Add Database Storage to a Commerce App

Integrates App Builder Database Storage into an existing Commerce app and scaffolds a runtime action that uses @adobe/aio-lib-db to read and write documents. The library is MongoDB-like: data lives in collections of documents, queried with familiar filters.

The db-access code is identical regardless of action type — what differs is how the action is registered and what its handler returns:

• Web action — HTTP-invokable (web: "yes"); returns a response built with the responses helpers from @adobe/aio-commerce-lib-core.
• Event/webhook action — invoked by a Commerce event or webhook; referenced from app.commerce.config.ts via commerce-app-eventing (runtimeActions) or commerce-app-webhooks (runtimeAction).

Prerequisites

• Verify the app is scaffolded and initialized, not merely that the config exists. Require both:
  • app.commerce.config.ts present in the project root, and
  • the project initialized — signalled by the generated src/commerce-extensibility-1/ directory and installed node_modules (the @adobe/aio-commerce-lib-app dependency).
• If app.commerce.config.ts is missing, stop and invoke commerce-app-init first (it writes the config, then runs init).
• If the config is present but the project is not initialized (no src/commerce-extensibility-1/ or node_modules), run npx @adobe/aio-commerce-lib-app init before continuing. Init is idempotent — it finds the existing config, skips the interactive prompts, installs dependencies, and generates the project files.
• The App Builder Data Services API (API code AppBuilderDataServicesSDK) must be added to the project in the Adobe Developer Console — in every workspace that uses the database (no special license beyond App Builder). Without it, runtime actions cannot authenticate to the database service.

Step 1 — Provision the workspace database

There is a strict one-to-one relationship between an AIO project workspace and a workspace database. The recommended way to provision it is declaratively in app.config.yaml — the database is provisioned (if not already present) on aio app deploy:

application:
  runtimeManifest:
    database:
      auto-provision: true
      region: emea # amer | apac | emea | aus — the single source of truth for the region

Extension-only apps need a workaround. Due to a bug in the aio app CLI plugin (not aio-lib-db), aio app deploy only runs declarative auto-provision when the application runtime manifest has at least one package with a runtime action. Apps built purely with extensions (the recommended layout per the submission guidelines) have no application actions, so deploy silently skips provisioning. Make the application block "real enough" for provisioning to run by adding an empty packages map and a post-app-build hook that creates the directory the provisioning step expects:

application:
  hooks:
    post-app-build: "mkdir -p dist/application/actions" # provisioning expects this dir to exist
  runtimeManifest:
    packages: {} # empty map — required by the config schema so the application block validates with no actions
    database:
      auto-provision: true
      region: emea # single source of truth — see the region callout below

For local development, declarative auto-provisioning does not run during aio app run / aio app dev. Provision once up front with the CLI fallback (self-service, no special permissions). The aio app db … commands are only available once the storage CLI plugin is installed:

aio plugins install @adobe/aio-cli-plugin-app-storage
aio app db provision --region <amer|apac|emea|aus>

Region is a single source of truth. The region in the manifest database block must match the region passed to every initDb({ region }) call (or AIO_DB_REGION) — in every action and in the install step (Step 6). A mismatch fails the connection. Changing region is destructive: aio app db delete, update database.region in the manifest, then re-provision.

Step 2 — Install the library

npm install @adobe/aio-lib-db

Step 3 — Understand intent

Gather from the user:

• Action type: web action or event/webhook action (see the two shapes above).
• Collection name and the operations needed (insert / find / update / delete).
• Region: must match the manifest database.region (see the region callout in Step 1). Pass it to init() or set AIO_DB_REGION.

Step 4 — Register the action

Add the action to a user-defined package in src/commerce-extensibility-1/ext.config.yaml (any name except app-management, which is reserved).

include-ims-credentials: true is required on every DB action. Without it, aio-lib-db has no IMS token to authenticate with and the connection fails at runtime (and the app installation fails if the action runs during install). Do not omit this annotation.

# src/commerce-extensibility-1/ext.config.yaml
runtimeManifest:
  packages:
    app-management:
      # ... auto-generated — do not edit
    my-app: # any name except "app-management"
      actions:
        store-record:
          function: actions/store-record/index.js # relative to src/commerce-extensibility-1/
          runtime: nodejs:24
          web: "yes" # "yes" for a web action; "no" for an event/webhook action
          annotations:
            include-ims-credentials: true # REQUIRED for aio-lib-db auth

Step 5 — Implement the handler

Every handler follows the same lifecycle: resolve IMS auth → mint token → init → connect → use a collection → always close in finally.

