Prisma v7

[michaelvdveer]

Hi,

I am currently using PlanetScale as a MySQL database, with Prisma ORM (v6) and an Express backend, hosted on Render. This setup has worked reliably so far, following the recommended approach from your documentation.

Now I am planning to upgrade to Prisma v7. According to the Prisma adapter documentation, Prisma 7 requires using a “driver adapter” when connecting to a database.

However, I am not sure whether this requirement also applies when using PlanetScale — especially given that I currently do not use the PlanetScale serverless driver, but a standard TCP connection via a connection string (e.g. mysql://...@aws.connect.psdb.cloud/...).

My questions are:

With Prisma v7 and PlanetScale (non-serverless, TCP/MySQL) + Express (on Render), what is the recommended setup?

Do I need to use a driver adapter (and if yes — which one) when connecting via standard MySQL/TCP, or is the “classic” approach (url in schema.prisma + standard Prisma Client) still valid for PlanetScale?

If adapter usage is required, do you have an example of a working prisma.config.ts (or TypeScript/JavaScript setup) in this context?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Michael

[mscoutermarsh]

Hi @michaelvdveer,

Using the standard mariadb adapter should work well here: https://www.prisma.io/docs/orm/overview/databases/database-drivers#database-driver-adapters

[mscoutermarsh]

For your app, Maria should work better.

The HTTP driver is best for serverless / edge environments where TCP isn't available.

[michaelvdveer]

Thank you very much for your answer!

[michaelvdveer]

Hi @mscoutermarsh, I’m currently using Prisma v7 together with the @prisma/adapter-mariadb, but I’m running into SSL issues when connecting to PlanetScale using their provided connection string:

mysql://:@aws.connect.psdb.cloud/?sslaccept=strict

Specifically, I’m getting SSL-related errors when initializing the Prisma client via the MariaDB adapter. It seems like the adapter might not fully support the TLS requirements that PlanetScale enforces, or that additional configuration is needed.

Could you clarify if the MariaDB adapter is officially supported with PlanetScale in Prisma v7, and if there are any specific SSL or connection options that need to be set?

Also, it might be helpful to update the PlanetScale documentation, since it references an older Prisma setup that doesn’t reflect the Prisma v7 + driver adapter approach:
https://planetscale.com/docs/vitess/tutorials/using-planetscale-with-prisma

Updating those docs could prevent confusion for others running into the same issue.

Thanks in advance!

[mscoutermarsh]

Hi @michaelvdveer, looked into this again, you're right that the docs needed updating.

The SSL issue you're hitting with @prisma/adapter-mariadb is because the adapter doesn't automatically pick up SSL settings from the connection string URL. You need to configure SSL explicitly in the adapter options:

import { PrismaMariaDb } from "@prisma/adapter-mariadb";
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/prisma/client.js";
const adapter = new PrismaMariaDb({
  host: "aws.connect.psdb.cloud",
  user: "your_username",
  password: "your_password",
  database: "your_database",
  port: 3306,
  ssl: true,
});
const prisma = new PrismaClient({ adapter });

The key part is ssl: true. Without it the MariaDB driver connects without TLS, and we reject the connection.

Docs will be updated soon.

[michaelvdveer]

Hi, thanks for looking into this and for the clarification!

I’ve tested the ssl: true configuration and can confirm that it works 👍
Also saw that the PlanetScale docs have been updated:
https://planetscale.com/docs/vitess/tutorials/using-planetscale-with-prisma

A couple of notes that might be helpful:

1. Prisma 7 datasource config
The updated Planetscale docs show DATABASE_URL in both schema.prisma and prisma.config.ts, but in Prisma 7 the URL is no longer needed in the datasource block and should be provided via prisma.config.ts:

2. Javascript users
I’m using plain JavaScript (not TypeScript). With the new Prisma Client (prisma-client generator), only TypeScript files are generated by default.

To make this work in a JavaScript project, I added a compile step:

// schema.prisma
generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client"
  output   = "../src/generated/prisma"
}

datasource db {
  provider     = "mysql"
  relationMode = "prisma"
}

// package.json
 "scripts": {
    "prisma:compile": "tsc -p tsconfig.prisma.json"
  },

//tsconfig.prisma.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "NodeNext",
    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
    "rootDir": "./src/generated/prisma-ts",
    "outDir": "./src/generated/prisma",
    "strict": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "verbatimModuleSyntax": true,
    "noEmitOnError": true
  },
  "include": ["src/generated/prisma-ts/**/*.ts"]
}

3. Prisma Studio
When opening Prisma Studio, I see the following message in the terminal:

[Prisma Studio] Error [ERR_STREAM_PREMATURE_CLOSE]: Premature close

However, Studio works correctly. I believe this is more related to Prisma itself, so I’ve raised it with Prisma separately.

Thanks again for the help and for updating the docs!