Use Prisma Postgres with Bun

Note — At the moment Prisma needs Node.js to be installed to run certain generation code. Make sure Node.js is installed in the environment where you’re running bunx prisma commands.

1. Create a new project

   First, create a directory and initialize it with bun init.

   terminal

   mkdir prisma-postgres-app
   cd prisma-postgres-app
   bun init
   
2. Install Prisma dependencies

   Then install the Prisma CLI (prisma), Prisma Client (@prisma/client), and the accelerate extension as dependencies.

   terminal

   bun add -d prisma
   bun add @prisma/client @prisma/extension-accelerate
   
3. Initialize Prisma with PostgreSQL

   We’ll use the Prisma CLI with bunx to initialize our schema and migration directory. We’ll be using PostgreSQL as our database.

   terminal

   bunx --bun prisma init --db
   

   This creates a basic schema. We need to update it to use the new Rust-free client with Bun optimization. Open prisma/schema.prisma and modify the generator block, then add a User model.

   prisma/schema.prisma

   generator client {
   	provider = "prisma-client"
   	output = "./generated"
   	engineType = "client"
   	runtime = "bun"
   }
   
   datasource db {
   	provider = "postgresql"
   	url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
   }
   
   model User { 
   	id    Int     @id @default(autoincrement()) 
   	email String  @unique
   	name  String?
   } 
   
4. Configure database connection

   Set up your Postgres database URL in the .env file.

   .env

   DATABASE_URL="postgresql://username:password@localhost:5432/mydb?schema=public"
   
5. Create and run database migration

   Then generate and run initial migration.

   This will generate a .sql migration file in prisma/migrations, and execute the migration against your Postgres database.

   terminal

   bunx --bun prisma migrate dev --name init
   

   Environment variables loaded from .env
   Prisma schema loaded from prisma/schema.prisma
   Datasource "db": PostgreSQL database "mydb", schema "public" at "localhost:5432"
   
   Applying migration `20250114141233_init`
   
   The following migration(s) have been created and applied from new schema changes:
   
   prisma/migrations/
     └─ 20250114141233_init/
       └─ migration.sql
   
   Your database is now in sync with your schema.
   
   ✔ Generated Prisma Client (6.17.1) to ./generated in 18ms
   
6. Generate Prisma Client

   As indicated in the output, Prisma re-generates our Prisma client whenever we execute a new migration. The client provides a fully typed API for reading and writing from our database. You can manually re-generate the client with the Prisma CLI.

   terminal

   bunx --bun prisma generate
   
7. Initialize Prisma Client with Accelerate

   Now we need to create a Prisma client instance. Create a new file prisma/db.ts to initialize the PrismaClient with the Postgres adapter.

   prisma/db.ts

   import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/client";
   import { withAccelerate } from '@prisma/extension-accelerate'
   
   export const prisma = new PrismaClient().$extends(withAccelerate())
   
8. Create a test script

   Let’s write a script to create a new user, then count the number of users in the database.

   index.ts

   import { prisma } from "./prisma/db";
   
   // create a new user
   await prisma.user.create({
     data: {
       name: "John Dough",
       email: `john-${Math.random()}@example.com`,
     },
   });
   
   // count the number of users
   const count = await prisma.user.count();
   console.log(`There are ${count} users in the database.`);
   
9. Run and test the application

   Let’s run this script with bun run. Each time we run it, a new user is created.

   terminal

   bun run index.ts
   

   There are 1 users in the database.
   

   terminal

   bun run index.ts
   

   There are 2 users in the database.
   

   terminal

   bun run index.ts
   

   There are 3 users in the database.
   

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That’s it! Now that you’ve set up Prisma Postgres using Bun, we recommend referring to the official Prisma Postgres docs as you continue to develop your application.