// Web action — src/commerce-extensibility-1/actions/store-record/index.ts
import { buildErrorResponse, ok } from "@adobe/aio-commerce-lib-core/responses";
import {
  getImsAuthProvider,
  resolveImsAuthParams,
} from "@adobe/aio-commerce-lib-auth";
import { init as initDb } from "@adobe/aio-lib-db";

export async function main(params: Record<string, unknown>) {
  let client;
  try {
    // Resolve the injected AIO_COMMERCE_AUTH_IMS_* params, then mint a raw token string.
    const authProvider = getImsAuthProvider(resolveImsAuthParams(params));
    const token = await authProvider.getAccessToken();
    const db = await initDb({ token, region: "emea" }); // must match the manifest database.region
    client = await db.connect();
    const records = client.collection("records");

    const result = await records.insertOne({
      ...(params.document as object),
      createdAt: new Date().toISOString(),
    });
    return ok({ body: { result } });
  } catch (error: any) {
    return buildErrorResponse(error.statusCode || 500, {
      body: { message: error.message },
    });
  } finally {
    if (client) await client.close(); // always close — avoids connection leaks
  }
}

For an event/webhook action the only differences are web: "no" in registration and that the payload arrives in params.data:

// Event/webhook handler — same init/connect/close lifecycle
export async function main(params: Record<string, unknown>) {
  const data = params.data as Record<string, unknown>;
  let client;
  try {
    const authProvider = getImsAuthProvider(resolveImsAuthParams(params));
    const token = await authProvider.getAccessToken();
    const db = await initDb({ token, region: "emea" });
    client = await db.connect();
    await client
      .collection("orders")
      .insertOne({ orderId: data.order_id, receivedAt: new Date() });
    return ok({ body: { processed: true } });
  } finally {
    if (client) await client.close();
  }
}

See assets/db-action.ts for the full annotated reference covering all CRUD operations and cursor iteration.

Step 6 — Set up collections and indexes on install

For an App Management app, create collections and indexes with a custom installation step — a script that runs once when the app is installed from the Commerce Admin, and can be reversed on uninstall. Prefer this over creating them ad-hoc on the first request.

Author the step with defineCustomInstallationStep (an install handler plus an optional uninstall). Inside it, resolve the IMS auth params from context.params — not config — then follow the same init → connect → close lifecycle as Step 5, and call createIndex on the collection object:

// ./scripts/setup-database.ts — referenced from config as ./scripts/setup-database.js
import { defineCustomInstallationStep } from "@adobe/aio-commerce-lib-app/management";
import {
  getImsAuthProvider,
  resolveImsAuthParams,
} from "@adobe/aio-commerce-lib-auth";
import { init as initDb } from "@adobe/aio-lib-db";

export default defineCustomInstallationStep({
  install: async (config, context) => {
    let client;
    try {
      // context.params carries the injected IMS credentials — NOT config.
      const authProvider = getImsAuthProvider(
        resolveImsAuthParams(context.params),
      );
      const token = await authProvider.getAccessToken();
      const db = await initDb({ token, region: "emea" }); // must match the manifest database.region
      client = await db.connect();

      const orders = client.collection("held_orders"); // get the collection object first
      await orders.createIndex({ order_id: 1 }, { unique: true }); // createIndex on the collection, not a name string
      return { status: "success" };
    } finally {
      if (client) await client.close(); // always close — avoids connection leaks
    }
  },
  uninstall: async (config, context) => {
    // Tear down your database state here.
    // Leave empty to preserve data across reinstalls.
  },
});

Author the install script as an ES module with export default — never module.exports. The installation action loads each step via import * as step from "<script>" and reads step.default, so the script must default-export the defineCustomInstallationStep(...) result. CommonJS breaks this: module.exports.default surfaces as step.default.default and validation fails. The script path must end in .js; if you author in TypeScript, compile it and keep the emitted .js an ES module.

