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Prisma CLI

The Prisma command line interface (CLI) is the primary way to interact with your Prisma project from the command line. It can initialize new project assets, generate Prisma Client, and analyze existing database structures through introspection to automatically create your application models.

Command reference​

See Prisma CLI command reference for a complete list of commands.

Installation​

The Prisma CLI is typically installed locally as a development dependency, that's why the --save-dev (npm) and --dev (Yarn) options are used in the commands below.

info

We recommend that you install the Prisma CLI locally in your project's package.json to avoid version conflicts that can happen with a global installation.

npm​

Install with npm:

npm install prisma --save-dev

Yarn​

Install with yarn:

yarn add prisma --dev

pnpm​

Install with pnpm:

pnpm install prisma --save-dev

Bun​

Install with Bun:

bun add prisma
Global installation (Not recommended)
  • npm

Install with npm:

npm install -g prisma
  • Yarn

Install with Yarn:

yarn global add prisma
  • pnpm

Install with pnpm:

pnpm install prisma --global
  • Bun

Install with Bun:

bun add --global prisma

Usage​

If you installed Prisma as a development dependency, you need to prefix the prisma command with your package runner.

npm​

npx prisma

Yarn​

yarn prisma

pnpm​

pnpm dlx prisma

Bun​

bunx prisma

Synopsis​

The prisma command can be called from command line once installed. When called without arguments, it will display its command usage and help document:

prisma
Show CLI results

You can get additional help on any of the prisma commands by adding the --help flag after the command.

Exit codes​

All prisma CLI commands return the following codes when they exit:

  • exit code 0 when a command runs successfully
  • exit code 1 when a command errors
  • exit code 130 when the CLI receives a signal interrupt (SIGINT) message or if the user cancels a prompt. This exit code is available in Prisma ORM versions 4.3.0 and later.

Telemetry​

The term telemetry refers to the collection of certain usage data to help improve the quality of a piece of software. Prisma uses telemetry in two contexts:

  • when it collects CLI usage data
  • when it submits CLI error reports

This page describes the overall telemetry approach for Prisma, what kind of data is collected and how to opt-out of data collection.

Why does Prisma collect metrics?​

Telemetry helps us better understand how many users are using our products and how often they are using our products. Unlike many telemetry services, our telemetry implementation is intentionally limited in scope and is actually useful for the developer:

  • Limited in scope: We use telemetry to answer one question: how many monthly active developers are using Prisma CLI?
  • Provides value: Our telemetry service also checks for version updates and offers security notices.

When is data collected?​

Data is collected in two scenarios that are described below.

Usage data​

Invocations of the prisma CLI and general usage of Studio results in data being sent to the telemetry server at https://checkpoint.prisma.io. Note that:

  • The data does not include your schema or the data in your database
  • Prisma only sends information after you execute a CLI command

Here is an overview of the data that's being submitted:

FieldAttributesDescription
productstringName of the product (e.g. prisma)
versionstringCurrently installed version of the product (e.g. 1.0.0-rc0)
archstringClient's operating system architecture (e.g. amd64).
osstringClient's operating system (e.g. darwin).
node_versionstringClient's node version (e.g. v12.12.0).
signaturestringRandom, non-identifiable signature UUID (e.g. 91b014df3-9dda-4a27-a8a7-15474fd899f8)
user_agentstringUser agent of the checkpoint client (e.g. prisma/js-checkpoint)
timestampstringWhen the request was made in RFC3339 format (e.g. 2019-12-12T17:45:56Z)

You can opt-out of this behavior by setting the CHECKPOINT_DISABLE environment variable to 1, e.g.:

export CHECKPOINT_DISABLE=1

Error reporting​

Prisma potentially collects error data when there is a crash in the CLI.

Before an error report is submitted, there will always be a prompt asking you to confirm or deny the submission of the error report! Error reports are never submitted without your explicit consent!

How to opt-out of data collection?​

Usage data​

You can opt-out of usage data collection by setting the CHECKPOINT_DISABLE environment variable to 1, e.g.:

export CHECKPOINT_DISABLE=1

Error reporting​

You can opt-out of data collection by responding to the interactive prompt with no.