How to use findOrCreate in Sequelize

// remember to use a transaction as you are not sure whether the user is
// already present in DB or not (and you might end up creating the user -
// a write operation on DB)

models.sequelize.transaction(function(t) {
  return models.users.findOrCreate({
    where: {
      userId:    profile.userId,
      name:      profile.name
    },
    transaction: t
  })
  .spread(function(userResult, created){
    // userResult is the user instance

    if (created) {
      // created will be true if a new user was created
    }
  });
});

Another option is to use Sequelize hooks. You'd want to make your hook callback async (Sequelize supports it), so in the hook you can run your check and return a promise only if your check is successful (and throw an error otherwise).