Drizzle with Encore

This tutorial demonstrates how to use Drizzle ORM with Encore, an open source backend framework with built-in infrastructure automation and observability.

This guide assumes familiarity with:

You should have the Encore CLI installed. You can install it with:

# macOS
brew install encoredev/tap/encore

# Linux
curl -L https://encore.dev/install.sh | bash

# Windows
iwr https://encore.dev/install.ps1 | iex

You should have installed Drizzle ORM and Drizzle kit. You can do this by running the following command:

npm

yarn

pnpm

bun

npm i drizzle-orm
npm i -D drizzle-kit

yarn add drizzle-orm
yarn add -D drizzle-kit

pnpm add drizzle-orm
pnpm add -D drizzle-kit

bun add drizzle-orm
bun add -D drizzle-kit

Setup Encore and Drizzle ORM

Create a new Encore project

You can create a new Encore project with Drizzle already configured:

encore app create my-app --example=ts/drizzle
cd my-app

Or if you have an existing Encore project, install Drizzle:

npm

yarn

pnpm

bun

npm i drizzle-orm
npm i -D drizzle-kit

yarn add drizzle-orm
yarn add -D drizzle-kit

pnpm add drizzle-orm
pnpm add -D drizzle-kit

bun add drizzle-orm
bun add -D drizzle-kit

Create the database

Define your database in a database.ts file. Encore automatically provisions a PostgreSQL database locally using Docker and in the cloud when you deploy:

import { SQLDatabase } from "encore.dev/storage/sqldb";
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/node-postgres";
import * as schema from "./schema";

const db = new SQLDatabase("mydb", {
  migrations: {
    path: "migrations",
    source: "drizzle",
  },
});

export const orm = drizzle(db.connectionString, { schema });

Setting source: "drizzle" tells Encore to use Drizzle’s migration format.

Define your schema

Create a schema.ts file to define your tables:

import * as p from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";

export const users = p.pgTable("users", {
  id: p.serial().primaryKey(),
  name: p.text().notNull(),
  email: p.text().unique().notNull(),
  createdAt: p.timestamp().defaultNow().notNull(),
});

Setup Drizzle config

Create a drizzle.config.ts file:

import { defineConfig } from "drizzle-kit";

export default defineConfig({
  out: "migrations",
  schema: "schema.ts",
  dialect: "postgresql",
});

Generate migrations

Run Drizzle Kit to generate migrations from your schema:

drizzle-kit generate

This creates migration files in the migrations folder.

Create an API endpoint

Use Drizzle in your Encore endpoints:

import { api } from "encore.dev/api";
import { orm } from "./database";
import { users } from "./schema";
import { eq } from "drizzle-orm";

interface User {
  id: number;
  name: string;
  email: string;
}

export const list = api(
  { expose: true, method: "GET", path: "/users" },
  async (): Promise<{ users: User[] }> => {
    const result = await orm.select().from(users);
    return { users: result };
  }
);

export const create = api(
  { expose: true, method: "POST", path: "/users" },
  async (req: { name: string; email: string }): Promise<User> => {
    const [user] = await orm
      .insert(users)
      .values({ name: req.name, email: req.email })
      .returning();
    return user;
  }
);

Run your application

Start your Encore app:

encore run

Encore automatically applies migrations when starting. Open localhost:9400 to see the local dashboard with API docs, database explorer, and tracing.

Migrations are automatically applied when you run your Encore application. You don’t need to run drizzle-kit migrate manually.