Setting Up NestJS with Prisma (Without the Headache )

Starting a project with NestJS and Prisma should be easy, right? They’re both popular technologies and a great match. There are even official articles (1)(2) explaining how to integrate them.

Wrong.

For some reason, those articles are outdated. So here I am, writing this guide to save you a serious headache when setting up your project.

Let’s Get to It

💡 I’ll be using pnpm for this project, but feel free to use any package manager you prefer.

1. Create the Project

You’ll be prompted to choose a package manager. Select pnpm if you want to follow this guide without changes. Otherwise, adapt as needed.

💡 At the time of writing, the latest version of @nestjs/cli appears to have a bug, so I’m using an older version. This may have been resolved by the time you’re reading.

pnpm dlx @nestjs/cli@11.0.0 new nestjs-prisma-test

2. Set Up PostgreSQL with Docker

Create a Docker file:

touch docker-compose.yml

Add the following content:

# docker-compose.yml

version: '3.8'
services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:13.5
    restart: always
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=myuser
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mypassword
    volumes:
      - postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    ports:
      - '5432:5432'

volumes:
  postgres:

Run the container and keep the terminal open:

docker-compose up

3. Install Prisma

pnpm add prisma -D

Initialize Prisma:

pnpm dlx prisma init

4. Configure Environment Variables

Install dotenv:

pnpm add dotenv

Update your config files to load environment variables:

// prisma.config.ts
import 'dotenv/config';
// rest of the file...

// src/main.ts
import 'dotenv/config';
// rest of the file...

Update your .env file (remove any comments):

DATABASE_URL="postgres://myuser:mypassword@localhost:5432"

5. Define Your Models

Edit prisma/schema.prisma:

model User {
  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  email     String   @unique
  name      String
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  updatedAt DateTime @updatedAt
}

Run the initial migration:

pnpm dlx prisma migrate dev --name "init"

6. Install Prisma Client

pnpm add @prisma/client

💡 You don’t need to run generate now – Prisma does it automatically when installing the client. But for future schema changes, run:

pnpm dlx prisma generate

7. Create the Prisma Service

Note: We import from /client, not as shown in the official docs.

// src/services/prisma.service.ts

import { Injectable, OnModuleInit } from '@nestjs/common';
import { PrismaClient } from 'generated/prisma/client';

@Injectable()
export class PrismaService extends PrismaClient implements OnModuleInit {
  async onModuleInit() {
    await this.$connect();
  }
}

8. Register the Prisma Service

// src/app.module.ts

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { AppController } from './app.controller';
import { PrismaService } from './services/prisma.service';

@Module({
  imports: [],
  controllers: [AppController],
  providers: [PrismaService],
})
export class AppModule {}

9. Use the Prisma Service

// src/app.controller.ts

import { Controller, Get } from '@nestjs/common';
import { PrismaService } from './services/prisma.service';

@Controller()
export class AppController {
  constructor(private readonly prismaService: PrismaService) {}

  @Get()
  async getUsers() {
    return this.prismaService.user.findMany();
  }
}

💡 This is a minimal setup and not production-ready. In a real app, you shouldn’t call a service directly from the controller. But this is a Prisma + NestJS set up tutorial – so I don’t care.

10. Run the Server

pnpm run start:dev

And that’s it! Populate your database and test the endpoint.

If you run into any issues, let me know in the comments. Hope you enjoyed the ride!