Quick outline to add Prisma ORM to any Node.js or Express project using a PostgreSQL DB. This outline will work if adding Prisma to an existing or new Node.js project.
- Install required packages and dependencies
Navigate to your project directory or create the project directory and install these required dependencies using any package manager you like:
npm install prisma@prev @types/node @types/pg --save-dev
npm install @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-pg pg dotenv
The prisma package is a CLI tool that enables us run commands on the terminal like prisma init, migrate, pull and studio.
@prisma/client is the client library querying the database, @prisma/adapter-pg,pg & @types/pg are the node_postgres driver adapter, driver and TypeScript type definitions that connect Prisma to client Postgres database.
- Initialize Prisma
npx prisma init --datasource-provider postgresql --output ../generated/prisma
This command creates a prisma folder with a schema.prisma file in it; the file contains your db connection setup in it.
And also a .env and prisma configuration file prisma7.config.ts are created in the root directory.
- Connect your database
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/mydb?schema=public"
Edit the connection to match your database details.
- Next step
Either pull your existing database using this command:
npx prisma db pull
Or
update the prisma/schema.prisma file
generator client {
provider = "prisma-client"
output = "../generated/prisma"
}
datasource db {
provider = "postgresql"
}
model User {
id Int @id @default(autoincrement())
name String
email String @unique
}
## your other tables
Migrate and push your new database schema:
npx prisma migrate dev --name init
