We’re excited to share the 5.0.0 release today 🎉

Prisma 5.0.0 contains a lot of changes that improve Prisma’s performance, especially in serverless environments. If you want to learn more about the performance improvements, we wrote a blog post that sums up all the changes we made: Prisma 5: Faster by Default.

As this is a major release, it includes a few breaking changes that might affect a small group of our users. Before upgrading, we recommend that you check out our upgrade guide to understand the impact on your application.

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Highlights

Here’s a summary of the changes:

• Preview features moved to General Availability
  • jsonProtocol: improves communication between Prisma Client and the query engine, makes Prisma faster by default.
  • fieldReference: adds support for comparing columns of the same table.
  • extendedWhereUnique: adds support for non-unique columns inside where clauses for queries that operate on unique records.
• General improvements and breaking changes
  • Dependency version changes
    • Minimum Node.js version change to 16.13.0
    • Minimum TypeScript version change to 4.7
    • Minimum PostgreSQL version change to 9.6
    • Prisma Client embedded SQLite version upgrade to 3.41.2
  • Main Changes
    • Removal of rejectOnNotFound property
    • Removal of some array shortcuts
    • cockroachdb provider is now required when connecting to a CockroachDB database
    • Removed runtime/index.js from the generated Prisma Client
  • Other Changes
    • Removal of deprecated flags in the Prisma CLI
    • Removal of the beforeExit hook from the library engine
    • Removal of deprecated prisma2 executable
    • Removal of deprecated experimentalFeatures generator property in the Prisma schema
    • Renamed migration-engine to schema-engine

A JSON-based protocol that improves Prisma’s performance

We’re thrilled to announce that the jsonProtocol Preview feature is now Generally Available. You can now remove the Preview feature flag from your schema after upgrading. We made the JSON-based wire protocol the default protocol used for communication between Prisma Client and the query engine.

We introduced this feature in version 4.11.0 to improve Prisma’s performance. Previously, Prisma used a GraphQL-like protocol to communicate between Prisma Client and the query engine. Applications with larger schemas had higher CPU and memory consumption compared to smaller schemas which created a performance bottleneck.

The JSON-based wire protocol improves efficiency when Prisma Client is communicating with the query engine.

Removal of array shortcuts

We took the opportunity to remove some array shortcuts to make our typings more consistent and logical. These shortcuts were a way to add a single element as a value to an array-based operator instead of wrapping a single element in an array. We will now require array values for the following:

• OR operator shortcuts
• in and notIn operator shortcuts
• PostgreSQL JSON path field shortcut
• Scalar list shortcuts
• MongoDB Composite types list shortcuts

Here’s an example query using the OR operator shortcut for a single element;

await prisma.user.findMany({
  where: {
-    OR: { email: '[email protected]' }
+    OR: [{ email: '[email protected]' }]
  }
})

We recommend taking a look at the upgrade guide to learn how you can update your queries to work in Prisma 5.

Support for comparing multiple columns

We’re excited to announce that the fieldReference Preview feature is now stable and Generally Available. This means you can use this feature without the Preview feature flag in your Prisma schema.

We first introduced this feature in 4.5.0 to add the ability to compare columns on the same table. For example, the following query returns records where the quantity value is less than the warnQuantity of a product:

await prisma.product.findMany({
  where: { 
		quantity: { lte: prisma.product.fields.warnQuantity } 
	},
})

To learn more about this feature, refer to our documentation.

Support for filtering non-unique columns in queries for a unique record

We’re excited to announce the extendedWhereUnique Preview feature is now Generally Available. This means you can use the feature without the Preview feature flag in the Prisma schema.

We first introduced this feature in version 4.5.0 to add support for non-unique columns inside where clauses for queries that operate on unique records, such as findUnique, update, and delete, which was previously not possible.

For example, consider the following model:

model Article {
  id      Int    @id @default(autoincrement())
  content String
  version Int
}

You can filter on non-unique columns such as the version field as follows:

await prisma.article.findUnique({
  where: { 
    id: 5, 
    version: 1 // filter on the `version` field was not available before Prisma 4.5.0
  },
});

To learn more about this feature, refer to our documentation.

