Get Started with Drizzle and MySQL

To use Drizzle with a MySQL database, you should use the mysql2 driver

According to the official website, mysql2 is a MySQL client for Node.js with focus on performance.

Drizzle ORM natively supports mysql2 with drizzle-orm/mysql2 package.

Basic file structure

This is the basic file structure of the project. In the src/db directory, we have table definition in schema.ts. In drizzle folder there are sql migration file and snapshots.

📦 <project root>
 ├ 📂 drizzle
 ├ 📂 src
 │   ├ 📂 db
 │   │  └ 📜 schema.ts
 │   └ 📜 index.ts
 ├ 📜 .env
 ├ 📜 drizzle.config.ts
 ├ 📜 package.json
 └ 📜 tsconfig.json

Step 1 - Install mysql2 package

npm i drizzle-orm mysql2 dotenv
npm i -D drizzle-kit tsx

yarn add drizzle-orm mysql2 dotenv
yarn add -D drizzle-kit tsx

pnpm add drizzle-orm mysql2 dotenv
pnpm add -D drizzle-kit tsx

bun add drizzle-orm mysql2 dotenv
bun add -D drizzle-kit tsx

Step 2 - Setup connection variables

Create a .env file in the root of your project and add your database connection variable:

DATABASE_URL=

Step 3 - Connect Drizzle ORM to the database

Create a index.ts file in the src/db directory and initialize the connection:

import 'dotenv/config';
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/connect";

async function main() {
  const db = await drizzle("mysql2", process.env.DATABASE_URL);
}

main();

import 'dotenv/config';
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/connect";

async function main() {
  // You can specify any property from the mysql2 connection options
  const db = await drizzle("mysql2", { connection:{ uri: process.env.DATABASE_URL }});
}

main();

If you need a synchronous connection, you can use our additional connection API, where you specify a driver connection and pass it to the Drizzle instance. There’re two ways you can connect to the MySQL with mysql2 driver, either single client connection or a pool.

import 'dotenv/config';
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/mysql2";
import mysql from "mysql2/promise";

async function main() {
  const connection = await mysql.createConnection({
    host: "host",
    user: "user",
    database: "database",
  });

  const db = drizzle(connection);
}

main();

import 'dotenv/config';
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/mysql2";
import mysql from "mysql2/promise";
async function main() {
  const poolConnection = mysql.createPool({
    host: "host",
    user: "user",
    database: "database",
  });

  const db = drizzle(poolConnection);
}

main();

Step 4 - Create a table

Create a schema.ts file in the src/db directory and declare your table:

import { int, mysqlTable, serial, varchar } from 'drizzle-orm/mysql-core';

export const usersTable = mysqlTable('users_table', {
  id: serial().primaryKey(),
  name: varchar({ length: 255 }).notNull(),
  age: int().notNull(),
  email: varchar({ length: 255 }).notNull().unique(),
});

Step 5 - Setup Drizzle config file

Drizzle config - a configuration file that is used by Drizzle Kit and contains all the information about your database connection, migration folder and schema files.

Create a drizzle.config.ts file in the root of your project and add the following content:

import 'dotenv/config';
import { defineConfig } from 'drizzle-kit';

export default defineConfig({
  out: './drizzle',
  schema: './src/db/schema.ts',
  dialect: 'mysql',
  dbCredentials: {
    url: process.env.DATABASE_URL!,
  },
});

Step 6 - Applying changes to the database

You can directly apply changes to your database using the drizzle-kit push command. This is a convenient method for quickly testing new schema designs or modifications in a local development environment, allowing for rapid iterations without the need to manage migration files:

npx drizzle-kit push

Read more about the push command in documentation.

npx drizzle-kit generate

npx drizzle-kit migrate

Step 7 - Seed and Query the database

Let’s update the src/index.ts file with queries to create, read, update, and delete users

import 'dotenv/config';
import { drizzle, eq } from 'drizzle-orm';
import { usersTable } from './db/schema';

async function main() {
  const db = await drizzle("mysql2", process.env.DATABASE_URL!);

  const user: typeof usersTable.$inferInsert = {
    name: 'John',
    age: 30,
    email: '[email protected]',
  };

  await db.insert(usersTable).values(user);
  console.log('New user created!')

  const users = await db.select().from(usersTable);
  console.log('Getting all users from the database: ', users)
  /*
  const users: {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    age: number;
    email: string;
  }[]
  */

  await db
    .update(usersTable)
    .set({
      age: 31,
    })
    .where(eq(usersTable.email, user.email));
  console.log('User info updated!')

  await db.delete(usersTable).where(eq(usersTable.email, user.email));
  console.log('User deleted!')
}

main();

Step 8 - Run index.ts file

To run any TypeScript files, you have several options, but let’s stick with one: using tsx

You’ve already installed tsx, so we can run our queries now

Run index.ts script

npx tsx src/index.ts

yarn tsx src/index.ts

pnpm tsx src/index.ts

bun tsx src/index.ts

bun src/index.ts