Last Updated: 3/9/2026

Introspecting relation metadata

Extracting metadata about tables and views from your database schema in runtime is possible using the methods in the instrospection property of a Kysely instance.

The example below uses a PostgreSQL connection to print information about all tables and views found in the database schema:


import { Kysely, PostgresDialect } from 'kysely'
import pg from 'pg'
const { Pool } = pg
 
async function logDatabaseSchema() {
  const db = new Kysely({
    dialect: new PostgresDialect({
      pool: new Pool({
        connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
      }),
    }),
  })
 
  const tables = await db.introspection.getTables()
  //        ^?  TableMetadata[]
 
  console.log({ tables })
}
 
logDatabaseSchema()

For more information check the docs for details on the interfaces DatabaseIntrospector and TableMetadata .