objection.js

Objection.js is what you'd get if you gave a SQL person a Node.js wrapper. It's a thin layer over Knex that gives you models, eager loading, eager graph queries, and JSON Schema validation — without hiding the SQL. 7.1k stars, 200k+ downloads/month, used by Vincit (the maintainer's company) in production for years. It's on the maintainers-wanted list. The original maintainer (Sami Koskinen / Vincit) has been quiet on issues for over a year. The code is solid but the docs are dated and the plugin ecosystem is fragmented. A rescue would need to commit to keeping the SQL-first philosophy while modernizing the docs and the TS types.