Generators

A Prisma schema can have one or more generators, represented by the generator block:

generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client"
  output   = "../generated/prisma"
}

A generator determines which assets are created when you run the prisma generate command.

The default generator for Prisma Client is prisma-client, which outputs plain TypeScript code and requires a custom output path (read more about it here).

Alternatively, you can configure any npm package that complies with our generator specification.

prisma-client

The new prisma-client generator offers greater control and flexibility when using Prisma ORM across different JavaScript environments (such as ESM, Bun, Deno, ...).

It generates Prisma Client into a custom directory in your application's codebase that's specified via the output field on the generator block. This gives you full visibility and control over the generated code. It also splits the generated Prisma Client library into multiple files.

This generator ensures you can bundle your application code exactly the way you want, without relying on hidden or automatic behaviors.

Here are the main differences compared to prisma-client-js:

• Requires an output path; no "magic" generation into node_modules any more
• Doesn't load .env at runtime; use dotenv or set environment variables manually instead
• Supports ESM and CommonJS via the moduleFormat field
• More flexible thanks to additional fields
• Outputs plain TypeScript that's bundled just like the rest of your application code

The prisma-client generator is the default generator.

Getting started

Follow these steps to use the new prisma-client generator in your project.

1. Configure the prisma-client generator in schema.prisma

Update your generator block:

generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client"            // Required // [!code ++]
  output   = "../src/generated/prisma"  // Required // [!code ++]
}

The output option is required and tells Prisma ORM where to put the generated Prisma Client code. You can choose any location suitable for your project structure. For instance, if you have the following layout:

.
├── package.json
├── prisma
│   └── schema.prisma
├── src
│   └── index.ts
└── tsconfig.json

Then ../src/generated/prisma places the generated code in src/generated/prisma relative to schema.prisma.

2. Generate Prisma Client

Generate Prisma Client by running:

npx prisma generate

This generates the code for Prisma Client (including the query engine binary) into the specified output folder.

3. Use Prisma Client in your application

Importing Prisma Client

After generating the Prisma Client, import it from the path you specified:

import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/prisma/client";
import { PrismaPg } from "@prisma/adapter-pg"; // or the adapter for your database
const adapter = new PrismaPg({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL });
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

Prisma Client is now ready to use in your project.

Importing generated model types

If you're importing types generated for your models, you can do so as follows:

import { UserModel, PostModel } from "./generated/prisma/models";

Importing generated enum types

If you're importing types generated for your enums, you can do so as follows:

import { Role, User } from "./generated/prisma/enums";

Importing in browser environments

If you need to access generated types in your frontend code, you can import them as follows:

import { Role } from "./generated/prisma/browser";

Note that ./generated/prisma/browser does not expose a PrismaClient.

Field reference

Use the following options in the generator client { ... } block. Only output is required. The other fields have defaults or are inferred from your environment and tsconfig.json.

generator client {
  // Required
  provider = "prisma-client"
  output   = "../src/generated/prisma"

  // Optional
  engineType             = "client"
  runtime                = "nodejs"
  moduleFormat           = "esm"
  generatedFileExtension = "ts"
  importFileExtension    = "ts"
}

Below are the options for the prisma-client generator:

:::note

nodejs, deno, and bun all map to the same internal codepath but are preserved as separate user-facing values for clarity.

:::

Importing types

The new prisma-client generator creates individual .ts files which allow for a more fine granular import of types. This can improve compile and typecheck performance and be useful for tree-shaking, too. You can still use the top level barrel files that export all types through a single import.

The overall structure of the generated output looks like this:

generated/
└── prisma
    ├── browser.ts
    ├── client.ts
    ├── commonInputTypes.ts
    ├── enums.ts
    ├── internal
    │   ├── ...
    ├── models
    │   ├── Post.ts
    │   └── User.ts
    └── models.ts

client.ts

For use in your server code.

• Provides access to the PrismaClient instance and all model and utility types.
• Provides best compatibility with the prisma-client-js generated output.
• Contains transitive dependencies on server only-packages, so cannot be used in browser contexts.

Example:

import { Prisma, type Post, PrismaClient } from "./generated/prisma/client";

browser.ts

For using types in your frontend (i.e. code that runs in the browser).

• Contains no transitive dependencies on Node.js or other server-only packages.
• Contains no real PrismaClient constructor.
• Contains all model and enum types and values.
• Provides access to various utilities like Prisma.JsonNull and Prisma.Decimal.

Example:

import { Prisma, type Post } from "./generated/prisma/browser";

enums.ts

Isolated access to user defined enum types and values.

• Contains no transitive dependencies and is very slim.
• Can be used on backend and frontend.
• Prefer this for optimal tree shaking and typecheck performance when accessing enums.

Example:

import { MyEnum } from "./generated/prisma/enums";

models.ts

Isolated access to all model types.

• Can be used on backend and frontend.
• Contains all models including their derived utility types like <ModelName>WhereInput or <ModelName>UpdateInput>.

:::note

Plain model types are exposed here as <ModelName>Model (e.g. PostModel). This is in contrast to the exposed name in client.ts and browser.ts which is simply <ModelName> (e.g. Post).

This is necessary due to internal constraints to avoid potential naming conflicts with internal types.

:::

Example:

import type {
  UserModel,
  PostModel,
  PostWhereInput,
  UserUpdateInput,
} from "./generated/prisma/models";

models/<ModelName>.ts

Isolated access to the types for an individual model.

• Can be used on backend and frontend.
• Contains the models including its derived utility types like <ModelName>WhereInput or <ModelName>UpdateInput>.

:::note

The plain model type is exposed here as <ModelName>Model (e.g. PostModel).

