Installation

Quick installation

Install Drizzle ORM and Drizzle Kit using your preferred package manager:

npm install drizzle-orm
npm install -D drizzle-kit

drizzle-orm: The core ORM library for your applicationdrizzle-kit: CLI companion for migrations and database management (dev dependency)

Database drivers

Drizzle ORM requires a database driver to connect to your database. Install the driver that matches your database:

PostgreSQL drivers

node-postgres (pg)
postgres.js
Neon Serverless
Vercel Postgres

The most popular PostgreSQL driver for Node.js.

npm install pg
npm install -D @types/pg

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/node-postgres';
import { Pool } from 'pg';

const pool = new Pool({
  connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
});

const db = drizzle(pool);

Fastest PostgreSQL driver for Node.js and Deno.

npm install postgres

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/postgres-js';
import postgres from 'postgres';

const client = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);
const db = drizzle(client);

Optimized driver for Neon’s serverless PostgreSQL.

npm install @neondatabase/serverless

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/neon-serverless';
import { Pool } from '@neondatabase/serverless';

const pool = new Pool({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL });
const db = drizzle(pool);

Vercel’s PostgreSQL driver with edge runtime support.

npm install @vercel/postgres

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/vercel-postgres';
import { sql } from '@vercel/postgres';

const db = drizzle(sql);

MySQL drivers

mysql2
PlanetScale

Fast MySQL driver for Node.js with prepared statement support.

npm install mysql2

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

const connection = await mysql.createConnection({
  host: 'localhost',
  user: 'root',
  database: 'mydb',
});

const db = drizzle(connection);

Serverless MySQL driver for PlanetScale.

npm install @planetscale/database

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/planetscale-serverless';
import { Client } from '@planetscale/database';

const client = new Client({
  url: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
});

const db = drizzle(client);

SQLite drivers

better-sqlite3
Bun SQLite
Cloudflare D1
Turso (libSQL)

Fast synchronous SQLite driver for Node.js.

npm install better-sqlite3
npm install -D @types/better-sqlite3

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/better-sqlite3';
import Database from 'better-sqlite3';

const sqlite = new Database('sqlite.db');
const db = drizzle(sqlite);

Native SQLite support in Bun runtime.

bun add drizzle-orm

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/bun-sqlite';
import { Database } from 'bun:sqlite';

const sqlite = new Database('sqlite.db');
const db = drizzle(sqlite);

SQLite for Cloudflare Workers.

npm install drizzle-orm

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/d1';

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env) {
    const db = drizzle(env.DB);
    // Use db here
  },
};

Edge-hosted SQLite with libSQL.

npm install @libsql/client

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/libsql';
import { createClient } from '@libsql/client';

const client = createClient({
  url: process.env.TURSO_DATABASE_URL!,
  authToken: process.env.TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN!,
});

const db = drizzle(client);

Project setup

After installing Drizzle ORM and your database driver, set up your project structure:

Create schema directory

Create a directory for your database schema files:

mkdir src/db
touch src/db/schema.ts

Configure Drizzle Kit

Create a drizzle.config.ts file in your project root:

import { defineConfig } from 'drizzle-kit';

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

Set up environment variables

Create a .env file with your database connection string:

.env

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@host:5432/database

Never commit your .env file to version control. Add it to .gitignore.

Verify installation

Create a simple test file to verify your installation:

src/db/test.ts

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/node-postgres';
import { pgTable, serial, text } from 'drizzle-orm/pg-core';

// Define a simple schema
const users = pgTable('users', {
  id: serial('id').primaryKey(),
  name: text('name').notNull(),
});

// Initialize database connection
const db = drizzle(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);

console.log('Drizzle ORM installed successfully!');

Run the test:

node --loader tsx src/db/test.ts

Optional dependencies

TypeScript

Drizzle works best with TypeScript. If you haven’t installed it:

npm install -D typescript tsx @types/node

Schema validation

Integrate with runtime validation libraries:

Zod
Valibot
TypeBox
ArkType

npm install drizzle-zod zod

npm install drizzle-valibot valibot

npm install drizzle-typebox @sinclair/typebox

npm install drizzle-arktype arktype

Next steps

Quickstart

Build your first application with Drizzle ORM

Schema Declaration

Learn how to define your database schema

Database Connection

Configure database connections for different drivers

Migrations

Set up database migrations with Drizzle Kit

Having issues? Check our best practices guide or join our Discord community for help.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Database Drivers

Query Builders

Schema Definition

Advanced Features

Ecosystem

Guides

Quick installation

Database drivers

PostgreSQL drivers

MySQL drivers

SQLite drivers

Project setup

Verify installation

Optional dependencies

TypeScript

Schema validation

Next steps

Quickstart

Schema Declaration

Database Connection

Migrations

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Concepts

Database Drivers

Query Builders

Schema Definition

Advanced Features

Ecosystem

Guides

​Quick installation

​Database drivers

​PostgreSQL drivers

​MySQL drivers

​SQLite drivers

​Project setup

​Verify installation

​Optional dependencies

​TypeScript

​Schema validation

​Next steps

Quickstart

Schema Declaration

Database Connection

Migrations

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Quick installation

Database drivers

PostgreSQL drivers

MySQL drivers

SQLite drivers

Project setup

Verify installation

Optional dependencies

TypeScript

Schema validation

Next steps