Creating a Database

We can utilize a single database for free. Simply navigate to the project dashboard and initiate a new project. Once created, you will be presented with a connection string. Copy this string and save it in a .env file. Here’s a sample:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://drizzle_owner:[email protected]/drizzle?sslmode=require"

At this point, we can set Neon aside and proceed to the Next.js setup.

Installing Required Dependencies

To get started, run the following commands in your terminal:

npm i drizzle-orm @neondatabase/serverless

npm i -D drizzle-kit

npm i dotenv

npm i -D pg

Db Instance Setup

Create a folder named db in the root directory and add a drizzle.ts file. This is where we will register our schema soon.

import { neon } from "@neondatabase/serverless";

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/neon-http";

const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);

// @ts-ignore

const db = drizzle(sql);

export default db;

Defining the Schema

To verify that everything is functioning correctly, let’s create a basic todo schema.

import { pgTable, serial, text } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";

export const todos = pgTable("todos", {

id: serial("id").primaryKey(),

label: text("label").notNull(),

});

Updating the Database Instance

Now, let’s create a Neon DB instance. Modify drizzle.ts as follows:

import { neon } from "@neondatabase/serverless";

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/neon-http";

import * as schema from "./schema"; // new

const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);

// @ts-ignore

const db = drizzle(sql, { schema }); // updated

export default db;

Configuring Drizzle

Next, we need to establish the Drizzle configuration. This informs Drizzle that we have defined a schema.

import "dotenv/config";

import type { Config } from "drizzle-kit";

export default {

schema: "./db/schema.ts",

out: "./drizzle",

driver: "pg",

dbCredentials: {

connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL!,

},

} satisfies Config;

Database Migration

We can now propagate our schema to the database.

npx drizzle-kit push:pg

If all goes well, you should see a success message. You can verify the changes directly in Neon or through Drizzle Studio.

npm run db:studio