Deploy to Cloudflare Workers & Pages
Learn the things you need to know in order to deploy an app that uses Prisma Client for talking to a database to a Cloudflare Worker or to Cloudflare Pages
Quick summary
This page covers everything you need to know to deploy an app with Prisma ORM to a Cloudflare Worker or to Cloudflare Pages.
Questions answered in this page
- How to deploy Prisma to Cloudflare Workers?
- Which drivers work on Workers/Pages?
- How to configure DATABASE_URL and envs?
General considerations when deploying to Cloudflare Workers
This section covers general things you need to be aware of when deploying to Cloudflare Workers or Pages and are using Prisma ORM, regardless of the database provider you use.
Using Prisma Postgres
You can use Prisma Postgres and deploy to Cloudflare Workers.
After you create a Worker, run:
npx prisma@latest init --dbEnter a name for your project and choose a database region.
This command:
- Connects your CLI to your Prisma Data Platform account. If you're not logged in or don't have an account, your browser will open to guide you through creating a new account or signing into your existing one.
- Creates a
prismadirectory containing aschema.prismafile for your database models. - Creates a
.envfile with yourDATABASE_URL(e.g., for Prisma Postgres it should have something similar toDATABASE_URL="prisma+postgres://accelerate.prisma-data.net/?api_key=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI...").
You'll need to install the Client extension required to use Prisma Postgres:
npm i @prisma/extension-accelerateAnd extend PrismaClient with the extension in your application code:
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/client";
import { withAccelerate } from "@prisma/extension-accelerate";
export interface Env {
DATABASE_URL: string;
}
export default {
async fetch(request, env, ctx) {
const prisma = new PrismaClient({
datasourceUrl: env.DATABASE_URL,
}).$extends(withAccelerate());
const users = await prisma.user.findMany();
const result = JSON.stringify(users);
ctx.waitUntil(prisma.$disconnect());
return new Response(result);
},
} satisfies ExportedHandler<Env>;Call ctx.waitUntil(prisma.$disconnect()) before returning so the Worker releases the database connection when the response is done. Otherwise the Worker may not disconnect in time and can run out of memory.
Then setup helper scripts to perform migrations and generate PrismaClient as shown in this section.
You need to have the dotenv-cli package installed as Cloudflare Workers does not support .env files. You can do this by running the following command to install the package locally in your project: npm install -D dotenv-cli.
Using an edge-compatible driver
When deploying a Cloudflare Worker that uses Prisma ORM, you need to use an edge-compatible driver and its respective driver adapter for Prisma ORM.
The edge-compatible drivers for Cloudflare Workers and Pages are:
- Neon Serverless uses HTTP to access the database
- PlanetScale Serverless uses HTTP to access the database
node-postgres(pg) uses Cloudflare'sconnect()(TCP) to access the database@libsql/clientis used to access Turso databases via HTTP- Cloudflare D1 is used to access D1 databases
There's also work being done on the node-mysql2 driver which will enable access to traditional MySQL databases from Cloudflare Workers and Pages in the future as well.
If your application uses PostgreSQL, we recommend using Prisma Postgres. It is fully supported on edge runtimes and does not require a specialized edge-compatible driver. For other databases, Prisma Accelerate extends edge compatibility so you can connect to any database from any edge function provider.
Setting your database connection URL as an environment variable
First, ensure that your datasource block in your Prisma schema is configured correctly. Database connection URLs are configured in prisma.config.ts:
datasource db {
provider = "postgresql" // this might also be `mysql` or another value depending on your database
}import "dotenv/config";
import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";
export default defineConfig({
schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
datasource: {
url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
},
});Development
When using your Worker in development, you can configure your database connection via the .dev.vars file locally.
Assuming you use the DATABASE_URL environment variable from above, you can set it inside .dev.vars as follows:
DATABASE_URL="your-database-connection-string"In the above snippet, your-database-connection-string is a placeholder that you need to replace with the value of your own connection string, for example:
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://admin:mypassword42@somehost.aws.com:5432/mydb"Note that the .dev.vars file is not compatible with .env files which are typically used by Prisma ORM.
