prisma-postgres-upgrade

Prisma Postgres Upgrade: Prisma ORM 6 or 7 to Prisma 8

Move a Node.js server on Prisma ORM 6 or 7 and PostgreSQL to Prisma 8 in one pass. The schema, the database and its data stay, and the app keeps running wherever it runs today.

This skill is the bridge. It covers only what is specific to leaving Prisma ORM 6 or 7. Prisma 8 itself (the contract, migrations, queries, errors) is covered by the prisma-8 skill that ships inside @prisma/orm-postgres, which step 2 installs. Follow it for anything Prisma 8 specific; it matches the installed version, and this skill does not.

prisma-8 says it does not apply to a project that still has schema.prisma and @prisma/client. That is expected mid-upgrade: this skill keeps both until step 5, and prisma7Schema(...) reads that schema.prisma. Use prisma-8 for the Prisma 8 side anyway.

The Prisma ORM 6 or 7 to 8 (PostgreSQL) guide is the source of truth for the steps.

Never do either of these:

• Never route a PostgreSQL Prisma ORM 6 app through Prisma ORM 7 first. Prisma 8 reads a Prisma ORM 6 schema.prisma unchanged, so prisma-upgrade-v7 is only for apps that stay on 7.
• Never install prisma@latest or @prisma/orm-postgres@latest when the app will deploy on Prisma Compute: the latest pair does not work with the Composer version the Console's setup installs, so the deploy fails.

When to Apply

• A PostgreSQL project on Prisma ORM 6 or 7 asks to upgrade to Prisma 8 in one pass
• A Prisma ORM 6 or 7 app wants to deploy on Prisma Compute, or the Console blocked its setup with "move to Prisma 8": upgrade here, then deploy with prisma-compute

Not for: deploying on Compute (use prisma-compute, deploy-existing-app), MongoDB (use prisma-mongodb-upgrade), a Prisma ORM 7 app moving one route at a time beside Prisma 8 (follow the route-by-route guide), a project already on Prisma 8 (use the synced prisma-8 skill), or a new project (use prisma-orm-setup).

Versions

Install exact versions with --save-exact. For an app headed to Compute, use the versions the Console's setup uses: today prisma 8.0.0-rc.27 (dev dependency) and @prisma/orm-postgres 8.0.0-rc.20. If the Console's message or an existing setup pull request names other versions, use those. Use Node.js 24.11 or newer if the app will run under prisma dev.

The path

Step	What happens	Where the detail is
0	Run the repo's own checks and record the results	verify-upgrade-checklist
1	Remove prisma, install the versions above, remove prisma generate from scripts	this file
2	Write the Prisma 8 prisma.config.ts, then npx prisma skills sync	adopt-schema-and-migrations
3	contract emit, db sign, baseline migration, retire prisma/migrations	adopt-schema-and-migrations
4	Create the Prisma 8 client and rewrite every query	client-api-mapping
5	Remove @prisma/client, the adapter and the generated client	this file
6	Run the same checks again and start the app	verify-upgrade-checklist

In step 1, also remove prisma generate from build, postinstall and any other script: the Prisma 8 CLI has no generate and fails with CLI.UNKNOWN_COMMAND. Step 1 removes the only command that generated the old client. It keeps working locally, but a fresh install (CI, a new clone) has none, so finish step 4 before pushing to a branch CI builds.

The sync in step 2 installs prisma-8, prisma-platform-core-concepts and prisma-composer-core-concepts in one go, because the CLI depends on Composer. It writes them for every agent it knows unless skills.agents in the config lists only the ones the repository uses. In a Prisma ORM 7 app, replace the old prisma.config.ts before syncing: the sync fails with CLI.CONFIG_UNREADABLE while the old one is in place.

Commit what Prisma 8 writes: src/prisma/contract.json, src/prisma/contract.d.ts and the whole migrations/ folder. There is no generate step to recreate them in CI.

In step 5, npm uninstall @prisma/client leaves the generated client behind; delete node_modules/.prisma too, then run a fresh install and the checks so nothing still imports it.

Deploying on Compute

When the upgrade is done and the checks pass, deploy with the prisma-compute skill (references/deploy-existing-app.md). Compute runs only Prisma 8, so the upgrade has to be finished first.

What the user does

The agent cannot do these; stop and ask:

• Decide what to do about a database time zone other than UTC (see client-api-mapping).
• Sign every other existing database (staging, production) with npx prisma db sign. The agent has only the local one.
• Review the change before it ships, especially when the repository has no tests.

Reference files

Reference	What it covers
references/adopt-schema-and-migrations.md	The first prisma.config.ts, keeping schema.prisma as the contract, CommonJS tsconfig, the baseline, retiring the old migration setup
references/client-api-mapping.md	The Prisma 8 client, Prisma ORM 6/7 calls to Prisma 8, and the differences that break rewrites
references/verify-upgrade-checklist.md	Proving the upgrade with the repo's own checks

Verified against

A Prisma ORM 6.19 app (Express 4, EJS, tsc, CommonJS) on PostgreSQL 18, with prisma 8.0.0-rc.27 and @prisma/orm-postgres 8.0.0-rc.20. Two agents with no context and only these skills upgraded it: pages and API output were identical before and after against the same database, and prisma db verify passed.

Hand-off rule

Once the app runs on Prisma 8, use the synced prisma-8 skill for day-to-day work and prisma-compute to deploy and operate it on Compute. This skill covers the upgrade only.