Supported database types and features

Prisma Migrate translates the model defined in your Prisma schema into features in your database.

Every¹ feature in your data model maps to a corresponding feature in the underlying database. If you can define a feature in the Prisma schema, it is supported by Prisma Migrate.

For a complete list of Prisma schema features, refer to:

• Database features matrix for a list of database features and what they map to in the Prisma schema.
• Prisma schema reference for a list of all Prisma schema features, including field types, attributes, and functions.

Prisma Migrate also supports mapping each field to a specific native type, and there are ways to include features without a Prisma schema equivalent in your database.

Mapping fields to a specific native type

Each Prisma type maps to a default underlying database type - for example, the PostgreSQL connector maps String to text by default. Native database type attributes determines which specific native type should be created in the database.

In the following example, the name and title fields have a @db.VarChar(X) type attribute:

datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

model User {
  id    Int    @id @default(autoincrement())
  name  String @db.VarChar(200)
  posts Post[]
}

model Post {
  id        Int     @id @default(autoincrement())
  title     String  @db.VarChar(150)
  published Boolean @default(true)
  authorId  Int
  author    User    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id])
}

Prisma Migrate uses the specified types when it creates a migration:

  -- CreateTable
CREATE TABLE "User" (
    "id" SERIAL,
    "name" VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY ("id")
);
  -- CreateTable
CREATE TABLE "Post" (
    "id" SERIAL,
    "title" VARCHAR(150) NOT NULL,
    "published" BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT true,
    "authorId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY ("id")
);

  -- AddForeignKey
ALTER TABLE "Post" ADD FOREIGN KEY("authorId")REFERENCES "User"("id") ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE;

Handling unsupported database features

Prisma Migrate cannot automatically create database features that have no equivalent in Prisma Schema Language (PSL). For example, there is currently no way to define a stored procedure or a partial index in PSL. However, there are ways to add unsupported features to your database with Prisma Migrate:

• Handle unsupported field types (like circle)
• Handle unsupported features, like stored procedures
• How to use native database functions