MySQL

MySQL is a popular open-source relational database. In this guide, you will learn how to set up a new TypeScript project from scratch, connect it to MySQL using Prisma ORM, and generate a Prisma Client for type-safe access to your database.

Prerequisites

You also need:

A MySQL database server running and accessible
Database connection details (host, port, username, password, database name)

1. Create a new project

mkdir hello-prisma

cd hello-prisma

Initialize a TypeScript project:

title="bun"

bun init

bun add typescript tsx @types/node --dev

bunx tsc --init

pnpm

pnpm init
pnpm add typescript tsx @types/node --save-dev
pnpm tsc --init

yarn

yarn init
yarn add typescript tsx @types/node --dev
yarn tsc --init

npm

npm init
npm install typescript tsx @types/node --save-dev
npx tsc --init

2. Install required dependencies

Install the packages needed for this quickstart:

title="bun"

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

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

pnpm

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

yarn

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

npm

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

Here's what each package does:

prisma - The Prisma CLI for running commands like prisma init, prisma migrate, and prisma generate
@prisma/client - The Prisma Client library for querying your database
@prisma/adapter-mariadb - The MySQL/MariaDB driver adapter that connects Prisma Client to your database
dotenv - Loads environment variables from your .env file

3. Configure ESM support

Update tsconfig.json for ESM compatibility:

title="tsconfig.json"

{

  "compilerOptions": {

    "module": "ESNext",

    "moduleResolution": "bundler",

    "target": "ES2023",

    "strict": true,

    "esModuleInterop": true,

    "ignoreDeprecations": "6.0"

  }

}

Update package.json to enable ESM:

title="package.json"

{

  "type": "module"

}

4. Initialize Prisma ORM

You can now run Prisma CLI commands using your package manager:

bunx prisma

Bash

pnpm prisma

Bash

yarn prisma

Bash

npx prisma

Next, set up your Prisma ORM project by creating your Prisma Schema file with the following command:

title="bun"

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

pnpm

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

yarn

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

npm

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

This command does a few things:

Creates a prisma/ directory with a schema.prisma file containing your database connection and schema models
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:

title="prisma7.config.ts"

// 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:

title="prisma/schema.prisma"

generator client {

  provider = "prisma-client"

  output   = "../generated/prisma"

}

datasource db {

  provider = "mysql"

}

Update your .env file with your MySQL connection string details:

title=".env"

DATABASE_URL="mysql://username:password@localhost:3306/mydb"

DATABASE_USER="username"

DATABASE_PASSWORD="password"

DATABASE_NAME="mydb"

DATABASE_HOST="localhost"

DATABASE_PORT=3306

Replace the placeholders with your actual database credentials:

username: Your MySQL username
password: Your MySQL password
localhost:3306: Your MySQL host and port
mydb: Your database name

5. Define your data model

Open prisma/schema.prisma and add the following models:

title="prisma/schema.prisma"

generator client {

  provider = "prisma-client"

  output   = "../generated/prisma"

}

datasource db {

  provider = "mysql"

}

model User { 

  id    Int     @id @default(autoincrement()) 

  email String  @unique

  name  String?

  posts Post[]

} 

model Post { 

  id        Int     @id @default(autoincrement()) 

  title     String

  content   String? @db.Text

  published Boolean @default(false) 

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

  authorId  Int

}

6. Create and apply your first migration

Create your first migration to set up the database tables:

title="bun"

bunx prisma migrate dev --name init

pnpm

pnpm prisma migrate dev --name init

yarn

yarn prisma migrate dev --name init

npm

npx prisma migrate dev --name init

This command creates the database tables based on your schema.

Now run the following command to generate the Prisma Client:

title="bun"

bunx prisma generate

pnpm

pnpm prisma generate

yarn

yarn prisma generate

npm

npx prisma generate

7. Instantiate Prisma Client

Now that you have all the dependencies installed, you can instantiate Prisma Client. You need to pass an instance of the Prisma ORM driver adapter adapter to the PrismaClient constructor:

title="lib/prisma.ts"

import "dotenv/config";

import { PrismaMariaDb } from "@prisma/adapter-mariadb";

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

const adapter = new PrismaMariaDb({

  host: process.env.DATABASE_HOST,

  user: process.env.DATABASE_USER,

  password: process.env.DATABASE_PASSWORD,

  database: process.env.DATABASE_NAME,

  connectionLimit: 5,

});

const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

export { prisma };

8. Write your first query

Create a script.ts file to test your setup:

title="script.ts"

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

async function main() {

  const user = await prisma.user.create({

    data: {

      name: "Alice",

      email: "alice@prisma.io",

      posts: {

        create: {

          title: "Hello World",

          content: "This is my first post!",

          published: true,

        },

      },

    },

    include: {

      posts: true,

    },

  });

  console.log("Created user:", user);

  // Fetch all users with their posts

  const allUsers = await prisma.user.findMany({

    include: {

      posts: true,

    },

  });

  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:

title="bun"

bunx tsx script.ts

pnpm

pnpm dlx tsx script.ts

yarn

yarn dlx tsx script.ts

npm

npx tsx script.ts

You should see the created user and all users printed to the console.

9. Explore your data with Prisma Studio

Prisma Studio is a visual editor for your database. Launch it with:

npx prisma studio

Next steps

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