Advanced Topics

Enums, Security & Public APIs

Beyond core data modeling, GDL provides the tools to define typed constants and fine-tune the granular security of your API endpoints.

The Typed Truth: Enums

Enums (Enumerated Types) allow you to define a fixed set of allowed values for a field. GDL enums are high-fidelity, generating Go string-enums, Protobuf enums, and GraphQL enums simultaneously.

GDL Definition

enum OrderStatus {
    PENDING,
    SHIPPED,
    DELIVERED,
    CANCELLED
}

Usage in Entity

entity Order {
    OrderStatus status required
    datetime orderDate
}

File-Level Global Directives

Some behaviors don't need to live inside an entity block at all. GDL supports four top-level statements that apply a behavior to a named entity, or to every entity in the file at once via *. Each one is functionally equivalent to writing the matching annotation (@ArchiveStatus, @SoftDelete, @Draftable, @TrackViews — see the Power-up Annotations page) directly on the entity.

archived <Entity> | *

Injects a boolean archived flag on the target entity, or every entity when given *.

softDelete <Entity> | *

Enables recoverable, reversible deletion (a deleted_at column plus restore/trash logic) instead of hard deletes.

draftable <Entity> | *

Adds the draft/publish workflow (IsDraft / DraftOfId fields, /draft and /publish endpoints).

trackViews <Entity> | *

Scaffolds read-receipt tracking (shadow table, assign/view/toggle endpoints) for the target entity or every entity.

// Applies to a specific entity, or all of them with * softDelete Customer
draftable *
trackViews Order

Public / Open Entities

By default, all GO-DUCK endpoints require a valid Keycloak JWT. The `open` keyword allows you to selectively disable authentication for specific entities with action-level granularity.

open EntityName

Disables authentication for ALL actions (Read, Create, Update, Delete) on the entity. Caution: Use with care!

open Entity(read, create)

Surgical precision. For example, allowing public read and create while requiring admin JWT for updates/deletes.

// Complete GDL Schema Fragment enum ArticleStatus { PUBLISHED, DRAFT }

entity Article {
    string(255) title required
    text content
    ArticleStatus status
}

// Allow public reading of articles, but require JWT for mutations
open Article(read)

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CLI Usage