Drivers

A driver connects unstorage to a specific backend. Pass one as the default driver or mount it under a key prefix.

import { createStorage } from "unstorage";
import redisDriver from "unstorage/drivers/redis";

const storage = createStorage({
  driver: redisDriver({ base: "my-app" }),
});

Without a driver option, createStorage() uses the memory driver.

#Driver catalog

#Local and runtime storage

#Databases and managed key-value stores

#Cloud and object storage

#Remote and read-only sources

#Driver dependencies

The core package has no runtime dependencies. Drivers that integrate third-party libraries load them lazily on first use, so install only the packages required by your selected drivers. Each driver page includes its install command.

Most drivers that load a third-party library accept a lib option. Use it when a bundler cannot analyze the dynamic import or when you prefer an explicit import:

import { createStorage } from "unstorage";
import redisDriver from "unstorage/drivers/redis";
import * as ioredis from "ioredis";

const storage = createStorage({
  driver: redisDriver({
    lib: ioredis,
    // lib: () => import("ioredis"), // sync or async factory also works
  }),
});

Azure drivers can also accept identityLib for @azure/identity. Whether it is required depends on the selected authentication method. The db0 driver is different: pass an already configured database instance instead of a lib module.

#Introspecting dependencies

Driver modules export DRIVER_DEPENDENCIES. The root package aggregates this information as builtinDriverDependencies, which is useful for frameworks and configuration tooling:

import { builtinDriverDependencies } from "unstorage";

const dependencies = builtinDriverDependencies["redis"];
// { lib: { name: "ioredis", version: "..." } }

An entry with optional: true is needed only for certain features or configurations. For example, chokidar is only required by the fs driver's watch() implementation. Drivers with no third-party dependencies are absent from this map.

builtinDrivers maps every supported driver name to its import specifier:

import { builtinDrivers } from "unstorage";

builtinDrivers["redis"];
// "unstorage/drivers/redis"

#Choosing a driver

Before selecting a backend, consider:

• Runtime: some drivers require Node.js, a browser, or a platform binding.
• Persistence: memory and runtime caches are intentionally ephemeral.
• Key listing: some services cannot implement getKeys efficiently or at all.
• TTL and metadata: these are backend-specific capabilities.
• Raw values: binary support and returned types differ by driver.
• Consistency and limits: managed services may impose size, latency, or consistency constraints.

Check the driver's options and limitations before relying on backend-specific behavior. The common storage API remains the same, but unsupported optional operations may use a fallback or return no results.