Prisma Migration Assistant

Plan and execute safe Prisma migrations with confidence.

Migration Planning Workflow

// 1. Update schema.prisma
model User {
  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  email     String   @unique
  // NEW: Split name into firstName and lastName
  firstName String?
  lastName  String?
  // OLD: name      String  // Will remove this
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
}

// 2. Create migration
// npx prisma migrate dev --name split_user_name --create-only

// 3. Review generated SQL
// 4. Add data migration
// 5. Test migration
// 6. Apply to production

Migration Types

1. Additive Migration (Safe)

// Adding new optional field - safe!
model Product {
  id          Int     @id @default(autoincrement())
  name        String
  description String?
  price       Float
  newField    String? // NEW - optional, no backfill needed
}

# Generate migration
npx prisma migrate dev --name add_product_new_field

# SQL generated:
# ALTER TABLE "Product" ADD COLUMN "newField" TEXT;

2. Column Rename (Needs Data Copy)

model User {
  id         Int    @id @default(autoincrement())
  emailAddr  String @unique // Renamed from 'email'
}

-- migrations/20240115_rename_email/migration.sql

-- Step 1: Add new column
ALTER TABLE "User" ADD COLUMN "emailAddr" TEXT;

-- Step 2: Copy data
UPDATE "User" SET "emailAddr" = "email";

-- Step 3: Make new column required
ALTER TABLE "User" ALTER COLUMN "emailAddr" SET NOT NULL;

-- Step 4: Add unique constraint
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "User_emailAddr_key" ON "User"("emailAddr");

-- Step 5: Drop old column
ALTER TABLE "User" DROP COLUMN "email";

3. Data Transformation (Complex)

// Before: Single name field
// After: First and last name
model User {
  id        Int     @id @default(autoincrement())
  firstName String
  lastName  String
  // name   String  // Removed
}

-- migrations/20240115_split_name/migration.sql

-- Step 1: Add new columns
ALTER TABLE "User" ADD COLUMN "firstName" TEXT;
ALTER TABLE "User" ADD COLUMN "lastName" TEXT;

-- Step 2: Data migration (split name)
-- PostgreSQL
UPDATE "User"
SET
  "firstName" = SPLIT_PART("name", ' ', 1),
  "lastName" = CASE
    WHEN array_length(string_to_array("name", ' '), 1) > 1
    THEN array_to_string((string_to_array("name", ' '))[2:], ' ')
    ELSE ''
  END
WHERE "name" IS NOT NULL;

-- Step 3: Handle NULL values
UPDATE "User"
SET
  "firstName" = COALESCE("firstName", ''),
  "lastName" = COALESCE("lastName", '');

-- Step 4: Make columns required
ALTER TABLE "User" ALTER COLUMN "firstName" SET NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE "User" ALTER COLUMN "lastName" SET NOT NULL;

-- Step 5: Drop old column
ALTER TABLE "User" DROP COLUMN "name";

4. Type Change (Risky)

model Product {
  id    Int    @id @default(autoincrement())
  price Decimal @db.Decimal(10, 2) // Changed from Float
}

-- migrations/20240115_price_to_decimal/migration.sql

-- Step 1: Add new column with correct type
ALTER TABLE "Product" ADD COLUMN "price_new" DECIMAL(10,2);

-- Step 2: Copy and convert data
UPDATE "Product"
SET "price_new" = CAST("price" AS DECIMAL(10,2));

-- Step 3: Drop old column
ALTER TABLE "Product" DROP COLUMN "price";

-- Step 4: Rename new column
ALTER TABLE "Product" RENAME COLUMN "price_new" TO "price";

-- Step 5: Make NOT NULL if required
ALTER TABLE "Product" ALTER COLUMN "price" SET NOT NULL;

Migration Sequencing

# Migration Sequence: Add User Roles

## Phase 1: Additive (Week 1)

1. Add optional `role` field
2. Deploy application code that handles NULL roles
3. Backfill existing users with default role

## Phase 2: Enforcement (Week 2)

1. Make `role` field required
2. Deploy code that requires role on creation
3. Add database constraint

## Phase 3: Cleanup (Week 3)

1. Remove old permission checking code
2. Verify all users have roles

Backfill Strategies

Small Table (< 10k rows)

// scripts/backfill-user-roles.ts
import { PrismaClient } from "@prisma/client";

