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title: "Prisma Config reference"
metaTitle: "Reference documentation for the prisma config file"
metaDescription: "This page gives an overview of all Prisma config options available for use."
sidebar_label: "Prisma Config"

Overview

The Prisma Config file configures the Prisma CLI, including subcommands like migrate and studio, using TypeScript.

You can define your config in either of two ways:

• Using the defineConfig helper:

  import path from "node:path";
  import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";
  
  export default defineConfig({
    schema: path.join("prisma", "schema.prisma"),
    migrations: {
      path: path.join("db", "migrations"),
    },
    views: {
      path: path.join("db", "views"),
    },
    typedSql: {
      path: path.join("db", "queries"),
    }
  });

• Using TypeScript's satisfies operator with the PrismaConfig type:

  import path from "node:path";
  import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";
  
  export default {
    schema: path.join("db", "schema.prisma"),
    migrations: {
      path: path.join("db", "migrations"),
    },
    views: {
      path: path.join("db", "views"),
    },
    typedSql: {
      path: path.join("db", "queries"),
    }
  } satisfies PrismaConfig;

Configuration interface

Here is a simplified version of the PrismaConfig type:

export declare type PrismaConfig = {
  // Whether features with an unstable API are enabled.
  experimental: {
    adapter: true,
    externalTables: true,
    studio: true,
  },

  // The path to the schema file, or path to a folder that shall be recursively searched for *.prisma files.
  schema?: string;

  // The Driver Adapter used for Prisma CLI.
  adapter?: () => Promise<SqlMigrationAwareDriverAdapterFactory>;

  // The configuration for Prisma Studio.
  studio?: {
    adapter: () => Promise<SqlMigrationAwareDriverAdapterFactory>;
  };

  // Configuration for Prisma migrations.
  migrations?: {
    path: string;
    seed: string;
    initShadowDb: string;
  };

  // Configuration for the database view entities.
  views?: {
    path: string;
  };

  // Configuration for the `typedSql` preview feature.
  typedSql?: {
    path: string;
  };
};

Supported file extensions

Prisma Config files can be named as prisma.config.* or .config/prisma.* with the extensions js, ts, mjs, cjs, mts, or cts. Other extensions are supported to ensure compatibility with different TypeScript compiler settings.

:::tip[Recommendation]

• Use prisma.config.ts for small TypeScript projects.
• Use .config/prisma.ts for larger TypeScript projects with multiple configuration files (following the .config directory proposal).

:::

Options reference

schema

Configures how Prisma ORM locates and loads your schema file(s). Can be a file or folder path. Relative paths are resolved relative to the prisma.config.ts file location. See here for more info about schema location options.

adapter

A function that returns a Prisma driver adapter instance which is used by the Prisma CLI to run migrations. The function should return a Promise that resolves to a valid Prisma driver adapter.

Example using the Prisma ORM D1 driver adapter:

import path from "node:path";
import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";
import { PrismaD1 } from "@prisma/adapter-d1";

// import your .env file
import "dotenv/config";

export default {
  experimental: {
    adapter: true
  },
  schema: path.join("prisma", "schema.prisma"),
  async adapter() {
    return new PrismaD1({
      CLOUDFLARE_D1_TOKEN: process.env.CLOUDFLARE_D1_TOKEN,
      CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID: process.env.CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID,
      CLOUDFLARE_DATABASE_ID: process.env.CLOUDFLARE_DATABASE_ID,
    });
  },
} satisfies PrismaConfig;

:::note

As of Prisma ORM v6.11.0, the D1 adapter has been renamed from PrismaD1HTTP to PrismaD1.

:::

studio

Configures how Prisma Studio connects to your database. See sub-options below for details.

studio.adapter

A function that returns a Prisma driver adapter instance. The function receives an env parameter containing environment variables and should return a Promise that resolves to a valid Prisma driver adapter.

Example using the Prisma ORM LibSQL driver adapter:

import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";

export default {
  experimental: {
    studio: true
  },
  studio: {
    adapter: async (env: Env) => {
      const { PrismaLibSQL } = await import("@prisma/adapter-libsql");
      const { createClient } = await import("@libsql/client");

      const libsql = createClient({
        url: env.DOTENV_PRISMA_STUDIO_LIBSQL_DATABASE_URL,
      });
      return new PrismaLibSQL(libsql);
    },
  },
} satisfies PrismaConfig;

tables.external and enums.external

These options declare tables and enums in your database that are managed externally (not by Prisma Migrate). You can still query them with Prisma Client, but they will be ignored by migrations.