:::

Example:

import type { UserModel, UserWhereInput, UserUpdateInput } from "./generated/prisma/models/User";

commonInputTypes.ts

Provides shared utility types that you should rarely directly need.

Example:

import type { IntFilter } from "./generated/prisma/commonInputTypes";

internal/*

:::warning

Do not directly import from these files! They are not part of the stable API of the generated code and can change at any time in breaking ways.

Usually anything you might need from there is exposed via browser.ts or client.ts under the Prisma namespace.

:::

Breaking changes from prisma-client-js

• Requires an output path on the generator block
• No Prisma.validator function; you can use TypeScript native satisfies keyword instead

Examples

To see what the new prisma-client generator looks like in practice, check out our minimal and ready-to-run examples:

prisma-client-js (Deprecated)

:::warning[Deprecated]

The prisma-client-js generator is deprecated. We recommend using prisma-client for new projects and updating existing projects when possible.

:::

The prisma-client-js generator requires the @prisma/client npm package and generates Prisma Client into node_modules.

Field reference

The generator for Prisma's JavaScript Client accepts multiple additional properties:

• previewFeatures: Preview features to include
• binaryTargets: Engine binary targets for prisma-client-js (for example, debian-openssl-1.1.x if you are deploying to Ubuntu 18+, or native if you are working locally)

generator client {
  provider        = "prisma-client-js"
  previewFeatures = ["sample-preview-feature"]
  binaryTargets   = ["debian-openssl-1.1.x"] // defaults to `"native"`
}

Community generators

:::note

Existing generators or new ones should not be affected if you are using a multi-file Prisma schema, unless a generator reads the schema manually.

:::

The following is a list of community created generators.

• prisma-dbml-generator: Transforms the Prisma schema into Database Markup Language (DBML) which allows for an easy visual representation
• prisma-docs-generator: Generates an individual API reference for Prisma Client
• prisma-json-schema-generator: Transforms the Prisma schema in JSON schema
• prisma-json-types-generator: Enhances prisma-client-js (or prisma-client) to provide strongly typed JSON fields for all databases, based on your schema. It improves code generation, Intellisense, and more, without affecting runtime code.
• typegraphql-prisma: Generates TypeGraphQL CRUD resolvers for Prisma models
• typegraphql-prisma-nestjs: Fork of typegraphql-prisma, which also generates CRUD resolvers for Prisma models but for NestJS
• prisma-typegraphql-types-gen: Generates TypeGraphQL class types and enums from your prisma type definitions, the generated output can be edited without being overwritten by the next gen and has the ability to correct you when you mess up the types with your edits.
• nexus-prisma: Allows for projecting Prisma models to GraphQL via GraphQL Nexus
• prisma-nestjs-graphql: Generates object types, inputs, args, etc. from the Prisma Schema for usage with @nestjs/graphql module
• prisma-appsync: Generates a full-blown GraphQL API for AWS AppSync
• prisma-kysely: Generates type definitions for Kysely, a TypeScript SQL query builder. This can be useful to perform queries against your database from an edge runtime, or to write more complex SQL queries not possible in Prisma without dropping type safety.
• prisma-generator-nestjs-dto: Generates DTO and Entity classes with relation connect and create options for use with NestJS Resources and @nestjs/swagger
• prisma-erd-generator: Generates an entity relationship diagram
• prisma-generator-plantuml-erd: Generator to generate ER diagrams for PlantUML. Markdown and Asciidoc documents can also be generated by activating the option.
• prisma-class-generator: Generates classes from your Prisma Schema that can be used as DTO, Swagger Response, TypeGraphQL and so on.
• zod-prisma: Creates Zod schemas from your Prisma models.
• prisma-pothos-types: Makes it easier to define Prisma-based object types, and helps solve n+1 queries for relations. It also has integrations for the Relay plugin to make defining nodes and connections easy and efficient.
• prisma-generator-pothos-codegen: Auto generate input types (for use as args) and auto generate decoupled type-safe base files makes it easy to create customizable objects, queries and mutations for Pothos from Prisma schema. Optionally generate all crud at once from the base files.
• prisma-joi-generator: Generate full Joi schemas from your Prisma schema.
• prisma-yup-generator: Generate full Yup schemas from your Prisma schema.
• prisma-class-validator-generator: Emit TypeScript models from your Prisma schema with class validator validations ready.
• prisma-zod-generator: Emit Zod schemas from your Prisma schema.
• prisma-trpc-generator: Emit fully implemented tRPC routers.
• prisma-json-server-generator: Emit a JSON file that can be run with json-server.
• prisma-trpc-shield-generator: Emit a tRPC shield from your Prisma schema.
• prisma-custom-models-generator: Emit custom models from your Prisma schema, based on Prisma recommendations.
• nestjs-prisma-graphql-crud-gen: Generate CRUD resolvers from GraphQL schema with NestJS and Prisma.
• prisma-generator-dart: Generates Dart/Flutter class files with to- and fromJson methods.
• prisma-generator-graphql-typedef: Generates graphql schema.
• prisma-markdown: Generates markdown document composed with ERD diagrams and their descriptions. Supports pagination of ERD diagrams through @namespace comment tag.
• prisma-models-graph: Generates a bi-directional models graph for schema without strict relationship defined in the schema, works via a custom schema annotation.
• prisma-generator-fake-data: Generates realistic-looking fake data for your Prisma models that can be used in unit/integration tests, demos, and more.
• prisma-generator-drizzle: A Prisma generator for generating Drizzle schema with ease.
• prisma-generator-express: Generates Express CRUD and Router generator function.
• prismabox: Generates versatile typebox schema from your Prisma models.
• prisma-generator-typescript-interfaces: Generates zero-dependency TypeScript interfaces from your Prisma schema.
• prisma-openapi: Generates OpenAPI schema from Prisma models.