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Thinking of upgrading to Prisma 6 but unsure where to start?
You’re not alone.
The latest version brings faster performance, stronger type safety, and a new way to structure your Prisma Client — but it also introduces breaking changes you don’t want to mess up.
In this quick guide, I’ll walk you through the exact steps to upgrade, clean up your codebase, and keep your types in sync — without breaking everything.
Install the latest versions of both Prisma CLI and client:
npm install @prisma/client@latest
npm install -D prisma@latestIn your schema.prisma, configure a custom output path for the generated Prisma Client:
generator client {
provider = "prisma-client-js"
output = "../src/generated/prisma"
}This moves the generated client outside node_modules and gives you full control over imports.
More details in the official docs.
Clear any previous generated files and regenerate:
rm -rf node_modules/.prisma
npx prisma generateYou can find more information about generating Prisma clients on the new configuration.
A folder named generate will be created in your project. It will contain all the files needed for the Prisma client.
Your Prisma Client should now live at:
./src/generated/prismaPreviously:
import { User, Post } from "@prisma/client";Now update to:
import { User, Post } from "@/generated/client";Use search-and-replace or a codemod if needed.
Now, in your initial database manager file, the prisma.ts or db.ts file depending on the name you use, you will use the new import like this.
import { PrismaClient } from "@/generated/prisma/client"
import { withAccelerate } from '@prisma/extension-accelerate'
const globalForPrisma = globalThis as unknown as { prisma: PrismaClient }
export const prisma = globalForPrisma.prisma || new PrismaClient().$extends(withAccelerate())
if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production") globalForPrisma.prisma = prismaPrisma accelerate is optional; you can just use Prisma basically if you want.
prisma.config.ts for Type-Safe GenerationIn your root, create a prisma.config.ts file:
import path from "node:path";
import type { PrismaConfig } from "prisma";
import "dotenv/config";
export default {
earlyAccess: true,
schema: path.join("prisma", "schema.prisma"),
} satisfies PrismaConfig;This configures Prisma with better CLI and schema support. The code in this file allows you to manage your environment variables and settings more flexibly and improves the typesafe of the code generated by Prisma. You can add other preferences if you wish by consulting the official documentation.
This configuration ensures that your current code is perfectly synchronized with the new Prisma model. This guarantees that your code is typesyfe and configures ESlint.
In tsconfig.json:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"target": "ES2017",
"lib": ["dom", "dom.iterable", "esnext"],
"allowJs": true,
"skipLibCheck": true,
"strict": true,
"noEmit": true,
"esModuleInterop": true,
"module": "esnext",
"moduleResolution": "bundler",
"resolveJsonModule": true,
"isolatedModules": true,
"jsx": "preserve",
"incremental": true,
"plugins": [
{
"name": "next"
}
],
"paths": {
"@/*": ["./src/*"]
}
},
"include": ["next-env.d.ts", "**/*.ts", "**/*.tsx", ".next/types/**/*.ts", "src/generated"],
"exclude": ["node_modules", ".next"]
}In eslint.config.js:
import { FlatCompat } from '@eslint/eslintrc'
const compat = new FlatCompat({
baseDirectory: import.meta.dirname,
})
const eslintConfig = [
{
ignores: [
"src/generated/prisma"
],
},
...compat.config({
extends: ['next'],
}),
]
export default eslintConfigIn .gitignore:
Add the generate folder to gitignore so that during your commit, it will not be processed and will be ignored by git.
# Prisma
src/generated/prismaRun a new dev migration:
npx prisma migrate dev --name upgrade-to-v6Then start your app:
npm run devnode_modulesprisma.config.tsFull changelog: Prisma v6 upgrade guide
If this guide helped, you’ll love the weekly newsletter — packed with practical walkthroughs, upgrade guides, and real-world TypeScript tips.
npx prisma generate on build to avoid stale types