Cloudflare D1

Introduction

This guide shows you how to use Prisma ORM with Cloudflare D1, a serverless SQL database that runs on Cloudflare's edge network. You'll learn how to set up Prisma ORM with D1, handle migrations, and deploy your application to Cloudflare Workers. You can find a deployment-ready example on GitHub.

Prerequisites

Before starting this guide, make sure you have:

• A Cloudflare account
• Node.js installed (version 20 or higher)
• Wrangler CLI installed (version 3.39.0 or higher)
• Basic familiarity with Cloudflare Workers and D1

1. Create a new Cloudflare Worker and initialize Prisma ORM

Run the following command to create a new Cloudflare Worker project:

npm create cloudflare@latest d1-tutorial -- --type=hello-world --ts=true --git=true --deploy=false

Then navigate into the newly created directory:

cd d1-tutorial

And initialize Prisma ORM in the project:

npx prisma init --datasource-provider sqlite

And install the Prisma ORM CLI as a development dependency:

npm install --save-dev prisma

2. Configure Prisma schema

In your Prisma schema, set the provider of the datasource to sqlite. If you just bootstrapped the Prisma schema with prisma init, also be sure to add the runtime = "cloudflare" to the generator block and the following User model:

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

datasource db {
  provider = "sqlite"
}

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

3. Install dependencies

Next, install the required packages:

npm install @prisma/client @prisma/adapter-d1 dotenv

Also, be sure to use a version of the Wrangler CLI that's above wrangler@^3.39.0, otherwise the --remote flag that's used in the next sections won't be available.

4. Create a D1 database

Run the following command to create a new D1 database:

npx wrangler@latest d1 create __YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__

This command will authenticate you with Cloudflare and ask you to select a Cloudflare account. After that, it will create a new D1 database and output the database ID and name:

✅ Successfully created DB '__YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__' in region __REGION__
Created your new D1 database.

{
  "d1_databases": [
    {
      "binding": "DB",
      "database_name": "__YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__",
      "database_id": "<unique-ID-for-your-database>"
    }
  ]
}

Copy the terminal output and add the content to your wrangler.jsonc file. This file is used to configure your Cloudflare Worker and its bindings.

To connect your Workers with the D1 instance, add the following binding to your wrangler.jsonc:

{
  "$schema": "node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json",
  "name": "d1-tutorial",
  "main": "src/index.ts",
  "compatibility_date": "2025-08-05",
  "d1_databases": [
    {
      "binding": "DB",
      "database_name": "__YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__", // to be replaced
      "database_id": "__YOUR_D1_DATABASE_ID__" // to be replaced
    }
  ]
}

5. Set up database migrations

For Cloudflare D1, you'll use Prisma's migration workflow combined with Wrangler CLI to manage your database schema. Since D1 is a serverless SQLite database, we'll use prisma migrate diff to generate migration SQL and then apply it using Wrangler.

5.1 Set up environment variables

Add a .env file in the root of your project with your local database URL:

DATABASE_URL="file:./prisma/db.sqlite"

Also create a prisma.config.ts file in the root of your project:

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"),
  },
});

5.2 Generate migration SQL

First, create a migrations directory inside the prisma folder and create a file named 0001_init.sql:

mkdir -p prisma/migrations

Now use prisma migrate diff to generate the SQL needed to create your database schema:

npx prisma migrate diff \
  --from-empty \
  --to-schema prisma/schema.prisma \
  --script > prisma/migrations/0001_init.sql

This command generates a SQL file that contains the statements needed to create your database tables. You can inspect the generated SQL in prisma/migrations/0001_init.sql.

5.3 Apply migrations to D1

Now apply the migration to both your local and remote D1 databases using Wrangler:

# Apply to local database
npx wrangler d1 execute __YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__ --local --title="./prisma/migrations/0001_init.sql"

# Apply to remote database
npx wrangler d1 execute __YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__ --remote --title="./prisma/migrations/0001_init.sql"

5.4 Add sample data

Let's create some dummy data that we can query once the Worker is running:

# For the local database
npx wrangler d1 execute __YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__ --command "INSERT INTO \"User\" (\"email\", \"name\") VALUES ('jane@prisma.io', 'Jane Doe (Local)');" --local

# For the remote database
npx wrangler d1 execute __YOUR_D1_DATABASE_NAME__ --command "INSERT INTO \"User\" (\"email\", \"name\") VALUES ('jane@prisma.io', 'Jane Doe (Remote)');" --remote

npx prisma migrate diff \
  --from-local-d1 \
  --to-schema prisma/schema.prisma \
  --script > migrations/0002_add_new_field.sql

6. Implement the Worker

Before adding a Prisma Client query to your Worker, you need to generate Prisma Client with the following command:

npx prisma generate

In order to query your database from the Worker using Prisma ORM, you need to:

1. Add the DB binding to the Env interface. This DB name matches the binding name you configured in wrangler.jsonc. (Alternatively, you can run npx wrangler types to generate the Env type from the binding in a separate file called worker-configuration.d.ts.)
2. Instantiate PrismaClient using the PrismaD1 driver adapter, passing env.DB which accesses your D1 database binding.
3. Send a query using Prisma Client and return the result.

Open src/index.ts and replace the entire content with the following:

import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/prisma/client";
import { PrismaD1 } from "@prisma/adapter-d1";

export interface Env {
  DB: D1Database;
}

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env, ctx: ExecutionContext): Promise<Response> {
    const adapter = new PrismaD1(env.DB);
    const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

    const users = await prisma.user.findMany();
    const result = JSON.stringify(users);
    ctx.waitUntil(prisma.$disconnect()); // or just await prisma.$disconnect()
    return new Response(result);
  },
};

We explicitly call prisma.$disconnect() here to guarantee timely release of resources or else the worker might run out of memory.

7. Run the Worker locally

With the database query in place and Prisma Client generated, you can run the Worker locally.

If your Worker needs any environment variables, create a .dev.vars file in the root of your project. For this example, we don't need any additional environment variables since the D1 binding is already configured in wrangler.jsonc.

Now run the Worker locally:

npm run dev

Now you can open your browser at http://localhost:8787 to see the result of the database query:

[{ id: 1, email: "jane@prisma.io", name: "Jane Doe (Local)" }];

8. Deploy the Worker

To deploy the Worker, run the following command:

npm run deploy

Your deployed Worker is accessible via https://d1-tutorial.USERNAME.workers.dev (replace USERNAME with your Cloudflare account username). If you navigate your browser to that URL, you should see the following data that's queried from your remote D1 database:

[{ id: 1, email: "jane@prisma.io", name: "Jane Doe (Remote)" }];

Next steps

Now that you've set up Prisma ORM with Cloudflare D1, you can:

• Add more complex queries using Prisma's powerful query API
• Set up Prisma Studio for database management
• Implement database monitoring
• Add automated tests

For more information:

• Prisma ORM documentation
• Prisma Client API reference
• Cloudflare D1 documentation