Drizzle ORM for Cloudflare D1

Status: Production Ready ✅ Last Updated: 2025-10-24 Latest Version: drizzle-orm@0.44.7, drizzle-kit@0.31.5 Dependencies: cloudflare-d1, cloudflare-worker-base

Quick Start (10 Minutes)

1. Install Drizzle

npm install drizzle-orm
npm install -D drizzle-kit

# Or with pnpm
pnpm add drizzle-orm
pnpm add -D drizzle-kit

Why Drizzle?

• Type-safe queries with full TypeScript inference
• SQL-like syntax (no magic, no abstraction overhead)
• Serverless-ready (works perfectly with D1)
• Zero dependencies (except database driver)
• Excellent DX with IDE autocomplete
• Migrations that work with Wrangler

2. Configure Drizzle Kit

Create drizzle.config.ts in your project root:

import { defineConfig } from 'drizzle-kit';

export default defineConfig({
  schema: './src/db/schema.ts',
  out: './migrations',
  dialect: 'sqlite',
  driver: 'd1-http',
  dbCredentials: {
    accountId: process.env.CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID!,
    databaseId: process.env.CLOUDFLARE_DATABASE_ID!,
    token: process.env.CLOUDFLARE_D1_TOKEN!,
  },
});

CRITICAL:

• dialect: 'sqlite' - D1 is SQLite-based
• driver: 'd1-http' - For remote database access via HTTP API
• Use environment variables for credentials (never commit these!)

3. Configure Wrangler

Update wrangler.jsonc:

{
  "name": "my-worker",
  "main": "src/index.ts",
  "compatibility_date": "2025-10-11",
  "d1_databases": [
    {
      "binding": "DB",
      "database_name": "my-database",
      "database_id": "your-database-id",
      "preview_database_id": "local-db",
      "migrations_dir": "./migrations"  // ← Points to Drizzle migrations!
    }
  ]
}

Why this matters:

• migrations_dir tells Wrangler where to find SQL migration files
• Drizzle generates migrations in ./migrations (from drizzle.config.ts out)
• Wrangler can apply Drizzle-generated migrations with wrangler d1 migrations apply

4. Define Your Schema

Create src/db/schema.ts:

import { sqliteTable, text, integer } from 'drizzle-orm/sqlite-core';
import { relations } from 'drizzle-orm';

export const users = sqliteTable('users', {
  id: integer('id').primaryKey({ autoIncrement: true }),
  email: text('email').notNull().unique(),
  name: text('name').notNull(),
  createdAt: integer('created_at', { mode: 'timestamp' }).$defaultFn(() => new Date()),
});

export const posts = sqliteTable('posts', {
  id: integer('id').primaryKey({ autoIncrement: true }),
  title: text('title').notNull(),
  content: text('content').notNull(),
  authorId: integer('author_id')
    .notNull()
    .references(() => users.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' }),
  createdAt: integer('created_at', { mode: 'timestamp' }).$defaultFn(() => new Date()),
});

// Define relations for type-safe joins
export const usersRelations = relations(users, ({ many }) => ({
  posts: many(posts),
}));

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

Key Points:

• Use integer for auto-incrementing IDs
• Use integer with mode: 'timestamp' for dates (D1 doesn't have native date type)
• Use .$defaultFn() for dynamic defaults (not .default() for functions)
• Define relations separately for type-safe joins

5. Generate & Apply Migrations

# Step 1: Generate SQL migration from schema
npx drizzle-kit generate

# Step 2: Apply to local database (for testing)
npx wrangler d1 migrations apply my-database --local

# Step 3: Apply to production database
npx wrangler d1 migrations apply my-database --remote

Why this workflow:

• drizzle-kit generate creates versioned SQL files in ./migrations
• Test locally first with --local flag
• Apply to production only after local testing succeeds
• Wrangler reads the migrations and applies them to D1

6. Query in Your Worker

Create src/index.ts:

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/d1';
import { users, posts } from './db/schema';
import { eq } from 'drizzle-orm';

export interface Env {
  DB: D1Database;
}

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env): Promise<Response> {
    const db = drizzle(env.DB);

    // Type-safe select with full inference
    const allUsers = await db.select().from(users);

    // Select with where clause
    const user = await db
      .select()
      .from(users)
      .where(eq(users.email, 'test@example.com'))
      .get(); // .get() returns first result or undefined

    // Insert with returning
    const [newUser] = await db
      .insert(users)
      .values({ email: 'new@example.com', name: 'New User' })
      .returning();

    // Update
    await db
      .update(users)
      .set({ name: 'Updated Name' })
      .where(eq(users.id, 1));

    // Delete
    await db
      .delete(users)
      .where(eq(users.id, 1));

    return Response.json({ allUsers, user, newUser });
  },
};

CRITICAL:

• Use .get() for single results (returns first or undefined)
• Use .all() for all results (returns array)
• Import operators from drizzle-orm: eq, gt, lt, and, or, etc.
• .returning() works with D1 (returns inserted/updated rows)

The Complete Setup Process

Step 1: Install Dependencies

# Core dependencies
npm install drizzle-orm

# Dev dependencies
npm install -D drizzle-kit @cloudflare/workers-types

# Optional: For local development with SQLite
npm install -D better-sqlite3

Step 2: Environment Variables

Create .env (never commit this!):

# Get these from Cloudflare dashboard
CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID=your-account-id
CLOUDFLARE_DATABASE_ID=your-database-id
CLOUDFLARE_D1_TOKEN=your-api-token

How to get these:

1. Account ID: Cloudflare dashboard → Account Home → Account ID
2. Database ID: Run wrangler d1 create my-database (output includes ID)
3. API Token: Cloudflare dashboard → My Profile → API Tokens → Create Token

Step 3: Project Structure

my-project/
├── drizzle.config.ts          # Drizzle Kit configuration
├── wrangler.jsonc             # Wrangler configuration
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts               # Worker entry point
│   └── db/
│       └── schema.ts          # Database schema
├── migrations/                # Generated by drizzle-kit
│   ├── meta/
│   │   └── _journal.json
│   └── 0001_initial_schema.sql
└── package.json

Step 4: Configure TypeScript

Update tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "ESNext",
    "lib": ["ES2022"],
    "types": ["@cloudflare/workers-types"],
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "moduleResolution": "bundler",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "isolatedModules": true
  }
}

Critical Rules

Always Do

✅ Use drizzle-kit generate for migrations - Never write SQL manually ✅ Test migrations locally first - Always use --local flag before --remote ✅ Define relations in schema - For type-safe joins and nested queries ✅ Use .get() for single results - Returns first row or undefined ✅ Use db.batch() for transactions - D1 doesn't support SQL BEGIN/COMMIT ✅ Use integer with mode: 'timestamp' for dates - D1 doesn't have native date type ✅ Use .$defaultFn() for dynamic defaults - Not .default() for functions ✅ Set migrations_dir in wrangler.jsonc - Points to ./migrations ✅ Use environment variables for credentials - Never commit API keys ✅ Import operators from drizzle-orm - eq, gt, and, or, etc.

Never Do

❌ Never use SQL BEGIN TRANSACTION - D1 requires batch API (see Known Issue #1) ❌ Never mix wrangler d1 migrations apply and drizzle-kit migrate - Use Wrangler only ❌ Never use drizzle-kit push for production - Use generate + apply workflow ❌ **Never forget to apply migrations loca