This means that you need to make sure that Prisma ORM gets access to the environment variable when needed, e.g. when running a Prisma CLI command like prisma migrate dev.
There are several options for achieving this:
- Run your Prisma CLI commands using
dotenvto specify from where the CLI should read the environment variable, for example:dotenv -e .dev.vars -- npx prisma migrate dev - Create a script in
package.jsonthat reads.dev.varsviadotenv. You can then executeprismacommands as follows:npm run env -- npx prisma migrate dev. Here's a reference for the script:package.json "scripts": { "env": "dotenv -e .dev.vars" } - Duplicate the
DATABASE_URLand any other relevant env vars into a new file called.envwhich can then be used by Prisma ORM.
If you're using an approach that requires dotenv, you need to have the dotenv-cli package installed. You can do this e.g. by using this command to install the package locally in your project: npm install -D dotenv-cli.
Production
When deploying your Worker to production, you'll need to set the database connection using the wrangler CLI:
npx wrangler secret put DATABASE_URLThe command is interactive and will ask you to enter the value for the DATABASE_URL env var as the next step in the terminal.
This command requires you to be authenticated, and will ask you to log in to your Cloudflare account in case you are not.
Size limits on free accounts
Cloudflare has a size limit of 3 MB for Workers on the free plan. If your application bundle with Prisma ORM exceeds that size, we recommend upgrading to a paid Worker plan or using Prisma Accelerate to deploy your application.
Deploying a Next.js app to Cloudflare Pages with @cloudflare/next-on-pages
Cloudflare offers an option to run Next.js apps on Cloudflare Pages with @cloudflare/next-on-pages, see the docs for instructions.
Based on some testing, we found the following:
- You can deploy using the PlanetScale or Neon Serverless Driver.
- Traditional PostgreSQL deployments using
pgdon't work becausepgitself currently does not work with@cloudflare/next-on-pages(see here).
Feel free to reach out to us on Discord if you find that anything has changed about this.
Database-specific considerations & examples
This section provides database-specific instructions for deploying a Cloudflare Worker with Prisma ORM.
Prerequisites
As a prerequisite for the following section, you need to have a Cloudflare Worker running locally and the Prisma CLI installed.
If you don't have that yet, you can run these commands:
npm create cloudflare@latest prisma-cloudflare-worker-example -- --type hello-world
cd prisma-cloudflare-worker-example
npm install prisma --save-dev && npm install @prisma/client
npx prisma init --output ../generated/prismaYou'll further need a database instance of your database provider of choice available. Refer to the respective documentation of the provider for setting up that instance.
We'll use the default User model for the example below:
model User {
id Int @id @default(autoincrement())
email String @unique
name String?
}PostgreSQL (traditional)
If you are using a traditional PostgreSQL database that's accessed via TCP and the pg driver, you need to:
- use the
@prisma/adapter-pgdatabase adapter (learn more here) - set
node_compat = trueinwrangler.toml(see the Cloudflare docs)
1. Configure Prisma schema & database connection
If you don't have a project to deploy, follow the instructions in the Prerequisites to bootstrap a basic Cloudflare Worker with Prisma ORM in it.
First, ensure that the database connection is configured properly. Database connection URLs are configured in prisma.config.ts:
generator client {
provider = "prisma-client"
output = "./generated"
}
datasource db {
provider = "postgresql"
}import "dotenv/config";
import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";
export default defineConfig({
schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
datasource: {
url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
},
});Next, you need to set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to the value of your database connection string. You'll do this in a file called .dev.vars used by Cloudflare:
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://admin:mypassword42@somehost.aws.com:5432/mydb"Because the Prisma CLI by default is only compatible with .env files, you can adjust your package.json with the following script that loads the env vars from .dev.vars. You can then use this script to load the env vars before executing a prisma command.
Add this script to your package.json:
{
// ...
"scripts": {
// ....
"env": "dotenv -e .dev.vars"
},
// ...
