how can I use zod with drizzle?

[Bicheka]

the documentation says that drizzle-zod is getting deprecated for v1 in favor of drizzle-orm/zod. When I try to import { createSelectSchema } from 'drizzle-orm/zod'; as the documentation says I get an error saying "Cannot find module drizzle-orm/zod or its corresponding type declarations. (ts 2307)". I am using "drizzle-orm": "^0.45.1", which is very current if not the latest version I get when using bun add. Any idea on how to do this?

[Tilakmahajan]

Hi 👋

The issue is with the import path.

drizzle-zod was deprecated, but the Zod helpers were not moved into the main drizzle-orm package. Instead, they were extracted into a separate package.

You need to install:

bun add @drizzle-orm/zod

(or npm / pnpm equivalent)

Then import like this:

import { createSelectSchema } from "@drizzle-orm/zod";

Not:

import { createSelectSchema } from "drizzle-orm/zod";

That’s why you're seeing:

Cannot find module 'drizzle-orm/zod'

After installing the correct package, it should work as expected 👍

Let me know if this resolves your issue.

If it does, feel free to mark this as the accepted answer so others running into the same migration confusion can find it easily.

[Bicheka]

@Tilakmahajan if you are going to use AI, verify its answer first, there is no such package called @drizzle-orm/zod. Thank you for trying tho

[wesleysmyth]

There are two packages and they serve different purposes — here's the current state:

drizzle-zod (use this now)

This is the stable, published package:

npm install drizzle-zod

import { pgTable, text, uuid, integer } from 'drizzle-orm/pg-core';
import { createSelectSchema, createInsertSchema } from 'drizzle-zod';

const users = pgTable('users', {
  id: uuid('id').primaryKey().defaultRandom(),
  name: text('name').notNull(),
  email: text('email').notNull(),
  age: integer('age'),
});

// Generate Zod schemas from your Drizzle table
const selectUserSchema = createSelectSchema(users);
const insertUserSchema = createInsertSchema(users);

Extending generated schemas

You can refine the generated schemas with additional validation:

import { z } from 'zod';

const insertUserSchema = createInsertSchema(users, {
  email: z.string().email('Must be a valid email'),
  age: z.number().min(0).max(150).optional(),
  name: z.string().min(1, 'Name is required').max(100),
});

// Or extend after creation
const apiInputSchema = insertUserSchema
  .omit({ id: true })
  .extend({
    confirmEmail: z.string().email(),
  })
  .refine(data => data.email === data.confirmEmail, {
    message: 'Emails must match',
    path: ['confirmEmail'],
  });

What about drizzle-orm/zod?

You may have seen references to importing Zod utilities directly from drizzle-orm/zod. This is not yet available in the current stable release (0.x). It is planned for the Drizzle v1 release, which will bundle Zod integration directly into the core package. For now, stick with the separate drizzle-zod package.

Full example with an API route

import { createInsertSchema } from 'drizzle-zod';
import { z } from 'zod';

const insertUserSchema = createInsertSchema(users, {
  email: z.string().email(),
}).omit({ id: true });

// Express / Hono / Next.js API route
app.post('/users', async (req, res) => {
  const parsed = insertUserSchema.safeParse(req.body);
  if (!parsed.success) {
    return res.status(400).json({ errors: parsed.error.flatten() });
  }

  const user = await db.insert(users).values(parsed.data).returning();
  return res.json(user[0]);
});

[cin4ed]

Thanks, the drizzle docs should be more clear on this

[nferdica]

The confusion comes from the docs showing v1 syntax while you're on v0.x.

On stable (0.45.x): drizzle-orm/zod doesn't exist yet. Use the standalone drizzle-zod package:

bun add drizzle-zod zod

import { createSelectSchema, createInsertSchema } from 'drizzle-zod'
import { users } from './schema'

const selectUserSchema = createSelectSchema(users)
const insertUserSchema = createInsertSchema(users)

// You can also refine fields:
const insertUserSchema = createInsertSchema(users, {
  email: (schema) => schema.email.email(),
  name: (schema) => schema.name.min(1),
})

On v1 beta (1.0.0-beta.2+): The validators were moved into the core package. If you want to use the new import path now:

bun add drizzle-orm@beta

import { createSelectSchema, createInsertSchema } from 'drizzle-orm/zod'

This is documented in the v1 beta.2 release notes:

We've stopped maintaining separate validator packages (e.g., drizzle-zod, drizzle-valibot) and moved them into the drizzle-orm repo.

TL;DR: If you're on stable, use drizzle-zod. If you're ready for beta, upgrade to drizzle-orm@beta and use drizzle-orm/zod.

[mohamed23231]

Yeah, drizzle-orm/zod is the v1 path on 0.45.x it doesn't exist yet (no ./zod export in the package) so that import just can't
resolve

On stable you want the separate drizzle-zod package:

bun add drizzle-zod
import { createSelectSchema, createInsertSchema } from 'drizzle-zod';
import { users } from './schema';

const insertUser = createInsertSchema(users);

If you're on zod 4, make sure drizzle-zod is 0.8.3 or newer that's the first one that allows zod 4 in its peers (^3.25.0 ||
^4.0.0) older versions are zod 3 only and you'll get type errors.

The drizzle-orm/zod import only lands once you're on the v1 beta, so unless you're moving to that, just stay on drizzle-zod