PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a serverless database platform. This guide covers both PlanetScale MySQL and PlanetScale Postgres. In this guide, you will learn how to add Prisma ORM to an existing TypeScript project, connect it to PlanetScale, introspect your existing database schema, and start querying with type-safe Prisma Client.

Navigate to your existing project directory and install the required dependencies:

bun add prisma@prev @types/node --dev

bun add @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-planetscale undici dotenv

pnpm add prisma@prev @types/node --save-dev
pnpm add @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-planetscale undici dotenv

yarn add prisma@prev @types/node --dev
yarn add @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-planetscale undici dotenv

npm install prisma@prev @types/node --save-dev
npm install @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-planetscale undici dotenv

bun add prisma@prev @types/pg --dev

bun add @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-pg pg dotenv

pnpm add prisma@prev @types/pg --save-dev
pnpm add @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-pg pg dotenv

yarn add prisma@prev @types/pg --dev
yarn add @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-pg pg dotenv

npm install prisma@prev @types/pg --save-dev
npm install @prisma/client@7 @prisma/adapter-pg pg dotenv

Set up your Prisma ORM project by creating your Prisma Schema file with the following command:

bunx --bun prisma init --datasource-provider mysql --output ../generated/prisma

pnpm prisma init --datasource-provider mysql --output ../generated/prisma

yarn prisma init --datasource-provider mysql --output ../generated/prisma

npx prisma init --datasource-provider mysql --output ../generated/prisma

bunx --bun prisma init --datasource-provider postgresql --output ../generated/prisma

pnpm prisma init --datasource-provider postgresql --output ../generated/prisma

yarn prisma init --datasource-provider postgresql --output ../generated/prisma

npx prisma init --datasource-provider postgresql --output ../generated/prisma

This command does a few things:

• Creates a prisma/ directory with a schema.prisma file containing your database connection configuration
• Creates a .env file in the root directory for environment variables
• Creates a prisma7.config.ts file for Prisma configuration

The generated prisma7.config.ts file looks like this:

// This file was generated by Prisma, and assumes you have installed the following:

// npm install --save-dev prisma dotenv

import "dotenv/config";

import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({

  schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",

  migrations: {

    path: "prisma/migrations",

  },

  datasource: {

    url: process.env["DATABASE_URL"],

  },

});

The generated schema uses the ESM-first prisma-client generator with a custom output path:

generator client {

  provider = "prisma-client"

  output   = "../generated/prisma"

}

datasource db {

  provider     = "mysql"

  relationMode = "prisma"

}

generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client"
  output   = "../generated/prisma"
}

datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
}

Update the .env file with your PlanetScale connection URL:

DATABASE_URL="mysql://username:password@host.connect.psdb.cloud/mydb?sslaccept=strict"

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://{username}:{password}@{host}:6432/postgres?sslmode=verify-full"

You can find your connection string in the PlanetScale dashboard.

Run the following command to introspect your existing database:

• bun
• pnpm
• yarn
• npm

bunx prisma db pull

pnpm prisma db pull

yarn prisma db pull

npx prisma db pull

This command reads the DATABASE_URL environment variable, connects to your database, and introspects the database schema. It then translates the database schema from SQL into a data model in your Prisma schema.

After introspection, your Prisma schema will contain models that represent your existing database tables.

This command reads the DATABASE_URL environment variable, connects to your database, and introspects the database schema. It then translates the database schema from SQL into a data model in your Prisma schema.

After introspection, your Prisma schema will contain models that represent your existing database tables.

Generate Prisma Client based on your introspected schema:

bunx prisma generate

pnpm prisma generate

yarn prisma generate

npx prisma generate

This creates a type-safe Prisma Client tailored to your database schema in the generated/prisma directory.

Create a utility file to instantiate Prisma Client. You need to pass an instance of the Prisma ORM driver adapter adapter to the PrismaClient constructor:

import "dotenv/config";

import { PrismaPlanetScale } from "@prisma/adapter-planetscale";

import { PrismaClient } from "../generated/prisma/client";

import { fetch as undiciFetch } from "undici";

const adapter = new PrismaPlanetScale({ url: process.env.DATABASE_URL, fetch: undiciFetch });

const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

export { prisma };

import "dotenv/config";
import { PrismaPg } from "@prisma/adapter-pg";
import { PrismaClient } from "../generated/prisma/client";

const connectionString = `${process.env.DATABASE_URL}`;

const adapter = new PrismaPg({ connectionString });
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

export { prisma };

Now you can use Prisma Client to query your database. Create a script.ts file:

import { prisma } from "./lib/prisma";

async function main() {

  // Example: Fetch all records from a table

  // Replace 'user' with your actual model name

  const allUsers = await prisma.user.findMany();

  console.log("All users:", JSON.stringify(allUsers, null, 2));

}

main()

  .then(async () => {

    await prisma.$disconnect();

  })

  .catch(async (e) => {

    console.error(e);

    await prisma.$disconnect();

    process.exit(1);

  });

Run the script:

bunx tsx script.ts

pnpm dlx tsx script.ts

yarn dlx tsx script.ts

npx tsx script.ts

PlanetScale uses a branching workflow instead of traditional migrations. To make changes to your database schema:

Update your Prisma schema file to reflect the changes you want to make to your database schema. For example, add a new model:

model Post { 

  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement()) 

  title     String

  content   String?

  published Boolean  @default(false) 

  authorId  Int

  author    User     @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id]) 

} 

model User { 

  id    Int    @id @default(autoincrement()) 

  email String @unique

  name  String?

  posts Post[]

} 

bunx prisma db push

pnpm prisma db push

yarn prisma db push

npx prisma db push

This command will:

• Apply the schema changes to your PlanetScale database
• Regenerate Prisma Client

npx prisma studio

Prisma ORM is set up. These are the pages you are most likely to need next:

• Learn more about Prisma Client: Explore the Prisma Client API for advanced querying, filtering, and relations
• Database migrations: Learn about Prisma Migrate for evolving your database schema
• Performance optimization: Discover query optimization techniques
• Build a full application: Check out our framework guides to integrate Prisma ORM with Next.js, Express, and more
• Join the community: Connect with other developers on Discord

• PlanetScale database connector
• Prisma Config reference
• Database introspection
• PlanetScale branching workflow