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How to use Prisma ORM with Turborepo

15 min

Prisma is a powerful ORM for managing databases, and Turborepo simplifies monorepo workflows. By combining these tools, you can create a scalable, modular architecture for your projects.

This guide will show you how to set up Prisma as a standalone package in a Turborepo monorepo, enabling efficient configuration, type sharing, and database management across multiple apps.

What you'll learn:​

  • How to set up Prisma in a Turborepo monorepo.
  • Steps to generate and reuse PrismaClient across packages.
  • Integrating the Prisma package into other applications in the monorepo.

1. Create your monorepo using turborepo​

To set up a Turborepo monorepo named turborepo-prisma, run the following command:

npx create-turbo@latest turborepo-prisma

After the setup, choose a package manager for the project. Navigate to the project root directory and install Turborepo as a development dependency:

cd ./turborepo-prisma
npm install turbo --save-dev

For more information about installing Turborepo, refer to the official Turborepo guide.

2. Add a new database package to the turborepo-prisma monorepo​

Create a database package within the packages directory. Then, create a package.json file for the package by running:

cd packages/
mkdir database
cd database
touch package.json

Define the package.json file as follows:

packages/database/package.json
{
  "name": "@repo/db",
  "version": "0.0.0"
}

Next, install the required dependencies to use Prisma ORM. Use your preferred package manager:

npm install prisma --save-dev

3. Initialize prisma by running prisma init​

Inside the database directory, initialize prisma by running:

npx prisma init --db --output ../generated/prisma

This should create several files inside packages/database:

  • prisma/schema.prisma is where your Prisma schema lives. Here, you'll be able to modify the shape of your database. The prisma init command by default will create a configuration for PostgreSQL to be used. You can modify the schema to use any other supported database by Prisma ORM.
  • .gitignore adds some ignored files to git
  • .env lets you manually specify your DATABASE_URL for prisma.

Add a model to your Prisma schema in packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma:

packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma
datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

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

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

It is recommended to add ../generated/prisma to the .gitignore file because it contains platform-specific binaries that can cause compatibility issues across different environments.

The importance of generating Prisma types in a custom directory​

In the schema.prisma file, we specify a custom output path where Prisma will generate its types. This ensures Prisma's types are resolved correctly across different package managers.

In this guide, the types will be generated in the database/generated/prisma directory.

4. Create scripts to execute Prisma CLI commands​

Let's add some scripts to the package.json inside packages/database:

packages/database/package.json
{
  "name": "@repo/db",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "db:generate": "prisma generate",
    "db:migrate": "prisma migrate dev --skip-generate",
    "db:deploy": "prisma migrate deploy"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "prisma": "^6.6.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@prisma/client": "^6.6.0"
  }
}

Let's also add these scripts to turbo.json in the root:

turbo.json
{
"$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
"ui": "tui",
"tasks": {
  "build": {
    "dependsOn": ["^build"],
    "inputs": ["$TURBO_DEFAULT$", ".env*"],
    "outputs": [".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"]
  },
  "lint": {
    "dependsOn": ["^lint"]
  },
  "check-types": {
    "dependsOn": ["^check-types"]
  },
  "dev": {
    "cache": false,
    "persistent": true
  },
  "db:generate": {
    "cache": false
  },
  "db:migrate": {
    "cache": false,
    "persistent": true // This is necessary to interact with the CLI and assign names to your database migrations.
  },
  "db:deploy": {
    "cache": false
  }
}

1. Migrate your prisma.schema and generate types​

Navigate to the project root and run the following command to automatically migrate our database:

npx turbo db:migrate

2. Generate your prisma.schema​

To generate the types from Prisma schema, from the project root run:

npx turbo db:generate

5. Export prisma types and an instance of PrismaClient to be used across the monorepo​

Next, export the generated types and an instance of PrismaClient so it can used in your applications.

