MongoDB

MongoDB is a popular NoSQL document database. In this guide, you will learn how to set up a new TypeScript project from scratch, connect it to MongoDB using Prisma ORM, and generate a Prisma Client for easy, type-safe access to your database.

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed in your system with the supported version
• A MongoDB database accessible via connection string

1. Create a new project

2. Install required dependencies

Install the packages needed for this quickstart:

npm install prisma@6.19 @types/node --save-dev

npm install @prisma/client@6.19 dotenv

Here's what each package does:

• prisma - The Prisma CLI for running commands like prisma init, prisma db push, and prisma generate
• @prisma/client - The Prisma Client library for querying your database
• dotenv - Loads environment variables from your .env file

3. Configure ESM support

Update tsconfig.json for ESM compatibility:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "ESNext",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "target": "ES2023",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "ignoreDeprecations": "6.0"
  }
}

Update package.json to enable ESM:

{
  "type": "module"
}

4. Initialize Prisma ORM

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

npx prisma

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

npx prisma init --datasource-provider mongodb --output ../generated/prisma

This command does a few things:

• Creates a prisma/ directory with a schema.prisma file for your database connection and schema models
• Creates a .env file in the root directory for environment variables
• Creates a prisma.config.ts file for Prisma configuration

The generated prisma.config.ts file looks like this:

import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
  migrations: {
    path: "prisma/migrations",
  },
  engine: "classic",
  datasource: {
    url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
  },
});

Add dotenv to prisma.config.ts so that Prisma can load environment variables from your .env file:

import "dotenv/config"; 
import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";

export default defineConfig({
  schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
  migrations: {
    path: "prisma/migrations",
  },
  engine: "classic",
  datasource: {
    url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
  },
});

The generated schema uses the ESM-first prisma-client generator with a custom output path:

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

datasource db {
  provider = "mongodb"
  url = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

Update your .env file with your MongoDB connection string:

DATABASE_URL="mongodb+srv://username:password@cluster.mongodb.net/mydb"

5. Define your data model

Open prisma/schema.prisma and add the following models:

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

datasource db {
  provider = "mongodb"
  url = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

model User { 
  id    String  @id @default(auto()) @map("_id") @db.ObjectId
  email String  @unique
  name  String?
  posts Post[]
} 

model Post { 
  id        String  @id @default(auto()) @map("_id") @db.ObjectId
  title     String
  content   String?
  published Boolean @default(false) 
  author    User    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id]) 
  authorId  String  @db.ObjectId
} 

6. Push your schema to MongoDB

MongoDB doesn't support migrations like relational databases. Instead, use db push to sync your schema:

npx prisma db push

This command:

• Creates the collections in MongoDB based on your schema
• Automatically generates Prisma Client

7. Instantiate Prisma Client

Now that you have all the dependencies installed, you can instantiate Prisma Client:

import "dotenv/config";
import { PrismaClient } from "../generated/prisma/client";

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

export { prisma };

8. Write your first query

Create a script.ts file to test your setup:

import { prisma } from "./lib/prisma";

async function main() {
  // Create a new user with a post
  const user = await prisma.user.create({
    data: {
      name: "Alice",
      email: "alice@prisma.io",
      posts: {
        create: {
          title: "Hello World",
          content: "This is my first post!",
          published: true,
        },
      },
    },
    include: {
      posts: true,
    },
  });
  console.log("Created user:", user);

  // Fetch all users with their posts
  const allUsers = await prisma.user.findMany({
    include: {
      posts: true,
    },
  });
  console.log("All users:", JSON.stringify(allUsers, null, 2));
}

main()
  .then(async () => {
    await prisma.$disconnect();
  })
  .catch(async (e) => {
    console.error(e);
    await prisma.$disconnect();
    process.exit(1);
  });

Run the script:

npx tsx script.ts

You should see the created user and all users printed to the console!

9. Explore your data

You can use MongoDB Atlas, the MongoDB shell, or MongoDB Compass to view and manage your data.

Prisma Studio does not currently support MongoDB. Support may be added in a future release. See Databases supported by Prisma Studio for more information.

Next steps

Troubleshooting

Error in connector: SCRAM failure: Authentication failed.

If you see the Error in connector: SCRAM failure: Authentication failed. error message, you can specify the source database for the authentication by adding ?authSource=admin to the end of the connection string.

Raw query failed. Error code 8000 (AtlasError): empty database name not allowed.

If you see the Raw query failed. Code: unknown. Message: Kind: Command failed: Error code 8000 (AtlasError): empty database name not allowed. error message, be sure to append the database name to the database URL. You can find more info in this GitHub issue.

More info

• MongoDB database connector
• MongoDB data modeling patterns
• MongoDB deployment considerations