Use Prisma with Bun

Prisma’s dynamically loaded subcommands, such as prisma dev, require npm to be installed alongside Bun. The commands used in this guide (prisma init, prisma migrate, and prisma generate) are built into the CLI. Generated code works with Bun using the prisma-client generator.

Create a new project

Create a directory and initialize it with bun init.

terminal

mkdir prisma-app
cd prisma-app
bun init

Install Prisma dependencies

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

terminal

bun add -d prisma
bun add @prisma/client @prisma/adapter-libsql

Initialize Prisma with SQLite

Use the Prisma CLI with bunx to initialize the schema and migration directory. This guide uses a local SQLite database file; prisma init writes its connection string, DATABASE_URL="file:./dev.db", to .env.

terminal

bunx --bun prisma init --datasource-provider sqlite

This creates a basic schema. Open prisma/schema.prisma, update the generator block to use the Rust-free client with the bun runtime, and add a User model.

prisma/schema.prisma

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

  datasource db {
    provider = "sqlite"
  }

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

Create and run database migration

Generate and run the initial migration. This writes a .sql migration file to prisma/migrations, creates a new SQLite database, and runs the migration against it. Bun does not load .env automatically when it runs a CLI with --bun, and the prisma.config.ts generated by prisma init reads DATABASE_URL from the environment, so pass --env-file=.env explicitly.

terminal

 bun run --bun --env-file=.env prisma migrate dev --name init

Loaded Prisma config from prisma.config.ts.

Prisma schema loaded from prisma/schema.prisma.
Datasource "db": SQLite database "dev.db" at "file:./dev.db"

SQLite database dev.db created at file:./dev.db

Applying migration `20251014141233_init`

The following migration(s) have been created and applied from new schema changes:

prisma/migrations/
 └─ 20251014141233_init/
   └─ migration.sql

Your database is now in sync with your schema.

Generate Prisma Client

prisma migrate dev does not generate the Prisma client, so generate it with the Prisma CLI. The client provides a fully typed API for reading and writing to your database.

terminal

bun run --bun --env-file=.env prisma generate

Initialize Prisma Client with LibSQL

Create a new file prisma/db.ts that initializes the PrismaClient with the LibSQL adapter.

prisma/db.ts

import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/client";
import { PrismaLibSql } from "@prisma/adapter-libsql";

const adapter = new PrismaLibSql({ url: process.env.DATABASE_URL || "" });
export const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

Create a test script

Write a script that creates a new user, then counts the 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.`);

Run and test the application

Run the script with bun run. Each run creates a new user.

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.

Prisma is now set up with Bun. See the Prisma docs as you build out your application.

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Use Prisma with Bun