Migrating to Node.js backend, how do I create relationships from an array of IDs? Previously done with route

Ok so something like this?

merchant = { _id: 'merchant1' }
user = { _id: 'user1', manages: { merchantId: 'merchant1' } };
venues = { _id: 'venue1', merchantId: 'merchant1' };

I don’t think you need to query any intermediary collection.
As I understand, you are just trying to get venues where venue.merchantId === user.manages.merchantId

Are you using flattenMode: 'auto'? If not tell me, we’ll write a more complete answer

agent.customizeCollection('users', collection => {
  collection.addOneToManyRelationship('userVenus', 'venue', {
    originKey: 'merchantId',
    originKeyTarget: 'manages@@@merchantId'  // name of the flattened field, this should show on the autocompletion
  });
});