postgres-drizzle

PostgreSQL + Drizzle ORM

Type-safe database applications with PostgreSQL 17/18 and Drizzle ORM.

Version Check (do this first)

Drizzle's API changed significantly between the stable 0.x line and v1.0. Check package.json before writing code, because the two relations APIs are incompatible and must not be mixed:

drizzle-orm version	Relations API	Query filters
^0.x (npm latest)	relations() per table, drizzle(client, { schema })	where: eq(users.id, id)
1.0.0-beta.* / 1.0.0-rc.*	defineRelations() once for all tables, drizzle(client, { relations })	where: { id: userId } (object style)

The official docs site (orm.drizzle.team) documents v1.0 syntax on its main pages. This skill defaults to stable 0.x syntax; for v1.0 projects read references/RELATIONS.md § "Relational Queries v2". Signals a project is on v1.0: defineRelations imports, object-style where, r.many.posts() in relations, from/to keys instead of fields/references.

Essential Commands

npx drizzle-kit generate   # Generate SQL migration from schema changes
npx drizzle-kit migrate    # Apply pending migrations
npx drizzle-kit push       # Push schema directly (dev/prototyping only)
npx drizzle-kit pull       # Introspect existing DB into a schema file
npx drizzle-kit studio     # Open database browser
npx drizzle-kit check      # Detect migration collisions (race conditions)

Quick Decision Trees

"How do I model this relationship?"

Relationship type?
├─ One-to-many (user has posts)     → FK on "many" side + relations()
├─ Many-to-many (posts have tags)   → Junction table with composite PK + relations()
├─ One-to-one (user has profile)    → FK with unique constraint
└─ Self-referential (comments)      → FK to same table (type the ref as AnyPgColumn)

"Why is my query slow?"

Slow query?
├─ Missing index on WHERE/JOIN columns  → Add index (Postgres does NOT auto-index FKs)
├─ Query per row in a loop (N+1)        → Use relational queries (`with:`) or a join
├─ Full table scan                      → EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS), add index
├─ Large OFFSET pagination              → Switch to cursor/keyset pagination
└─ Connection overhead per request      → Pool connections (pg Pool / postgres.js / PgBouncer)

"Which drizzle-kit command?"

What do I need?
├─ Schema changed, need versioned SQL   → drizzle-kit generate, review SQL, then migrate
├─ Apply migrations (CI, prod)          → drizzle-kit migrate (or migrate() in code)
├─ Quick local iteration, throwaway DB  → drizzle-kit push
├─ Adopt Drizzle on an existing DB      → drizzle-kit pull
└─ Hand-written SQL (triggers, backfill)→ drizzle-kit generate --custom

Connection Setup

// node-postgres — pass a URL and Drizzle creates a Pool for you
import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/node-postgres';
import * as schema from './schema';

export const db = drizzle(process.env.DATABASE_URL!, { schema });

// postgres.js — built-in pooling; set prepare: false behind a
// transaction-mode pooler (PgBouncer/Supavisor) unless it supports prepared statements
import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/postgres-js';
import postgres from 'postgres';
import * as schema from './schema';

const client = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL!, { max: 20 });
export const db = drizzle(client, { schema });

Passing schema is what enables db.query.* relational queries — forgetting it is the most common cause of "Property 'users' does not exist on type ...".

Optional: drizzle(url, { schema, casing: 'snake_case' }) maps camelCase TS keys to snake_case columns so you can write pgTable('users', { createdAt: timestamp() }) without repeating column names. Set the same casing in drizzle.config.ts.

Schema Patterns

Basic Table with Timestamps

import { pgTable, uuid, varchar, timestamp } from 'drizzle-orm/pg-core';

export const users = pgTable('users', {
  id: uuid('id').primaryKey().defaultRandom(),
  email: varchar('email', { length: 255 }).notNull().unique(),
  createdAt: timestamp('created_at', { withTimezone: true }).defaultNow().notNull(),
  updatedAt: timestamp('updated_at', { withTimezone: true })
    .defaultNow()
    .notNull()
    .$onUpdate(() => new Date()),
});

Prefer timestamp(..., { withTimezone: true }) (timestamptz) — naive timestamps cause silent timezone bugs. For integer PKs, prefer integer().primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity() over serial() (the PostgreSQL-recommended form; serial is legacy).