Minimum Node.js version change to 16.13.0

The minimum version of Node.js Prisma supports is 16.13.0. If you're using an earlier version of Node.js, you will need to upgrade your Node.js version.

Refer to our system requirements for the minimum versions Prisma requires.

Minimum TypeScript version change to 4.7

The minimum version of TypeScript Prisma supports is 4.7. If your project is using an earlier version of TypeScript, you will need to upgrade your TypeScript version.

Refer to our system requirements for the minimum versions Prisma requires.

Minimum PostgreSQL version change to 9.6

The minimum version of PostgreSQL Prisma supports is version 9.6. If you’re either using 9.4 or 9.5, you will need to update your PostgreSQL version to at least 9.6.

Refer to our system requirements for the minimum database versions Prisma requires.

Prisma Client embedded SQLite version upgrade

We upgraded the embedded version of SQLite from 3.35.4 to 3.41.2. We do not anticipate any breaking changes or changes needed in projects using SQLite. However, if you’re using SQLite, especially with raw queries that might go beyond Prisma's functionality, make sure to check the SQLite changelog.

Removal of rejectOnNotFound property

In version 5.0.0, we removed the rejectOnNotFound parameter from Prisma Client that was deprecated in version 4.0.0. We removed this feature to provide better type-safety using the findUniqueOrThrow and findFirstOrThrow methods as well have a consistent API.

If you are using the rejectOnNotFound parameter we recommend either:

• Replacing your queries with the findFirstOrThrow or findUniqueOrThrow methods if enabled at a query-level
• Using a Prisma Client extension to overload the findFirstOrThrow and findUniqueOrThrow model methods with your custom error handling if enabled at the client-level

We recommend taking a look at the upgrade guide for more information on how to adapt your application if you’re using rejectOnNotFound.

cockroachdb provider is now required when connecting to a CockroachDB database

Prior to adding explicit support for CockroachDB with the cockroachdb provider in 3.9.0, it was possible to use the PostgreSQL provider when working with CockroachDB databases.

We’re now making it mandatory to use the CockroachDB connector when working with CockroachDB databases. CockroachDB and PostgreSQL have a few differences such as the available native types which impact the generated migrations.

If you were using the PostgreSQL connector to work with CockroachDB, take a look at the upgrade guide to learn how you can update your connector.

Removal of the generated runtime/index.js file from Prisma Client

With Prisma 5, we removed the runtime/index.js file from Prisma Client. If you were using APIs from runtime/index.js, such as Decimal , PrismaClientKnownRequestError,  NotFoundError,  PrismaClientUnknownRequestError, we recommend updating your imports:

- import { Decimal } from '@prisma/client/runtime'
+ import { Prisma } from '@prisma/client'

// Usage update of Prisma Client's utilities
- Decimal
+ Prisma.Decimal

We recommend taking a look at the upgrade guide to learn how you can migrate to Prisma 5

Removal of the beforeExit hook from the library query engine

We removed the beforeExit hook from the default library Query Engine. We recommend using the built-in Node.js exit events.

-prisma.$on('beforeExit', () => { /* your code */ })

// Replacements
process.on('beforeExit', () => { /* your code */ })
process.on('exit', exitHandler)
process.on('SIGINT', exitHandler)
process.on('SIGTERM', exitHandler)
process.on('SIGUSR2', exitHandler)

We recommend taking a look at the upgrade guide to learn how you can migrate to Prisma 5.

Removal of deprecated prisma2 executable

When we released Prisma 2, the prisma2 executable was used to differentiate it from Prisma 1. In a later release, the prisma2 CLI took over the prisma executable name.

The prisma2 executable has been deprecated for a while and will now be removed. If you’re using prisma2 in your scripts, replace it with prisma.

Removal of deprecated flags in the Prisma CLI

We removed the following deprecated flags in the Prisma CLI:

• --preview-feature: used in the prisma db execute, prisma db seed, and prisma migrate diff commands
• --experimental and --early-access-feature: used in the prisma migrate commands such as prisma migrate dev
• --force: for prisma db push. The --force flag was replaced by --accept-data-loss in version 2.17.0
• --experimental-reintrospection and --clean: for prisma db pull

In the event you’re using one of these flags, we recommend removing the flags.

