Use Prisma with Bun

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" // [!code --]
    output = "./generated" // [!code ++]
    engineType = "client" // [!code ++]
    runtime = "bun" // [!code ++]
  }

  datasource db {
    provider = "sqlite"
  }

  model User { // [!code ++]
    id    Int     @id @default(autoincrement()) // [!code ++]
    email String  @unique // [!code ++]
    name  String? // [!code ++]
  } // [!code ++]

Create and run database migration

Generate and run the initial migration. The command 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. 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

Text

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

Text

There are 1 users in the database.

terminal

bun run index.ts

Text

There are 2 users in the database.

terminal

bun run index.ts

Text

There are 3 users in the database.

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