Prisma Accelerate Users

Special migration instructions for users of Prisma Accelerate or Prisma Postgres with prisma:// or prisma+postgres:// URLs.

Important

Do NOT pass Accelerate URLs to driver adapters.

Driver adapters (like PrismaPg) expect direct database connection strings. They will fail with prisma:// or prisma+postgres:// URLs.

Correct v7 Setup for Accelerate

1. Keep your Accelerate URL

# .env
DATABASE_URL="prisma://accelerate.prisma-data.net/?api_key=..."
# or
DATABASE_URL="prisma+postgres://accelerate.prisma-data.net/..."

2. Install Accelerate extension

npm install @prisma/extension-accelerate

3. Configure prisma.config.ts

import 'dotenv/config'
import { defineConfig, env } from 'prisma/config'

export default defineConfig({
  schema: 'prisma/schema.prisma',
  datasource: {
    url: env('DATABASE_URL'),  // Accelerate URL works here
  },
})

4. Instantiate client with accelerateUrl

import { PrismaClient } from '../generated/client'
import { withAccelerate } from '@prisma/extension-accelerate'

// Use accelerateUrl instead of adapter
export const prisma = new PrismaClient({
  accelerateUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
}).$extends(withAccelerate())

What NOT to Do

// ❌ WRONG - Don't use adapter with Accelerate URL
import { PrismaPg } from '@prisma/adapter-pg'

const adapter = new PrismaPg({
  connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL  // This will fail with prisma://
})

Migrations with Accelerate

For migrations, you may need a direct database connection:

Option 1: Use Accelerate URL for everything

Accelerate URLs work with Prisma CLI commands:

# Works with Accelerate URL
prisma migrate deploy
prisma db push

Option 2: Use direct URL for migrations

DATABASE_URL="prisma+postgres://..."  # For app
DIRECT_DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..."  # For migrations

// prisma.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
  datasource: {
    url: env('DIRECT_DATABASE_URL'),  // Direct URL for CLI
  },
})

Prisma Postgres (Cloud)

If using Prisma Postgres cloud database:

Same approach

import { PrismaClient } from '../generated/client'
import { withAccelerate } from '@prisma/extension-accelerate'

export const prisma = new PrismaClient({
  accelerateUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL,  // prisma+postgres:// URL
}).$extends(withAccelerate())

Switching Away from Accelerate

If you later switch to direct TCP connection:

// Change from accelerateUrl to adapter
import { PrismaClient } from '../generated/client'
import { PrismaPg } from '@prisma/adapter-pg'

const adapter = new PrismaPg({
  connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL  // Direct postgres:// URL
})

export const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter })

Caching with Accelerate

The extension enables caching:

const users = await prisma.user.findMany({
  cacheStrategy: {
    ttl: 60,  // Cache for 60 seconds
    swr: 120, // Stale-while-revalidate for 120 seconds
  },
})

Edge Runtime

Accelerate works great in edge runtimes:

// Works in Vercel Edge, Cloudflare Workers, etc.
import { PrismaClient } from '../generated/client'
import { withAccelerate } from '@prisma/extension-accelerate'

export const prisma = new PrismaClient({
  accelerateUrl: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
}).$extends(withAccelerate())