Prisma schema

The Prisma schema file (short: schema file, Prisma schema or schema) is the main configuration file for your Prisma setup. It is typically called schema.prisma and consists of the following parts:

• Data sources: Specify the details of the data sources Prisma should connect to (e.g. a PostgreSQL database)
• Generators: Specifies what clients should be generated based on the data model (e.g. Prisma Client)
• Data model definition: Specifies your application models (the shape of the data per data source) and their relations

See the Prisma schema API reference for detailed information about each section of the schema.

Whenever a prisma command is invoked, the CLI typically reads some information from the schema file, e.g.:

• prisma generate: Reads all above mentioned information from the Prisma schema to generate the correct data source client code (e.g. Prisma Client).
• prisma migrate dev: Reads the data sources and data model definition to create a new migration.

You can also use environment variables inside the schema file to provide configuration options when a CLI command is invoked.

Example

The following is an example of a Prisma schema file that specifies:

• A data source (PostgreSQL or MongoDB)
• A generator (Prisma Client)
• A data model definition with two models (with one relation) and one enum
• Several native data type attributes (@db.VarChar(255), @db.ObjectId)

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

generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client-js"
}

model User {
  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  email     String   @unique
  name      String?
  role      Role     @default(USER)
  posts     Post[]
}

model Post {
  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  updatedAt DateTime @updatedAt
  published Boolean  @default(false)
  title     String   @db.VarChar(255)
  author    User?    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id])
  authorId  Int?
}

enum Role {
  USER
  ADMIN
}

Naming

The default name for the schema file is schema.prisma. When your schema file is named like this, the Prisma CLI will detect it automatically in the directory where you invoke the CLI command (or any of its subdirectories).

If the file is named differently, you can provide the --schema argument to the Prisma CLI with the path to the schema file, e.g.:

prisma generate --schema ./database/myschema.prisma

Syntax

The schema file is written in Prisma Schema Language (PSL).

```prisma
model User {
  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  email     String   @unique
  name      String?
}
```

Prisma schema file location

The Prisma CLI looks for the Prisma schema file in the following locations, in the following order:

1. The location specified by the --schema flag, which is available when you introspect, generate, migrate, and studio:

   $prisma generate --schema=./alternative/schema.prisma

2. The location specified in the package.json file (version 2.7.0 and later):

   "prisma": {
     "schema": "db/schema.prisma"
   }

3. Default locations:

   • ./prisma/schema.prisma
   • ./schema.prisma

The Prisma CLI outputs the path of the schema file that will be used. The following example shows the terminal output for prisma db pull:

Environment variables loaded from prisma/.env
Prisma Schema loaded from prisma/schema.prisma

Introspecting based on datasource defined in prisma/schema.prisma …

✔ Introspected 4 models and wrote them into prisma/schema.prisma in 239ms

Run prisma generate to generate Prisma Client.

Accessing environment variables from the schema

You can use environment variables to provide configuration options when a CLI command is invoked, or a Prisma Client query is run.

Using environment variables in the schema allows you to keep secrets out of the schema file which in turn improves the portability of the schema by allowing you to use it in different environments

Environment variables can be accessed using the env() function:

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

In version 2.7.0 and later, you can expand variables using the format specified by dotenv-expand. This is useful when dealing with PaaS or similar products. such as Heroku):

# .env
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://test:test@localhost:5432/test
DATABASE_URL_WITH_SCHEMA=${DATABASE_URL}?schema=public

The env() function can be used in the following places:

• A datasource url
• Generator binary targets

See Environment variables from more information.

Comments

There are two types of comments that are supported in the schema file:

• // comment: This comment is for the reader's clarity and is not present in the abstract syntax tree (AST) of the schema file.
• /// comment: These comments will show up in the abstract syntax tree (AST) of the schema file as descriptions to AST nodes. Tools can then use these comments to provide additional information. All comments are attached to the next available node - free-floating comments are not supported and are not included in the AST.

Note: /// comments are not present of the generated Prisma Client, but are present in the internal Data Model Meta Format (DMMF).

Here are some different examples:

/// This comment will get attached to the `User` node in the AST
model User {
  /// This comment will get attached to the `id` node in the AST
  id     Int   @default(autoincrement())
  // This comment is just for you
  weight Float /// This comment gets attached to the `weight` node
}

// This comment is just for you. It will not
// show up in the AST.

/// This comment will get attached to the
/// Customer node.
model Customer {}

Auto formatting

Prisma supports formatting .prisma files automatically. There are two ways to format .prisma files:

• Run the prisma format command.
• Install the Prisma VS Code extension and invoke the VS Code format action - manually or on save.

There are no configuration options - formatting rules are fixed (similar to Golang's gofmt but unlike Javascript's prettier):

block _ {
  key      = "value"
  key2     = 1
  long_key = true
}

block _ {
  key   = "value"
  key2  = 1
  key10 = true

  long_key   = true
  long_key_2 = true
}

block _ {
  id          String       @id
  first_name  LongNumeric  @default
}

block _ {
  id          String       @id
                           @default
  first_name  LongNumeric  @default
}

block _ {
  id  String  @id
              @default

  first_name  LongNumeric  @default
}

block _ {
  key   = "value"

  @@attribute
}