Relational databases

JavaScript

SQL Server

Learn how to add Prisma ORM to an existing Node.js or TypeScript project by connecting it to your database and generating a Prisma Client for database access. The following tutorial introduces you to the Prisma CLI, Prisma Client, and Prisma Introspection.

tip

If you're migrating to Prisma ORM from another ORM, see our Migrate from TypeORM or Migrate from Sequelize migration guides.

Prerequisites

In order to successfully complete this guide, you need:

• Node.js installed on your machine
• A Microsoft SQL Server database
  • Microsoft SQL Server on Linux for Docker
  • Microsoft SQL Server on Windows (local)

See System requirements for exact version requirements.

Make sure you have your database connection URL (that includes your authentication credentials) at hand! If you don't have a database server running and just want to explore Prisma ORM, check out the Quickstart.

Set up Prisma ORM

As a first step, navigate into your project directory that contains the package.json file.

Next, add the Prisma CLI as a development dependency to your project:

npm install prisma --save-dev

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

npx prisma

info

See installation instructions to learn how to install Prisma ORM using a different package manager.

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

npx prisma init

This command does two things:

• creates a new directory called prisma that contains a file called schema.prisma, which contains the Prisma schema with your database connection variable and schema models
• creates the .env file in the root directory of the project, which is used for defining environment variables (such as your database connection)