.

4. Run the migrations on server start

Nothing to change here. The template's bin/server.dart already runs the migrations before the server starts:

bin/server.dart

import '../db/migration/migrations.dart';

void main() async {
  Dox().initialize(appConfig);

  await Migrator(
    migrations: migrations,
    config: databaseConfig.getConnectionConfig(),
  ).migrate();

  await Dox().startServer();
}

This also works in the native binary of step 7.

5. Run the migration and the generator

dox migration:run

Migrating: 2026_10_22_205345_create_posts_table
Migrated: 2026_10_22_205345_create_posts_table

The migration ran too early?

If dox s was still running, the posts table may already exist without title and body. Run dox migration:rollback, then dox migration:run again.

The model needs its generated file post.model.g.dart. dox s makes it while it runs. If dox s is not running, run the generator once:

dart run build_runner build

Check it

dox migration:status

Migration                                 Batch  Status
2023_07_16_131937700_create_users_table   1      Ran
2026_10_25_000000000_create_queue_tables  1      Ran
2026_10_22_205345_create_posts_table      2      Ran

The first two come with the template. The server ran them at the first start in step 1.

Now start the server again with dox s.