Removal of deprecated experimentalFeatures generator property

In this release, we removed the experimentalFeatures property that used to be in the generator property in the Prisma schema but has been renamed to previewFeatures for a long time now. If you’re still using this property, you can either manually rename it to previewFeatures or use the VS Code action to rename it if you’re using the latest version of the Prisma VS Code extension.

Renamed migration-engine to schema-engine

In this release, we renamed the migration-engine, responsible for running introspection and migration commands, to schema-engine . For the majority of our users, no changes will be required. However, if you explicitly include or exclude the engine files you will need to update your code references. Refer to the upgrade guide for more information.

Fixes and improvements

Prisma Client

• Getting a string '(array)' in the generator config instead of the expected value when array is used
• Misleading error message from create call
• Client extensions incorrect typings when defined both specific model and all models methods
• UncheckedUpdateManyInput types lead to conflicting names
• <Model>RelationFilterInput does not take nullability into account
• Full text search query with OR broke after opting in to jsonProtocol feature.
• Prisma Client: remove list shorthands (for jsonProtocol)
• Remove outdated preview feature aliases (transactionApi, aggregateApi)
• Prisma Client generator: remove creation of a package.json
• Prisma Client: make jsonProtocol GA
• Only upload engines files to binaries.prisma.sh/all_commits/
• Prisma Client: remove "beforeExit" hook from LibraryEngine/DataProxyEngine
• Prisma Client: remove rejectOnNotFound
• Prisma Client: remove runtime/index.js bundle from client
• Prisma CLI: remove non-existing prisma dev command
• Prisma Client: remove legacy photonResolver and provider=photonjs handling
• Prisma Client: make fieldReference GA
• Prisma Client: make extendedWhereUnique GA
• Remove backward compatibility for Prisma Client < 2.20 and Prisma CLI >= 2.20
• Prisma CLI: remove prisma2 "executable"
• Query in findMany in prisma extends returns a wrong type
• Can't specify $queryRawUnsafe return type after extending prisma client
• FindMany returns wrong type after extending prisma client
• 4.16.x cannot wrap $extend in factory function when compilerOptions.composite is true
• 4.16: (MongoDB) Generated types for list composites are incorrect
• Prisma Client Extensions: $allModels: { $allOperations } sets query type to never
• Prisma Schema Type inside a Type not generating a right Payload
• Field references are not available on extended clients
• Prisma Client fluent API does not work with extends anymore on 4.16.1
• Prisma not generating correct payload for types in models for MongoDB for 4.16.1
• Prisma requires to install bun when generating client library
• Getting wrong types with prisma client extensions
• Prisma Client: updating to 4.16.0 or 4.16.1 breaks Cloudflare worker, it errors with The package "path" wasn't found on the file system but is built into node
• Result types are incorrectly inferred when undefined explicitly passed to select/include
• Migrating to release: 4.16.2 throws typescript error: "TS1005: '?' expected".

Prisma Migrate

• Make connecting to a cockroachdb database with provider = "postgresql" an error
• Remove the deprecated experimentalFeatures generator property
• Remove support for PostgreSQL 9.4 and 9.5
• Upgrade embedded SQLite version
• Drop support for Node.js v14
• db pull: Remove the version checker from introspection
• Prisma CLI: remove undocumented doctor command
• Rename migration-engine to schema-engine
• Prisma CLI: remove deprecated flags, arguments and "old migrate" logic
• Remove obsolete experimentalFeatures generator property
• Remove usage / mention of experimentalFeatures

Language tools (e.g. VS Code)

• Mark experimentalFeatures as obsolete

Credits

Huge thanks to @michaelpoellath, @RobertCraigie, @Coder246, @RDIL, @oohwooh, @rqres, @zhiyan114, @spudly, @hayes, @boennemann, @DongGunYoon for helping!

📺 Join us for another "What's new in Prisma" live stream

Learn about the latest release and other news from the Prisma community by joining us for another "What's new in Prisma" live stream.

The stream takes place on YouTube on Thursday, July 13 at 5 pm Berlin | 8 am San Francisco.