Register the step in app.commerce.config.ts under installation.customInstallationSteps. The script path points at the compiled .js output:

// app.commerce.config.ts
installation: {
  customInstallationSteps: [
    {
      script: "./scripts/setup-database.js", // compiled output of setup-database.ts
      name: "Set up held-orders collection",
      description: "Creates the held_orders collection and a unique index on order_id",
    },
  ],
},

See assets/setup-database.ts for the full annotated install/uninstall reference.

Step 7 — Validate

aio app build

A build failure points directly to the offending config field. To exercise the action against the real database, deploy and invoke it (aio app deploy).

Best practices

• Always close connections in a finally block — leaked connections exhaust resources.
• Match the region — the manifest database.region is the single source of truth; every init() call and the install step must use it (see the region callout in Step 1). A mismatch fails the connection silently from the caller's view.
• Use projections (.project({ field: 1 })) and indexes (createIndex) for frequently queried fields; index fields must total ≤ 2048 bytes.
• Iterate large result sets with cursors (for await (const doc of collection.find(...))) instead of toArray() to bound memory.
• Don't hardcode the region or secrets — prefer AIO_DB_REGION and the injected IMS token over inline values.
• Prefer the most specific Adobe I/O library in runtime actions over the @adobe/aio-sdk umbrella — e.g. @adobe/aio-commerce-lib-auth for IMS auth and @adobe/aio-lib-core-logging for the logger — to keep action bundles small.
• Set up collections and indexes during installation with a custom installation step (defineCustomInstallationStep, see Step 6) rather than ad-hoc on the first request — it runs once when the app is installed from the Commerce Admin and is reversible on uninstall. A generic App Builder post-app-deploy hook is only an alternative when the app is not installed through App Management.

Common Issues

• Connection fails despite a valid token: the action is missing include-ims-credentials: true, or the App Builder Data Services API has not been added to the project in the Adobe Developer Console (see Prerequisites).
• DB not provisioned after aio app deploy (extension-only app): a bug in the aio app CLI plugin (not aio-lib-db) skips declarative auto-provision when the application runtime manifest has no runtime action. Apply the extension-only workaround from Step 1 — add packages: {} and a post-app-build: "mkdir -p dist/application/actions" hook under application — or provision once with the CLI fallback for local dev.
• Connection fails after a region change: the library region doesn't match the manifest database.region. Moving regions is destructive — aio app db delete, update database.region in the manifest, then re-provision (aio app deploy, or the CLI fallback for local dev).
• Querying by _id from a string returns nothing: convert it first — new ObjectId(idString) from bson. A raw string never matches the stored ObjectId.
• DbError vs unexpected error: errors thrown by the service have name === "DbError"; branch on it to separate database failures from application bugs.
• Auth fails inside an installation step: resolve the IMS auth params from context.params (resolveImsAuthParams(context.params)) — which carries the injected AIO_COMMERCE_AUTH_IMS_* credentials — not from config, which holds no credentials. Use @adobe/aio-commerce-lib-auth, not @adobe/aio-lib-core-auth: the latter's generateAccessToken expects clientId/clientSecret directly and cannot consume the injected params.
• Installation step fails to load (must export a default function or object): the script was authored as CommonJS. Author it as an ES module with export default; module.exports (or module.exports.default) surfaces through the framework's import * as loader as .default.default and fails validation.
• createIndex errors or has no effect: it must be called on a collection object (client.collection("name").createIndex({ field: 1 })), not with a collection-name string. Get the collection first, then call createIndex on it.

Quality Bar

• aio app build completes without errors
• Every user-authored DB action declares include-ims-credentials: true in its annotations
• The action closes the client in a finally block and initializes the library in the region declared in the manifest database block

Chaining

• Wire the action to an event — invoke commerce-app-eventing and reference this action in an event's runtimeActions.
• Wire the action to a webhook — invoke commerce-app-webhooks and reference this action via runtimeAction.
• Trigger the action from Admin UI — invoke commerce-app-admin-ui to add a mass action, order view button, or grid column that invokes this runtime action.

References

• assets/db-action.ts — Full annotated handler: init/connect, CRUD, cursor iteration, and the close lifecycle
• assets/setup-database.ts — Full annotated custom installation step: install creates a collection and a unique index, uninstall drops it, with the context.params and createIndex-on-collection patterns