}Now you can execute Prisma CLI commands as follows while ensuring that the command has access to the env vars in .dev.vars:
npm run env -- npx prisma2. Install dependencies
Next, install the required packages:
npm install @prisma/adapter-pg3. Set node_compat = true in wrangler.toml
In your wrangler.toml file, add the following line:
node_compat = trueFor Cloudflare Pages, using node_compat is not officially supported. If you want to use pg in Cloudflare Pages, you can find a workaround here.
4. Migrate your database schema (if applicable)
If you ran npx prisma init above, you need to migrate your database schema to create the User table that's defined in your Prisma schema (if you already have all the tables you need in your database, you can skip this step):
npm run env -- npx prisma migrate dev --name init5. Use Prisma Client in your Worker to send a query to the database
Here is a sample code snippet that you can use to instantiate PrismaClient and send a query to your database:
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/client";
import { PrismaPg } from "@prisma/adapter-pg";
export default {
async fetch(request, env, ctx) {
const adapter = new PrismaPg({ connectionString: env.DATABASE_URL });
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });
const users = await prisma.user.findMany();
const result = JSON.stringify(users);
ctx.waitUntil(prisma.$disconnect());
return new Response(result);
},
};6. Run the Worker locally
To run the Worker locally, you can run the wrangler dev command:
npx wrangler dev7. Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable and deploy the Worker
To deploy the Worker, you first need to the DATABASE_URL environment variable via the wrangler CLI:
npx wrangler secret put DATABASE_URLThe command is interactive and will ask you to enter the value for the DATABASE_URL env var as the next step in the terminal.
This command requires you to be authenticated, and will ask you to log in to your Cloudflare account in case you are not.
Then you can go ahead then deploy the Worker:
npx wrangler deployThe command will output the URL where you can access the deployed Worker.
PlanetScale
If you are using a PlanetScale database, you need to:
-
use the
@prisma/adapter-planetscaledatabase adapter (learn more here) -
manually remove the conflicting
cachefield:export default { async fetch(request, env, ctx) { const adapter = new PrismaPlanetScale({ url: env.DATABASE_URL, // see https://github.com/cloudflare/workerd/issues/698 fetch(url, init) { delete init["cache"]; return fetch(url, init); }, }); const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter }); // ... }, };
1. Configure Prisma schema & database connection
If you don't have a project to deploy, follow the instructions in the Prerequisites to bootstrap a basic Cloudflare Worker with Prisma ORM in it.
First, ensure that the database connection is configured properly. Database connection URLs are configured in prisma.config.ts:
generator client {
provider = "prisma-client"
output = "./generated"
}
datasource db {
provider = "mysql"
relationMode = "prisma" // required for PlanetScale (as by default foreign keys are disabled)
}import "dotenv/config";
import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";
export default defineConfig({
schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
datasource: {
url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
},
});Next, you need to set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to the value of your database connection string. You'll do this in a file called .dev.vars used by Cloudflare:
DATABASE_URL="mysql://32qxa2r7hfl3102wrccj:password@us-east.connect.psdb.cloud/demo-cf-worker-ps?sslaccept=strict"Because the Prisma CLI by default is only compatible with .env files, you can adjust your package.json with the following script that loads the env vars from .dev.vars. You can then use this script to load the env vars before executing a prisma command.
Add this script to your package.json:
{
// ...
"scripts": {
// ....
"env": "dotenv -e .dev.vars"
},
// ...
