Get Started with Drizzle and PostgreSQL

Drizzle has native support for PostgreSQL connections with the node-postgres and postgres.js drivers.

We will use node-postgres for this get started example. But if you want to find more ways to connect to postgresql check our PostgreSQL Connection page

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 node-postgres package

npm i drizzle-orm pg dotenv
npm i -D drizzle-kit tsx @types/pg

yarn add drizzle-orm pg dotenv
yarn add -D drizzle-kit tsx @types/pg

pnpm add drizzle-orm pg dotenv
pnpm add -D drizzle-kit tsx @types/pg

bun add drizzle-orm pg dotenv
bun add -D drizzle-kit tsx @types/pg

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("node-postgres", process.env.DATABASE_URL!);
}

main();

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

async function main() {
    // You can specify any property from the node-postgres connection options
    const db = await drizzle("node-postgres", { 
      connection: { 
        connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL!,
        ssl: true
      }
    });
}

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.

import 'dotenv/config';
import { pgTable, serial, text, varchar } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/node-postgres";
import { Pool } from "pg";

async function main() {
    const pool = new Pool({
      connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL!,
    });
    const db = drizzle(pool);
}

main();

Step 4 - Create a table

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

import { integer, pgTable, varchar } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";

export const usersTable = pgTable("users", {
  id: integer().primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity(),
  name: varchar({ length: 255 }).notNull(),
  age: integer().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: 'postgresql',
  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("node-postgres", 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