create-prisma

create-prisma creates a new Prisma ORM project from an app template. It installs Prisma ORM, emits the contract, and generates a deployable Prisma Composer app. PostgreSQL projects use Composer's native Prisma Postgres provider, including migrations and a typed runtime client.

Use it when you want to start from a working app. If you already have an app, follow Add Prisma ORM to an existing PostgreSQL project or Add Prisma ORM to an existing MongoDB project instead.

Create a project

Run the CLI with your package manager and answer the prompts:

bun create prisma@latest my-app

Bash

pnpm create prisma@latest my-app

Bash

yarn create prisma@latest my-app

Bash

npm create prisma@latest -- my-app

The prompts cover the project name, the app template, the database provider, the contract authoring style, the package manager, whether to install agent skill files for coding assistants, and whether to deploy right away. Skill files go into .claude/, .cursor/, .agents/, and .devin/ by default; answer no, or pass --skills none, to skip them. To remove them later, set skills: { agents: [] } in prisma.config.ts and run prisma skills sync; see Configuration. Generated Node.js projects expect Node.js 22.18 or newer (on the 24 line, 24.11 or newer); Node.js 24 is recommended.

The last prompt is:

text

Deploy to Prisma now?

The prompt defaults to Yes. --yes accepts the defaults for the other prompts but answers No here, so --yes on its own never deploys; --json deploys unless you pass --no-deploy. Choose no to deploy later with the generated deploy script. When more than one Prisma workspace session is available, the CLI asks which workspace receives the deployment; pass --workspace <id-or-name> to pick one without a prompt, or omit it to use the active workspace. Choosing another workspace also updates the Prisma CLI's active workspace session.

The last prompt is:

Deploy to Prisma now?

Skip the prompts

Pass flags when you already know the project shape. --yes accepts the defaults for anything you leave out:

bun create prisma@latest my-app --template next --provider postgres --yes

Bash

pnpm create prisma@latest my-app --template next --provider postgres --yes

Bash

yarn create prisma@latest my-app --template next --provider postgres --yes

Bash

npm create prisma@latest -- my-app --template next --provider postgres --yes

create is the default subcommand, so npm create prisma@latest -- create my-app ... and npm create prisma@latest -- my-app ... are the same command. Everything after -- goes to create-prisma; without the separator npm keeps the flags for itself.

Flag	What it does
`<name>` or `--name <name>`	The project name and directory.
`--template <name>`	Chooses the app template (see below).
`--provider postgres\|postgresql\|mongo\|mongodb`	Chooses the database: PostgreSQL relational models or MongoDB document models.
`--authoring psl\|typescript`	Chooses the contract authoring style.
`--package-manager npm\|pnpm\|yarn\|bun\|deno`	Chooses the package manager used to install dependencies.
`--skills <agents>\|none`	Which coding agents get skill files, or `none` to opt out. Same values and effect as `prisma init --skills`; the choice is recorded in the `skills` config section.
`--deploy` / `--no-deploy`	Deploys the generated app to Prisma immediately, or skips that step.
`--workspace <id-or-name>`	The Prisma workspace to deploy into.
`--yes`	Skips prompts and accepts the default choices, which means no deploy.
`--force`	Scaffolds into a non-empty directory, overwriting the generated starter and Prisma files (config, contract, and `db.ts`). It refuses when the target has a non-empty `migrations/` directory.
`--verbose`	Shows the full command output during setup. Not compatible with `--json`.
`--json`	Runs non-interactively and writes one JSON result object to stdout, for agents and automation. Deploys unless you pass `--no-deploy`.

Flag	What it does
`<name>` or `--name <name>`	The project name and directory.
`--template <name>`	Chooses the app template (see below).
`--provider postgres\|postgresql\|mongo\|mongodb`	Chooses the database: PostgreSQL relational models or MongoDB document models.
`--authoring psl\|typescript`	Chooses the contract authoring style.
`--package-manager npm\|pnpm\|yarn\|bun\|deno`	Chooses the package manager used to install dependencies.
`--skills <agents>\|none`	Which coding agents get skill files, or `none` to opt out. Same values and effect as `prisma init --skills`; the choice is recorded in the `skills` config section.
`--deploy` / `--no-deploy`	Deploys the generated app to Prisma immediately, or skips that step.
`--workspace <id-or-name>`	The Prisma workspace to deploy into.
`--yes`	Skips prompts and accepts the default choices, which means no deploy.
`--force`	Scaffolds into a non-empty directory, overwriting the generated starter and Prisma files (config, contract, and `db.ts`). It refuses when the target has a non-empty `migrations/` directory.
`--verbose`	Shows the full command output during setup. Not compatible with `--json`.
`--json`	Runs non-interactively and writes one JSON result object to stdout, for agents and automation. Deploys unless you pass `--no-deploy`.

Templates

`--template`	App
`minimal`	A minimal server with one query
`next`	Next.js
`hono`	Hono
`elysia`	Elysia
`nest`	NestJS
`svelte`	SvelteKit
`astro`	Astro
`nuxt`	Nuxt
`tanstack-start`	TanStack Start

Every template supports PostgreSQL and MongoDB, PSL or TypeScript contract authoring, and npm, pnpm, Yarn, and Bun. Each framework guide walks the generated app from the first query to a deploy.

Deno is supported for local minimal PostgreSQL apps:

deno run -A --minimum-dependency-age=0 npm:create-prisma@latest my-deno-app --template minimal --provider postgres --package-manager deno --no-deploy

Deno 2.9 skips packages published in the previous 24 hours by default, so without --minimum-dependency-age=0 a newly published create-prisma release resolves to an older cached version. Prisma Compute does not support Deno deployments yet, so Deno projects stop at a verified local run.

Start the app

Set the connection string in your environment, then initialize the database and start the dev server. The generated prisma.config.ts reads DATABASE_URL for PostgreSQL and MONGODB_URL for MongoDB from the process environment and loads no dotenv file (Deno projects are the exception: their scripts pass --env-file=.env), so export the variable in the shell before running the scripts.

cd my-app

npm run db:init

npm run dev

Sample records are seeded on the app's first query. From there, evolve the contract under src/prisma/, run npm run contract:emit, and plan and apply the migration with npx prisma migration plan and npx prisma db migrate. The quickstart covers that loop in detail, and the MongoDB quickstart covers the MongoDB connection string.

Generated scripts

The scaffold adds these scripts to package.json:

Script	Runs
`contract:emit`	`prisma contract emit`
`db:init`	`prisma db init`
`db:update`	`prisma db update`
`db:verify`	`prisma db verify`
`migration:plan`	`prisma migration plan`
`migrate`	`prisma db migrate`
`migration:status`	`prisma migration status`
`migration:show`	`prisma migration show`
`skills:sync`	`prisma skills sync \|\| exit 0`
`postinstall`	`prisma skills sync \|\| exit 0`, added by the `prisma init` the scaffold runs
`composer:dev`	`prisma dev module.ts`
`composer:deploy`	`prisma deploy module.ts`
`dev:composer`	the build script, then `composer:dev`
`deploy`	the build script, then `composer:deploy`

Deno projects get the Prisma scripts only, each wrapped in deno run -A npm:..., without skills:sync, without postinstall, and without the Composer scripts. --skills none also leaves out skills:sync and postinstall.

Telemetry

Published builds may send anonymous usage telemetry. It never includes project names, file paths, or database URLs. Disable it by setting DO_NOT_TRACK, CREATE_PRISMA_DISABLE_TELEMETRY, or CREATE_PRISMA_TELEMETRY_DISABLED in your environment.

The CLI is open source at prisma/create-prisma.