}Now you can execute Prisma CLI commands as follows while ensuring that the command has access to the env vars in .dev.vars:
npm run env -- npx prisma2. Install dependencies
Next, install the required packages:
npm install @prisma/adapter-planetscale3. Migrate your database schema (if applicable)
If you ran npx prisma init above, you need to migrate your database schema to create the User table that's defined in your Prisma schema (if you already have all the tables you need in your database, you can skip this step):
npm run env -- npx prisma db push4. Use Prisma Client in your Worker to send a query to the database
Here is a sample code snippet that you can use to instantiate PrismaClient and send a query to your database:
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/client";
import { PrismaPlanetScale } from "@prisma/adapter-planetscale";
export default {
async fetch(request, env, ctx) {
const adapter = new PrismaPlanetScale({
url: env.DATABASE_URL,
// see https://github.com/cloudflare/workerd/issues/698
fetch(url, init) {
delete init["cache"];
return fetch(url, init);
},
});
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });
const users = await prisma.user.findMany();
const result = JSON.stringify(users);
ctx.waitUntil(prisma.$disconnect());
return new Response(result);
},
};6. Run the Worker locally
To run the Worker locally, you can run the wrangler dev command:
npx wrangler dev7. Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable and deploy the Worker
To deploy the Worker, you first need to the DATABASE_URL environment variable via the wrangler CLI:
npx wrangler secret put DATABASE_URLThe command is interactive and will ask you to enter the value for the DATABASE_URL env var as the next step in the terminal.
This command requires you to be authenticated, and will ask you to log in to your Cloudflare account in case you are not.
Then you can go ahead then deploy the Worker:
npx wrangler deployThe command will output the URL where you can access the deployed Worker.
Neon
If you are using a Neon database, you need to:
- use the
@prisma/adapter-neondatabase adapter (learn more here)
1. Configure Prisma schema & database connection
If you don't have a project to deploy, follow the instructions in the Prerequisites to bootstrap a basic Cloudflare Worker with Prisma ORM in it.
First, ensure that the database connection is configured properly. Database connection URLs are configured in prisma.config.ts:
generator client {
provider = "prisma-client"
output = "./generated"
}
datasource db {
provider = "postgresql"
}import "dotenv/config";
import { defineConfig, env } from "prisma/config";
export default defineConfig({
schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
datasource: {
url: env("DATABASE_URL"),
},
});Next, you need to set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to the value of your database connection string. You'll do this in a file called .dev.vars used by Cloudflare:
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://janedoe:password@ep-nameless-pond-a23b1mdz.eu-central-1.aws.neon.tech/neondb?sslmode=require"Because the Prisma CLI by default is only compatible with .env files, you can adjust your package.json with the following script that loads the env vars from .dev.vars. You can then use this script to load the env vars before executing a prisma command.
Add this script to your package.json:
{
// ...
"scripts": {
// ....
"env": "dotenv -e .dev.vars"
},
// ...
}Now you can execute Prisma CLI commands as follows while ensuring that the command has access to the env vars in .dev.vars:
npm run env -- npx prisma2. Install dependencies
Next, install the required packages:
npm install @prisma/adapter-neon3. Migrate your database schema (if applicable)
If you ran npx prisma init above, you need to migrate your database schema to create the User table that's defined in your Prisma schema (if you already have all the tables you need in your database, you can skip this step):
npm run env -- npx prisma migrate dev --name init5. Use Prisma Client in your Worker to send a query to the database
Here is a sample code snippet that you can use to instantiate PrismaClient and send a query to your database:
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/client";
import { PrismaNeon } from "@prisma/adapter-neon";
export default {
async fetch(request, env, ctx) {
const adapter = new PrismaNeon({ connectionString: env.DATABASE_URL });
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });
const users = await prisma.user.findMany();
const result = JSON.stringify(users);
ctx.waitUntil(prisma.$disconnect());
return new Response(result);
},
};6. Run the Worker locally
To run the Worker locally, you can run the wrangler dev command:
npx wrangler dev7. Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable and deploy the Worker
To deploy the Worker, you first need to the DATABASE_URL environment variable via the wrangler CLI:
npx wrangler secret put DATABASE_URLThe command is interactive and will ask you to enter the value for the DATABASE_URL env var as the next step in the terminal.
This command requires you to be authenticated, and will ask you to log in to your Cloudflare account in case you are not.
Then you can go ahead then deploy the Worker:
npx wrangler deployThe command will output the URL where you can access the deployed Worker.
Cloudflare D1
Using Cloudflare D1
For step-by-step instructions on using Prisma ORM with Cloudflare D1 (schema setup, migrations, and deploying your Worker), see the dedicated Cloudflare D1 deployment guide.