Foreign Key with Index

import { index } from 'drizzle-orm/pg-core';

export const posts = pgTable('posts', {
  id: uuid('id').primaryKey().defaultRandom(),
  userId: uuid('user_id').notNull().references(() => users.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' }),
  title: varchar('title', { length: 255 }).notNull(),
}, (table) => [
  // Postgres creates NO index for FK columns — add one or JOINs/cascades scan
  index('posts_user_id_idx').on(table.userId),
]);

The third pgTable argument returns an array (the older object form is deprecated).

Relations (stable 0.x API)

import { relations } from 'drizzle-orm';

export const usersRelations = relations(users, ({ many }) => ({
  posts: many(posts),
}));

export const postsRelations = relations(posts, ({ one }) => ({
  author: one(users, { fields: [posts.userId], references: [users.id] }),
}));

relations() is application-level metadata for db.query.* — it does not create FK constraints. Define both (.references() for the DB, relations() for queries).

Query Patterns

import { eq } from 'drizzle-orm';

// Relational query — nested data in one round trip, no N+1
const usersWithPosts = await db.query.users.findMany({
  with: { posts: true },
});

// SQL-like query — filters, joins, aggregations
const activeUsers = await db
  .select()
  .from(users)
  .where(eq(users.status, 'active'));

// Transaction — all statements commit or roll back together
await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
  const [user] = await tx.insert(users).values({ email }).returning();
  await tx.insert(profiles).values({ userId: user.id });
});

Inside a transaction, always use tx, not db — queries on db escape the transaction and won't roll back.

Performance Checklist

Priority	Check	Impact
CRITICAL	Index all foreign keys	Prevents full scans on JOINs and cascaded deletes
CRITICAL	Use relational queries or joins for nested data	Avoids N+1
HIGH	Connection pooling in production	Each PG connection costs ~MBs of RAM
HIGH	EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) slow queries	Identifies missing indexes
MEDIUM	Partial indexes for filtered subsets	Smaller, faster indexes
MEDIUM	UUIDv7 (uuidv7(), PG18+) or identity for PKs	Better index locality than UUIDv4

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Problem	Fix
No FK index	Slow JOINs, slow cascades	Add index on every FK column
N+1 in loops	Query per row	with: relational queries or a join
One connection per request	Connection storms, RAM exhaustion	pg Pool / postgres.js max / PgBouncer
push in prod	No history, data-loss prompts	generate + migrate
Mixing 0.x relations() with v1.0 defineRelations	Type errors, broken db.query	Pick one per project (see Version Check)
Storing JSON as text	No validation, no indexing	jsonb() column + GIN index
timestamp without timezone	Silent TZ bugs	{ withTimezone: true }
Editing applied migration files	Checksum mismatch, drift	New migration (generate / generate --custom)

Reference Documentation

Read this	When you are...
references/SCHEMA.md	Defining tables: column types, constraints, indexes, enums, generated columns
references/QUERIES.md	Writing selects, inserts, upserts, transactions, prepared statements
references/RELATIONS.md	Modeling relations or using db.query.* — includes the v1.0 RQB v2 API
references/MIGRATIONS.md	Configuring drizzle-kit, generating/applying migrations, custom SQL
references/POSTGRES.md	Using PG17/18 features, RLS, partitioning, JSONB ops, full-text search
references/PERFORMANCE.md	Indexing strategy, EXPLAIN, pooling, pagination, bulk operations
references/CHEATSHEET.md	Needing a compact syntax reminder for any of the above

Resources

• Drizzle ORM docs: https://orm.drizzle.team (documents v1.0 syntax; see Version Check)
• Drizzle GitHub: https://github.com/drizzle-team/drizzle-orm
• PostgreSQL docs: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/
• Row-Level Security: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-rowsecurity.html
• Index types: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/indexes-types.html