# Deploying database changes with Prisma Migrate

To apply pending migrations to staging, testing, or production environments, run the `migrate deploy` command as part of your CI/CD pipeline:

::::tabs
:::tab{title="bun"}
```
bunx prisma migrate deploy
```
:::

:::tab{title="pnpm"}
```bash
pnpm prisma migrate deploy
```
:::

:::tab{title="yarn"}
```bash
yarn prisma migrate deploy
```
:::

:::tab{title="npm"}
```bash
npx prisma migrate deploy
```

> \[!NOTE]
> This guide **does not apply for MongoDB**.

> Instead of `migrate deploy`, [`db push`](/guides/prisma-migrate-v7-workflows-prototyping-your-schema) is used for [MongoDB](/guides/core-concepts-v7-supported-databases-mongodb).

Exactly when to run `prisma migrate deploy` depends on your platform. For example, a simplified [Heroku](/guides/prisma-client-v7-deployment-traditional-deploy-to-heroku) workflow includes:

1. Ensuring the `./prisma/migration` folder is in source control
2. Running `prisma migrate deploy` during the [release phase](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/release-phase)

Ideally, `migrate deploy` should be part of an automated CI/CD pipeline, and we do not generally recommend running this command locally to deploy changes to a production database (for example, by temporarily changing the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable). It is not generally considered good practice to store the production database URL locally.

Beware that in order to run the `prisma migrate deploy` command, you need access to the `prisma` dependency that is typically added to the `devDependencies`. Some platforms like Vercel, prune development dependencies during the build, thereby preventing you from calling the command. This can be worked around by making the `prisma` a production dependency, by moving it to `dependencies` in your `package.json`.
For more information about the `migrate deploy` command, see:

- [`migrate deploy` reference](/guides/reference-6-v7-reference-prisma-cli-reference#migrate-deploy)
- [How `migrate deploy` works](/guides/prisma-migrate-v7-workflows-development-and-production#production-and-testing-environments)
- [Production troubleshooting](/guides/prisma-migrate-v7-workflows-patching-and-hotfixing)
:::
::::

:::callout{intent="note"}
This guide **does not apply for MongoDB**.\
Instead of `migrate deploy`, [`db push`](/guides/prisma-migrate-v7-workflows-prototyping-your-schema) is used for [MongoDB](/guides/core-concepts-v7-supported-databases-mongodb).
:::

Exactly when to run `prisma migrate deploy` depends on your platform. For example, a simplified [Heroku](/guides/prisma-client-v7-deployment-traditional-deploy-to-heroku) workflow includes:

1. Ensuring the `./prisma/migration` folder is in source control
2. Running `prisma migrate deploy` during the [release phase](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/release-phase)

Ideally, `migrate deploy` should be part of an automated CI/CD pipeline, and we do not generally recommend running this command locally to deploy changes to a production database (for example, by temporarily changing the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable). It is not generally considered good practice to store the production database URL locally.

Beware that in order to run the `prisma migrate deploy` command, you need access to the `prisma` dependency that is typically added to the `devDependencies`. Some platforms like Vercel, prune development dependencies during the build, thereby preventing you from calling the command. This can be worked around by making the `prisma` a production dependency, by moving it to `dependencies` in your `package.json`. For more information about the `migrate deploy` command, see:

- [`migrate deploy` reference](/guides/reference-6-v7-reference-prisma-cli-reference#migrate-deploy)
- [How `migrate deploy` works](/guides/prisma-migrate-v7-workflows-development-and-production#production-and-testing-environments)
- [Production troubleshooting](/guides/prisma-migrate-v7-workflows-patching-and-hotfixing)

## [Deploying database changes using GitHub Actions](#deploying-database-changes-using-github-actions)

As part of your CI/CD, you can run `prisma migrate deploy` as part of your pipeline to apply pending migrations to your production database.

Here is an example action that will run your migrations against your database:

```title="deploy.yml"
name: Deploy

on:

  push:

    paths:

      - prisma/migrations/**

    branches:

      - main

jobs:

  deploy:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

      - name: Checkout repo

        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node

        uses: actions/setup-node@v3

      - name: Install dependencies

        run: npm ci

      - name: Apply all pending migrations to the database

        run: npx prisma migrate deploy

        env:

          DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}
```

The highlighted line shows that this action will only run if there is a change in the `prisma/migrations` directory, so `npx prisma migrate deploy` will only run when migrations are updated.

Ensure you have the `DATABASE_URL` variable [set as a secret in your repository](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-for-github-actions/security-guides/using-secrets-in-github-actions), without quotes around the connection string.

## [Pre-deploy migration safety checks](#pre-deploy-migration-safety-checks)

Before running `prisma migrate deploy`, you can analyze your migration SQL files for potentially dangerous patterns using a migration safety tool like [pgfence](/guides/guides-3-integrations-pgfence). pgfence detects operations that acquire heavy locks (such as `CREATE INDEX` without `CONCURRENTLY` or `ALTER COLUMN TYPE`), reports risk levels, and provides safe rewrite recipes.

To add pgfence as a pre-deploy step in your GitHub Actions workflow:

```
- name: Run migration safety check

  run: npx @flvmnt/pgfence analyze --ci --max-risk medium prisma/migrations/**/migration.sql

- name: Apply all pending migrations to the database

  run: npx prisma migrate deploy

  env:

    DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}
```

For a full setup guide, see the [pgfence integration guide](/guides/guides-3-integrations-pgfence).

## Related pages

- [Authentication & Tools](./authentication-tools-index.md)
- [Build](./build-index.md)
- [Changelog](../changelog.md)
- [Concepts](./concepts-index.md)
- [Console commands](./console-commands-index.md)
- [Contract Authoring](./contract-authoring-index.md)
- [Core Concepts](./core-concepts-index.md)
- [Data Modeling](./data-modeling-index.md)
- [Database](./database-index.md)
- [DB commands](./db-commands-index.md)

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