Root .env variables aren't available to prisma in monorepo

[zomars]

Bug description

We have a monorepo using turbo repo with the following structure:

The prisma package is being used in multiple applications, currently we're trying to use a single .env to avoid confusion. Moving the DATABASE_URL url from packages/prisma/.env to the root .env errors when trying to run any yarn prisma script.

We also tried to use a solution like cmd-env:

But no luck so far.

How to reproduce

1. Have a monorepo with and .env file at the root
2. Have something like packages/prisma in a monorepo package
3. Set DATABASE_URL in the root .env file.
4. Try to run any yarn prisma command.

Expected behavior

Being able to use the monorepo DATABASE_URL without having to set it up in packages/prisma/.env.

Prisma information

https://github.com/calcom/cal.com/blob/main/packages/prisma/schema.prisma

Environment & setup

• OS: Mac OS 12
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Node.js version: v14.17.6

Prisma Version

prisma                  : 3.10.0
@prisma/client          : 3.10.0
Current platform        : darwin
Query Engine (Node-API) : libquery-engine 73e60b76d394f8d37d8ebd1f8918c79029f0db86 (at node_modules/@prisma/engines/libquery_engine-darwin.dylib.node)
Migration Engine        : migration-engine-cli 73e60b76d394f8d37d8ebd1f8918c79029f0db86 (at node_modules/@prisma/engines/migration-engine-darwin)
Introspection Engine    : introspection-core 73e60b76d394f8d37d8ebd1f8918c79029f0db86 (at node_modules/@prisma/engines/introspection-engine-darwin)
Format Binary           : prisma-fmt 73e60b76d394f8d37d8ebd1f8918c79029f0db86 (at node_modules/@prisma/engines/prisma-fmt-darwin)
Default Engines Hash    : 73e60b76d394f8d37d8ebd1f8918c79029f0db86
Studio                  : 0.458.0

[altano]

I can reproduce your original issue but npm + env-cmd seem to work for me, with either:

• Directly running npm exec --workspace @mypkg/prisma -- env-cmd -f ../../.env prisma db push
• Or, a package.json script (in the prisma pkg) e.g. "face": "env-cmd -f ../../.env prisma db push" and then running npm run --workspace @mypkg/prisma face from the root

This is gross though, either way. Would be nice to be able to configure prisma and tell it where to find the .env file, since the current options don't work great for a monorepo, as you said.

[altano]

FWIW dotenv-cli also worked for me. My package.json script is:

"generate": "dotenv -e ../../.env -- prisma generate && prisma format",

And then:

npm run --workspace @mypkg/prisma-client db:seed:dev

[zomars]

Why can't this work out of the box?

Also the docs are kinda misleading:

The Prisma CLI looks for .env files, in order, in the following locations:

In the root folder of your project (./.env)

In a monorepo, the root of the project is the monorepo root. It makes sense to traverse up until the root of the monorepo.

[leerob]

Related example: https://github.com/vercel/turborepo/tree/main/examples/with-prisma

[zomars]

Related example: https://github.com/vercel/turborepo/tree/main/examples/with-prisma

Awesome @leerob although I see you're using symlinks to fix the ".env not it prisma root" problem. The thing is we only use this locally since we don't actually deploy .env files to prod. Wouldn't this approach break in prod in this case?

[zomars]

This would also help with #1255 and #9726

[senghuotlay]

Any update on this guys?

[kosgo]

up, having the same issue