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Prisma replaces traditional ORMs and custom data access layers with a universal database abstraction used via the Prisma client. It is used to build GraphQL servers, REST APIs & more.

• Prisma client for various languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript, Flow, Go.
• Supports multiple databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB (see all supported databases).
• Type-safe database access including filters, aggregations, pagination and transactions.
• Realtime event systems for your database to get notified about database events.
• Declarative data modeling & migrations (optional) with simple SDL syntax.

Try a Prisma example online with CodeSandbox:

Contents

• Quickstart
• Examples
• Architecture
• Database Connectors
• Community
• Contributing

Quickstart

Get started with Prisma from scratch (or use your existing database):

1. Install Prisma via Homebrew

brew tap prisma/prisma
brew install prisma

Alternative: Install with NPM or Yarn

npm install -g prisma
# or
yarn global add prisma

2. Connect Prisma to a database

To setup Prisma, you need to have Docker installed. Run the following command to get started with Prisma:

prisma init hello-world

The interactive CLI wizard now helps you with the required setup:

• Select Create new database (you can also use an existing database or a hosted demo database)
• Select the database type: MySQL or PostgreSQL
• Select the language for the generated Prisma client: TypeScript, Flow, JavaScript or Go

Once the wizard has terminated, run the following commands to setup Prisma:

cd hello-world
docker-compose up -d

3. Define your datamodel

Edit datamodel.prisma to define your datamodel using SDL syntax. Each model is mapped to a table in your database schema:

type User {
  id: ID! @unique
  email: String @unique
  name: String!
  posts: [Post!]!
}

type Post {
  id: ID! @unique
  title: String!
  published: Boolean! @default(value: "false")
  author: User
}

4. Deploy datamodel to your migrate database

To deploy your Prisma API, run the following command:

prisma deploy

The Prisma API is deployed based on the datamodel and exposes CRUD & realtime operations for each model in that file.

5. Use the Prisma client (JavaScript)

The Prisma client connects to the Prisma API and lets you perform read and write operations against your database. This section explains how to use the Prisma client from JavaScript.

First, inside the hello-world directory, install the prisma-client-lib dependency:

npm install --save prisma-client-lib

Next, to generate the Prisma client, run the following command:

prisma generate

Create a new Node script inside the hello-world directory:

touch index.js

Now add the following code to it:

const { prisma } = require('./generated/prisma-client')

// A `main` function so that we can use async/await
async function main() {
  // Create a new user with a new post
  const newUser = await prisma.createUser({
    name: 'Alice',
    posts: {
      create: { title: 'The data layer for modern apps' }
    }
  })
  console.log(`Created new user: ${newUser.name} (ID: ${newUser.id})`)

  // Read all users from the database and print them to the console
  const allUsers = await prisma.users()
  console.log(allUsers)

  // Read all posts from the database and print them to the console
  const allPosts = await prisma.posts()
  console.log(allPosts)
}

main().catch(e => console.error(e))

Finally, run the code using the following command:

node index.js

See more API operations

const usersCalledAlice = await prisma
  .users({
    where: {
      name: "Alice"
    }
  })

// replace the __USER_ID__ placeholder with an actual user ID
const updatedUser = await prisma
  .updateUser({
    where: { id: "__USER_ID__" },
    data: { email: "alice@prisma.io" }
  })

// replace the __USER_ID__ placeholder with an actual user ID
 const deletedUser = await prisma
  .deleteUser({ id: "__USER_ID__" })

const postsByAuthor = await prisma
  .user({ email: "alice@prisma.io" })
  .posts()

6. Next steps

Here is what you can do next:

• Build an app with Prisma client
• Check out some examples
• Read more about how Prisma works.

Examples

TypeScript

Demo	Description
cli-app	Simple CLI TODO list app
graphql-auth	GraphQL server with email-password authentication & permissions
graphql	Simple GraphQL server
graphql-subscriptions	GraphQL server with realtime subscriptions
rest-express	Simple REST API with Express.JS
script	Simple usage of Prisma client in script

You can also check the AirBnB clone example we built as a fully-featured demo app for Prisma.

Node.JS

Demo	Description
cli-app	Simple CLI TODO list app
graphql-auth	GraphQL server with email-password authentication & permissions
graphql-schema-delegation	Schema delegation with Prisma binding
graphql	Simple GraphQL server
graphql-subscriptions	GraphQL server with realtime subscriptions
rest-express	Simple REST API with Express.JS
script	Simple usage of Prisma client in script

Golang

Demo	Description
cli-app	Simple CLI TODO list app
graphql	Simple GraphQL server
http-mux	Simple REST API with gorilla/mux
rest-gin	Simple REST API with Gin
script	Simple usage of Prisma client in script

Flow

Demo	Description
graphql	Simple GraphQL server
script	Simple usage of Prisma client in script

Architecture

Prisma takes the role of the data layer in your backend architecture, replacing traditional ORMs and custom data access layers. It enables a layered architecture which leads to better separation of concerns and improves maintainability of the entire backend.

The Prisma client is used inside your application server to perform read and write operations against your database through the Prisma API.

Prisma runs as standalone processes which allows for it to be scaled independently from your application server.

Database Connectors

Database connectors provide the link between Prisma and the underlying database.

You can connect the following databases to Prisma already:

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB (beta)

Upcoming Connectors

If you are interested to participate in the preview for one of the following connectors, please reach out in our Slack.

• Elastic Search
• MS SQL
• Oracle
• ArangoDB
• Neo4j
• Druid
• Dgraph
• DynamoDB
• Cloud Firestore
• CockroachDB
• Cassandra
• Redis
• AWS Neptune
• CosmosDB
• Influx

Join the discussion or contribute to influence which we'll work on next!

Community

Prisma has a community of thousands of amazing developers and contributors. Welcome, please join us! 👋

Channels

• Forum
• Slack
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Meetup
• GraphQL Conf
• Email

Resources

• Chinese translation of the Prisma docs (Thanks to Victor Kang)
• Awesome Prisma (Thanks to Catalin Miron)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome and extremely helpful 🙌 Please refer to the contribution guide for more information.

Releases are separated into three channels: alpha, beta and stable. You can learn more about these three channels and Prisma's release process here.