Example:

import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  experimental: {
    externalTables: true,
  },
  tables: {
    external: ["public.users"],
  },
  enums: {
    external: ["public.role"],
  },
});

Learn more about the externalTables feature here.

migrations.path

The path to the directory where Prisma should store migration files, and look for them.

migrations.seed

This option allows you to define a script that Prisma runs to seed your database after running migrations or using the npx prisma db seed command. The string should be a command that can be executed in your terminal, such as with node, ts-node, or tsx.

Example:

import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  migrations: {
    seed: `tsx db/seed.ts`,
  },
});

migrations.initShadowDb

This option allows you to define SQL statements that Prisma runs on the shadow database before creating migrations. It is useful when working with external managed tables, as Prisma needs to know about the structure of these tables to correctly generate migrations.

Example:

import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  experimental: {
    externalTables: true,
  },
  tables: {
    external: ["public.users"],
  },
  migrations: {
    initShadowDb: `
      CREATE TABLE public.users (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY);
    `,
  },
});

Learn more about the externalTables feature here.

views.path

The path to the directory where Prisma should look for the SQL view definitions.

typedSql.path

The path to the directory where Prisma should look for the SQL files used for generating typings via typedSql.

experimental

Enables specific experimental features in the Prisma CLI.

Example:

import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  experimental: {
    adapter: true,
    externalTables: true,
    studio: true,
  },
  schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
});

:::note

If you use features like adapter, studio or externalTables without enabling the corresponding experimental flag, Prisma will throw an error:

Failed to load config file "~" as a TypeScript/JavaScript module. Error: Error: The `studio` configuration requires `experimental.studio` to be set to `true`.

:::

Common patterns

Setting up your project

To get started with Prisma Config, create a prisma.config.ts file in your project root. You can use either of these approaches:

Using defineConfig:

import { defineConfig } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({});

Using TypeScript types:

import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";

export default {} satisfies PrismaConfig;

Using environment variables

When using prisma.config.ts, environment variables from .env files are not automatically loaded. You'll need to:

1. Install the dotenv package:

npm install dotenv

2. Import dotenv/config in your config file:

import "dotenv/config";
import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";

export default {
  // now you can use process.env variables
} satisfies PrismaConfig;

Using multi-file schemas

If you want to split your Prisma schema into multiple files, you need to specify the path to your Prisma schema folder via the schema property:

import path from "node:path";
import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";

export default {
  schema: path.join("prisma", "schema"),
} satisfies PrismaConfig;

In that case, your migrations directory must be located next to the .prisma file that defines the datasource block.

For example, assuming schema.prisma defines the datasource, here's how how need to place the migrations folder:

# `migrations` and `schema.prisma` are on the same level
.
├── migrations
├── models
│   ├── posts.prisma
│   └── users.prisma
└── schema.prisma

Path resolution

Prisma CLI commands such as prisma validate or prisma migrate use prisma.config.ts (or .config/prisma.ts) to locate your Prisma schema and other resources.

Key rules:

• Paths defined in the config file (e.g., schema, migrations) are always resolved relative to the location of the config file, not where you run the CLI command from.
• The CLI must first find the config file itself, which depends on how Prisma is installed and the package manager used.

Behavior with pnpm prisma

When Prisma is installed locally and run via pnpm prisma, the config file is detected automatically whether you run the command from the project root or a subdirectory.

Example project tree:

.
├── node_modules
├── package.json
├── prisma-custom
│   └── schema.prisma
├── prisma.config.ts
└── src

Example run from the project root:

pnpm prisma validate
# → Loaded Prisma config from ./prisma.config.ts
# → Prisma schema loaded from prisma-custom/schema.prisma

Example run from a subdirectory:

cd src
pnpm prisma validate
# → Still finds prisma.config.ts and resolves schema correctly

Behavior with npm exec prisma or bun prisma

When running via npm exec prisma or bun prisma, the CLI only detects the config file if the command is run from the project root (where package.json declares Prisma).

Example run from the project root:

npm exec prisma validate
# → Works as expected

Run from a subdirectory (fails):

cd src
npm exec prisma validate
# → Error: Could not find Prisma Schema...

To fix this, you can use the --config flag:

npm exec prisma -- --config ../prisma.config.ts validate

Global Prisma installations

If Prisma is installed globally (npm i -g prisma), it may not find your prisma.config.ts or prisma/config module by default.
To avoid issues:

• Prefer local Prisma installations in your project.
• Or use @prisma/config locally and pass --config to point to your config file.

Monorepos

• If Prisma is installed in the workspace root, pnpm prisma will detect the config file from subdirectories.
• If Prisma is installed in a subpackage (e.g., ./packages/db), run commands from that package directory or deeper.

Custom config location

You can specify a custom location for your config file when running Prisma CLI commands:

prisma validate --config ./path/to/myconfig.ts