PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a serverless database platform. This guide covers PlanetScale MySQL. In this guide, you will learn how to set up a new TypeScript project from scratch, connect it to PlanetScale MySQL using Prisma ORM, and generate a Prisma Client for easy, type-safe access to your database.

:::note

PlanetScale also offers PostgreSQL databases. If you're using PlanetScale PostgreSQL, follow the PostgreSQL quickstart guide instead.

:::

Prerequisites

You also need:

• A PlanetScale database
• Database connection string from PlanetScale

1. Create a new project

2. Install required dependencies

Install the packages needed for this quickstart:

npm install prisma @types/node --save-dev

npm install @prisma/client @prisma/adapter-planetscale undici dotenv

Here's what each package does:

• prisma - The Prisma CLI for running commands like prisma init, prisma migrate, and prisma generate
• @prisma/client - The Prisma Client library for querying your database
• @prisma/adapter-planetscale - The PlanetScale driver adapter that connects Prisma Client to your database
• undici - A fast HTTP/1.1 client required by the PlanetScale adapter
• dotenv - Loads environment variables from your .env file

3. Configure ESM support

Update tsconfig.json for ESM compatibility:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "ESNext",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "target": "ES2023",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "ignoreDeprecations": "6.0"
  }
}

Update package.json to enable ESM:

{
  "type": "module" // [!code ++]
}

4. Initialize Prisma ORM

You can now invoke the Prisma CLI by prefixing it with npx:

npx prisma

Next, set up your Prisma ORM project by creating your Prisma Schema file with the following command:

npx prisma init --datasource-provider mysql --output ../generated/prisma

This command does a few things:

• Creates a prisma/ directory with a schema.prisma file containing your database connection and schema models
• Creates a .env file in the root directory for environment variables
• Creates a prisma.config.ts file for Prisma configuration

The generated prisma.config.ts file looks like this:

import "dotenv/config";
import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
  migrations: {
    path: "prisma/migrations",
  },
  datasource: {
    url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
  },
});

The generated schema uses the ESM-first prisma-client generator with a custom output path:

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

datasource db {
  provider = "mysql"
}

Update your schema to include relationMode = "prisma" for PlanetScale:

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

datasource db {
  provider     = "mysql"
  relationMode = "prisma"
}

Update your .env file with your PlanetScale connection string:

DATABASE_URL="mysql://username:[email protected]/mydb?sslaccept=strict"

Replace with your actual PlanetScale connection string from your database dashboard.

5. Define your data model

Open prisma/schema.prisma and add the following models:

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

datasource db {
  provider     = "mysql"
  relationMode = "prisma"
}

model User { // [!code ++]
  id    Int     @id @default(autoincrement()) // [!code ++]
  email String  @unique // [!code ++]
  name  String? // [!code ++]
  posts Post[] // [!code ++]
} // [!code ++]

model Post { // [!code ++]
  id        Int     @id @default(autoincrement()) // [!code ++]
  title     String // [!code ++]
  content   String? @db.Text // [!code ++]
  published Boolean @default(false) // [!code ++]
  author    User    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id]) // [!code ++]
  authorId  Int // [!code ++]

  @@index([authorId]) // [!code ++]
} // [!code ++]

:::note

Note the @@index([authorId]) on the Post model. PlanetScale requires indexes on foreign keys when using relationMode = "prisma".

:::

6. Push your schema to PlanetScale

PlanetScale uses a branching workflow instead of traditional migrations. Push your schema directly:

npx prisma db push

This command creates the database tables based on your schema.

Now run the following command to generate the Prisma Client:

npx prisma generate

7. Instantiate Prisma Client

Now that you have all the dependencies installed, you can instantiate Prisma Client. You need to pass an instance of Prisma ORM's driver adapter to the PrismaClient constructor:

import "dotenv/config";
import { PrismaPlanetScale } from "@prisma/adapter-planetscale";
import { PrismaClient } from "../generated/prisma/client";
import { fetch as undiciFetch } from "undici";

const adapter = new PrismaPlanetScale({ url: process.env.DATABASE_URL, fetch: undiciFetch });
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

export { prisma };

8. Write your first query

Create a script.ts file to test your setup:

import { prisma } from "./lib/prisma";

async function main() {
  // Create a new user with a post
  const user = await prisma.user.create({
    data: {
      name: "Alice",
      email: "[email protected]",
      posts: {
        create: {
          title: "Hello World",
          content: "This is my first post!",
          published: true,
        },
      },
    },
    include: {
      posts: true,
    },
  });
  console.log("Created user:", user);

  // Fetch all users with their posts
  const allUsers = await prisma.user.findMany({
    include: {
      posts: true,
    },
  });
  console.log("All users:", JSON.stringify(allUsers, null, 2));
}

main()
  .then(async () => {
    await prisma.$disconnect();
  })
  .catch(async (e) => {
    console.error(e);
    await prisma.$disconnect();
    process.exit(1);
  });

Run the script:

npx tsx script.ts

You should see the created user and all users printed to the console!

9. Explore your data with Prisma Studio

Prisma Studio is a visual editor for your database. Launch it with:

npx prisma studio

This opens a web interface where you can view and edit your data.

:::info[Supported databases]

Prisma Studio currently supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite. For more details, see Databases supported by Prisma Studio.

:::

Next steps

More info

• PlanetScale database connector
• Prisma Config reference
• Database connection management