CLI Overview

Complete reference for the Prisma CLI with global options and available commands

Prisma CLI Overview

Prisma CLI is a modern database toolkit for querying, migrating, and modeling your database.

Installation

npm install prisma --save-dev

Usage

prisma [command] [options]

Available Commands

Command	Description
init	Set up Prisma for your app
dev	Start a local Prisma Postgres server for development
generate	Generate artifacts (e.g. Prisma Client)
db	Manage your database schema and lifecycle
migrate	Migrate your database
studio	Browse your data with Prisma Studio
validate	Validate your Prisma schema
format	Format your Prisma schema
version	Display Prisma version info
debug	Display Prisma debug info
platform	Prisma Data Platform commands
mcp	Start an MCP server to use with AI development tools

Global Options

--help · boolean

Show help information for any command.

Alias: -h

prisma --help
prisma generate --help

--version · boolean

Display Prisma version information.

Alias: -v

prisma --version

--config · string

Custom path to your Prisma config file.

prisma generate --config=./custom/prisma.config.ts

--preview-feature · boolean

Run Preview Prisma commands.

prisma [command] --preview-feature

Common Examples

Initialize a new project

prisma init

Start local development server

prisma dev

Generate Prisma Client

prisma generate

Open Prisma Studio

prisma studio

Run migrations in development

prisma migrate dev

Pull schema from database

prisma db pull

Push schema to database

prisma db push

Validate schema

prisma validate

Format schema

prisma format

Getting Help

For detailed help on any command, use the --help flag:

prisma [command] --help

For example:

prisma migrate --help
prisma db --help
prisma generate --help

Exit Codes

• 0 - Success
• 1 - General error
• 130 - User cancelled operation (SIGINT)

Configuration

The Prisma CLI reads configuration from prisma.config.ts (or prisma.config.js) by default. You can specify a custom config path with the --config option.

For legacy projects, the CLI also supports schema.prisma files with the --schema option.