In the packages/database directory, create a src folder and add a client.ts file. This file will define an instance of PrismaClient:

packages/database/src/client.ts
import { PrismaClient } from "../generated/prisma";

const globalForPrisma = global as unknown as { prisma: PrismaClient };

export const prisma =
  globalForPrisma.prisma || new PrismaClient();

if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production") globalForPrisma.prisma = prisma;

Then create an index.ts file in the src folder to re-export the generated prisma types and the PrismaClient instance:

packages/database/src/index.ts
export { prisma } from './client' // exports instance of prisma 
export * from "../generated/prisma" // exports generated types from prisma

Follow the Just-in-Time packaging pattern and create an entrypoint to the package inside packages/database/package.json:

packages/database/package.json
{
  "name": "@repo/db",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "db:generate": "npx prisma generate",
    "db:migrate": "npx prisma migrate dev --skip-generate",
    "db:deploy": "npx prisma migrate deploy"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "prisma": "^6.6.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@prisma/client": "^6.6.0"
  }
  "exports": {
    ".": "./src/index.ts"
  },
}

By completing these steps, you'll make the Prisma types and PrismaClient instance accessible throughout the monorepo.

6. Importing the database package into the web app in the monorepo​

The turborepo-prisma project should have an app called web at apps/web. Add the database dependency to apps/web/package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@repo/db": "*"
  }
}

Run your package manager's install command inside the apps/web directory:

cd apps/web
npm install

Let's import the intantiated prisma client from the database package in the web app.

In the apps/web/app directory, open the page.tsx file and add the following code:

apps/web/app/page.tsx
import styles from "./page.module.css";
import { prisma } from "@repo/db";

export default async function Home() {
  const user = await prisma.user.findFirst() 
  return (
    <div className={styles.page}>
      {user?.name ?? "No user added yet"}
    </div>
  );
}

Then, create a .env file in the web directory and copy into it the contents of the .env file from the /database directory containing the DATABASE_URL:

apps/web/.env
DATABASE_URL="Same database url as used in the database directory"
note

If you want to use a single .env file in the root directory across your apps and packages in a Turborepo setup, consider using a package like dotenvx.

To implement this, update the package.json files for each package or app to ensure they load the required environment variables from the shared .env file. For detailed instructions, refer to the dotenvx guide for Turborepo.

Keep in mind that Turborepo recommends using separate .env files for each package to promote modularity and avoid potential conflicts.

7. Setup dependent tasks​

The db:generate and db:deploy scripts are not yet optimized for the monorepo setup but are essential for the dev and build tasks.

If a new developer runs turbo dev on an application without first running db:generate, they will encounter errors.

To prevent this, ensure that db:generate is always executed before running dev or build. Additionally, make sure both db:deploy and db:generate are executed before db:build. Here's how to configure this in your turbo.json file:

turbo.json
{
  "$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
  "ui": "tui",
  "tasks": {
    "build": {
      "dependsOn": ["^build", "^db:generate"],
      "inputs": ["$TURBO_DEFAULT$", ".env*"],
      "outputs": [".next/**", "!.next/cache/**"]
    },
    "lint": {
      "dependsOn": ["^lint"]
    },
    "check-types": {
      "dependsOn": ["^check-types"]
    },
    "dev": {
      "dependsOn": ["^db:generate"],
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "db:generate": {
      "cache": false
    },
    "db:migrate": {
      "cache": false,
      "persistent": true
    },
    "db:deploy": {
      "cache": false
    }
  }
}

8. Run the project in development​

warning

Before starting the development server, note that if you are using Next.js v15.2.0, do not use Turbopack as there is a known issue. Remove Turbopack from your dev script by updating your apps/web/package.json

apps/web/package.json
"script":{
    "dev": "next dev --turbopack --port 3000",
    "dev": "next dev --port 3000",
}

Then from the project root run the project:

npx turbo run dev --filter=web

Navigate to the http://localhost:3000 and you should see the message:

No user added yet
note

You can add users to your database by creating a seed script or manually by using Prisma Studio.

To use Prisma Studio to add manually data via a GUI, navigate inside the packages/database directory and run prisma studio using your package manager:

npx prisma studio

This command starts a server with a GUI at http://localhost:5555, allowing you to view and modify your data.

Congratulations, you're done setting up Prisma for Turborepo!

Next Steps​

  • Expand your Prisma models to handle more complex data relationships.
  • Implement additional CRUD operations to enhance your application's functionality.
  • Check out Prisma Postgres to see how you can scale your application.

More Info​


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