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

async function backfillUserRoles() {
  const usersWithoutRoles = await prisma.user.findMany({
    where: { role: null },
  });

  console.log(`Backfilling ${usersWithoutRoles.length} users...`);

  // Single transaction for small dataset
  await prisma.$transaction(
    usersWithoutRoles.map((user) =>
      prisma.user.update({
        where: { id: user.id },
        data: { role: "USER" }, // Default role
      })
    )
  );

  console.log("✅ Backfill complete");
}

backfillUserRoles();

Large Table (> 10k rows)

// scripts/backfill-large-table.ts
async function backfillBatched() {
  const batchSize = 1000;
  let processed = 0;
  let hasMore = true;

  while (hasMore) {
    const batch = await prisma.user.findMany({
      where: { role: null },
      take: batchSize,
      select: { id: true },
    });

    if (batch.length === 0) {
      hasMore = false;
      break;
    }

    // Process batch
    await prisma.$transaction(
      batch.map((user) =>
        prisma.user.update({
          where: { id: user.id },
          data: { role: "USER" },
        })
      )
    );

    processed += batch.length;
    console.log(`Processed ${processed} users...`);

    // Rate limiting
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 100));
  }

  console.log(`✅ Backfilled ${processed} users`);
}

Rollback Guidance

-- migrations/20240115_add_role/rollback.sql

-- Rollback Step 1: Add back old structure (if needed)
ALTER TABLE "User" DROP COLUMN "role";

-- Rollback Step 2: Restore old logic
-- (Deploy previous application version)

-- Note: Data loss consideration
-- If you backfilled data, document what was lost

Migration Testing

// tests/migrations/split-name.test.ts
import { PrismaClient } from "@prisma/client";
import { execSync } from "child_process";

describe("Split name migration", () => {
  let prisma: PrismaClient;

  beforeAll(async () => {
    // Setup test database
    execSync("npx prisma migrate deploy", {
      env: { DATABASE_URL: process.env.TEST_DATABASE_URL },
    });
    prisma = new PrismaClient();
  });

  it("should split name correctly", async () => {
    // Create user with old schema
    await prisma.$executeRaw`
      INSERT INTO "User" (name) VALUES ('John Doe')
    `;

    // Run migration
    execSync("npx prisma migrate deploy");

    // Verify split
    const user = await prisma.user.findFirst();
    expect(user?.firstName).toBe("John");
    expect(user?.lastName).toBe("Doe");
  });

  it("should handle single name", async () => {
    await prisma.$executeRaw`
      INSERT INTO "User" (name) VALUES ('Madonna')
    `;

    execSync("npx prisma migrate deploy");

    const user = await prisma.user.findFirst({
      where: { firstName: "Madonna" },
    });
    expect(user?.lastName).toBe("");
  });
});

Pre-Migration Checklist

- [ ] Backup database
- [ ] Test migration on staging
- [ ] Verify data transformation logic
- [ ] Check for referential integrity issues
- [ ] Estimate migration time
- [ ] Plan rollback strategy
- [ ] Schedule maintenance window (if needed)
- [ ] Notify team of deployment

SQL Preview Script

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/preview-migration.sh

echo "🔍 Previewing migration..."

# Create migration without applying
npx prisma migrate dev --name "$1" --create-only

# Show SQL
echo ""
echo "📄 Generated SQL:"
echo "=================="
cat prisma/migrations/*_$1/migration.sql

# Analyze impact
echo ""
echo "📊 Impact Analysis:"
echo "=================="
echo "Tables affected: $(cat prisma/migrations/*_$1/migration.sql | grep -c 'ALTER TABLE')"
echo "Rows to update: [Run COUNT query manually]"
echo "Estimated time: [Estimate based on table size]"

Best Practices

1. Create migration, don't apply: Use --create-only flag
2. Review SQL carefully: Check generated migration
3. Test on staging: Always test before production
4. Batch large updates: Avoid locking tables
5. Add before removing: Additive migrations first
6. Version application code: Deploy code that handles both schemas
7. Monitor performance: Watch query times during migration
8. Have rollback plan: Document reversal steps

Output Checklist

• Migration SQL generated and reviewed
• Data backfill strategy planned
• Rollback procedure documented
• Migration sequencing defined
• Testing plan created
• Impact analysis completed
• Staging deployment successful
• Production deployment scheduled