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Schema location

The default name for the Prisma Schema is a single file schema.prisma in your prisma folder. When your schema is named like this, the Prisma CLI will detect it automatically.

If you are using the prismaSchemaFolder preview feature any files in the prisma/schema directory are detected automatically.

Prisma Schema location​

The Prisma CLI looks for the Prisma Schema in the following locations, in the following order:

  1. The location specified by the --schema flag, which is available when you introspect, generate, migrate, and studio:

    prisma generate --schema=./alternative/schema.prisma

  2. The location specified in the package.json file (version 2.7.0 and later):

    "prisma": {
      "schema": "db/schema.prisma"
    }

  3. Default locations:

    • ./prisma/schema.prisma
    • ./schema.prisma

The Prisma CLI outputs the path of the schema that will be used. The following example shows the terminal output for prisma db pull:

Environment variables loaded from .env
Prisma Schema loaded from prisma/schema.prisma

Introspecting based on datasource defined in prisma/schema.prisma …

✔ Introspected 4 models and wrote them into prisma/schema.prisma in 239ms

Run prisma generate to generate Prisma Client.

Multi-file Prisma Schema​

tip

Multi-file Prisma Schema is available via the prismaSchemaFolder preview feature in Prisma versions 5.15.0 and later.

To use multiple Prisma Schema files, add a schema folder inside of your current prisma directory. With the prismaSchemaFolder Preview feature enabled, you can add as many files as you want to the prisma/schema directory.

my-app/
├─ ...
├─ prisma/
│  ├─ schema/
│  │  ├─ post.prisma
│  │  ├─ schema.prisma
│  │  ├─ user.prisma
├─ ...

How to enable multi-file Prisma schema support​

Support for multiple Prisma Schema files is currently in preview. To enable the feature, add the prismaSchemaFolder feature flag to the previewFeatures field of the generator block in your Prisma Schema:

schema.prisma
generator client {
  provider        = "prisma-client-js"
  previewFeatures = ["prismaSchemaFolder"]
}

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

When first updating to Prisma ORM 5.15.0 or later, your IDE may not recognize the new multi-file format immediately. Be sure to restart your IDE to confirm you have the latest version of the Prisma VS Code Extension installed.

How to use existing Prisma CLI commands with multiple Prisma schema files​

For most Prisma CLI commands, no changes will be necessary to work with a multi-file Prisma schema. Only in the specific cases where you need to supply a schema via an option will a command need to be changed. In these cases, simply replace references to a file with a directory. As an example, the following prisma db push command:

npx prisma db push --schema custom/path/to/my/schema.prisma

becomes the following:

npx prisma db push --schema custom/path/to/my/schema  # note this is now a directory!

Tips for multi-file Prisma Schema​

We’ve found that a few patterns work well with this feature and will help you get the most out of it:

  • Organize your files by domain: group related models into the same file. For example, keep all user-related models in user.prisma while post-related models go in post.prisma. Try to avoid having “kitchen sink” schema files.

  • Use clear naming conventions: schema files should be named clearly and succinctly. Use names like user.prisma and post.prisma and not myModels.prisma or CommentFeaturesSchema.prisma.

  • Have an obvious “main” schema file: while you can now have as many schema files as you want, you’ll still need a place where you define datasource and generator blocks. We recommend having a single schema file that’s obviously the “main” file so that these blocks are easy to find. main.prisma, schema.prisma, and base.prisma are a few we’ve seen that work well.

Examples​

Our fork of dub by dub.co is a great example of a real world project adapted to use a multi-file Prisma Schema.

Learn more about the prismaSchemaFolder preview feature​

To give feedback on the prismaSchemaFolder Preview feature, please refer to our dedicated Github discussion.