Prisma Postgres setup skill: get a database connected by your agent

Source: prisma/skills · Maintainer: Prisma · License: MIT · Checked: 27 October 2026

What is the Prisma Postgres setup skill?

The Prisma Postgres setup skill tells a coding agent how to give your app a working Postgres database: reuse the one you already have, or obtain a Prisma Postgres database, store the connection string as a secret, then prove it works with a read-only query. It is for developers who say "I need a database" to Claude Code, Codex or Cursor and want the agent to finish the job without leaking credentials or creating duplicates.

The skill's description reads: "Obtain or reuse a Prisma Postgres database and connect an application." It triggers on phrases such as "I need a database", "add a Postgres database" and "set up a database for this app", on any mention of create-db or npx create-db, and on requests to connect Prisma Postgres, "including in v0 and the Vercel Marketplace."

It lives in prisma/skills, whose README describes the repo as "A collection of skills for AI coding agents working with Prisma ORM, Prisma Postgres and Prisma Compute." The frontmatter lists author prisma and version 2.3.0.

As of 27 October 2026, its skills.sh page listed about 379,900 installs (snapshot, 27 October 2026).

What does it do?

The SKILL.md is short, about 4 KB, and runs in four steps. Its opening rule: "Keep provisioning separate from ORM configuration so an existing database is reused."

1. Inspect the project. The agent checks the requested ORM or driver, installed packages, any existing connection and the environment files, and checks "secret presence without printing values." It honors explicit choices such as Drizzle, pg or database-only setup.

2. Reuse or obtain a database. A decision table picks the route:

If provisioning is blocked by permissions or quota, the agent reports the blocker. It must not "delete another resource or switch workspaces to get around it."

3. Connect the application. The connection string goes into the project's secret environment configuration, "never source code or chat", and local secret files must be ignored by Git. The skill also warns that a variable missing from the shell doesn't mean the database is missing, since a framework may load .env.development.local while a shell command doesn't. In that case the agent loads the right file instead of provisioning another database.

4. Configure the ORM and verify. Prisma ORM setup is handed to the sibling prisma-orm-setup skill, which "owns ORM version selection and configuration." Then the agent runs a read-only query through the app's ORM or driver and reports what was connected, without secrets. "If any step is blocked or untested, say so instead of claiming setup is complete."

Three reference files carry the detail:

• provisioning.md: persistent databases through Prisma Console, the Platform CLI (npx -y @prisma/cli@latest postgres --help as a starting point), a Prisma MCP server or the Management API, plus temporary databases with create-db.
• vercel-marketplace.md: the Vercel CLI flow with vercel integration add prisma/prisma-postgres, the DATABASE_URL, POSTGRES_URL and PRISMA_DATABASE_URL variables, connection limits and a table of common errors.
• operations.md: Console, Studio and the @prisma/management-api-sdk package for work beyond the first connection.

How do you install the Prisma Postgres setup skill?

The command on skills.sh copies just this folder:

npx skills add https://github.com/prisma/skills --skill prisma-postgres-setup

The README's Prisma Version section says: "Install prisma-orm-setup and prisma-postgres-setup for the default Prisma Postgres workflow." Because step 4 hands off to prisma-orm-setup, install both if you use Prisma ORM:

npx skills add prisma/skills --skill prisma-postgres-setup
npx skills add prisma/skills --skill prisma-orm-setup

Or install every Prisma skill with npx skills add prisma/skills. The skills CLI puts the folder in .claude/skills/ for the project, or ~/.claude/skills/ with -g, the standard Claude Code skill locations. Codex and Cursor read the same SKILL.md format; see Codex skills and Cursor skills.

For a temporary database you need Node.js. Prisma's create-db docs list Node.js 20.5 or newer.

How do you use it?

Ask for a database in plain language. The skill is model-invoked, so the agent loads it when your request matches its trigger phrases.

Example prompts (suggestions, not quotes from the repo):

• I need a database for this app. Set up Postgres and check it works.
• Run npx create-db for a scratch database, put the URL in .env, and tell me when it expires.
• Add Prisma Postgres to this Vercel project through the Marketplace integration.
• Connect this Drizzle app to my existing Prisma Postgres database. Don't switch it to Prisma ORM.
• DATABASE_URL works in next dev but prisma migrate says it's missing. Fix it without creating a new database.

When no provider is named, expect the agent to ask whether you want a temporary or persistent database before it creates anything. At the end, expect a short report: the database it connected, the ORM and version, and the result of the test query.

Tips and limits

From the repo, Prisma's docs and skills.sh, not from testing:

• Temporary databases expire. Prisma's create-db docs say no sign-up is needed, the lifetime is "24 hours by default", and you keep a database by claiming it with a Prisma account through the claim URL. The skill tells the agent not to "promise persistence until claiming is complete."
• Vercel resources share one database across environments by default. The Marketplace reference says connecting one resource to production, preview and development means they share data, and that the agent should tell you. Use one resource per environment if you want separate data.
• Direct connections are capped low. The same reference says the direct endpoint allows 10 connections on Free and Starter, 5 of them reserved, and suggests the pooled endpoint for production traffic from Vercel Functions.
• Paid plans are your call. The same reference tells the agent to use plan ID free in the Vercel flow unless you chose a paid plan, because a paid plan "bills the user's Vercel account, so ask first."
• Backups. The reference says restorable daily backups come with paid plans, and to treat a Free database as having no backup.
• Security audits. On skills.sh, Gen Agent Trust Hub rated the skill Pass (Safe) and Socket rated it Pass, both on 16 October 2026. Snyk rated it Warn (medium risk) on 16 October 2026, flagging that the skill runs unpinned packages fetched from npm (npx -y @prisma/cli@latest and npx create-db@latest) at setup time.
• Some steps need a human. Accepting Vercel integration terms in the browser and claiming a create-db database both need you, not the agent.

The MIT License lets you copy and change the skill as long as you keep Prisma's copyright and license notice.

Save it in your Kipt library

A copy is handy if your team has fixed rules the stock skill doesn't know, such as "always use the pooled URL in production" or a preferred region. In Kipt, open Skills and paste the skill's GitHub folder link into the import box; for a repo with many skills Kipt shows a list to pick from, so you can take prisma-orm-setup too. You can also drop the folder or a .zip. Skills in your private GitHub repo install into Claude Code or Codex with one command:

npx skills add https://github.com/<you>/<repo>.git --all -g

Kipt is not affiliated with Prisma.

Similar skills

• Prisma skill: the prisma-client-api skill from the same repo, for writing queries once the database is connected.
• Prisma CLI skill: Prisma ORM 7 commands for migrations, db push and generate once the database is connected.
• Neon Postgres skill: Neon's official skill, if you host Postgres on Neon instead.
• Supabase skill: Supabase's official skill for Postgres plus auth and storage.
• Postgres best practices skill: query and schema guidance for any Postgres database.