drizzle-orm

Drizzle ORM (Neon PostgreSQL)

Creating a new table

1. Create file in lib/db/schemas/{domain}.ts
2. Define enum if needed
3. Define table with columns and indexes
4. Export types
5. Re-export from lib/db/schema.ts

import { pgTable, pgEnum, index, integer, varchar, timestamp } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core"
import type { InferSelectModel, InferInsertModel } from "drizzle-orm"

// 1. Enum (if needed)
export const statusEnum = pgEnum("status", ["active", "inactive"])

// 2. Table with indexes as third argument
export const items = pgTable("items", {
  id: integer("id").primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity(),
  name: varchar("name", { length: 255 }).notNull(),
  status: statusEnum("status").notNull(),
  created_at: timestamp("created_at", { withTimezone: true }).notNull().defaultNow(),
  updated_at: timestamp("updated_at", { withTimezone: true }).notNull().defaultNow(),
}, (table) => [
  index("idx_items_name").on(table.name),
])

// 3. Types
export type Item = InferSelectModel<typeof items>
export type InsertItem = InferInsertModel<typeof items>

See examples/schema-pattern.ts for full pattern.

Adding a foreign key

author_id: integer("author_id")
  .notNull()
  .references(() => users.id, { onDelete: "cascade" })

Always specify onDelete behavior explicitly.

Standard columns

// Primary key
id: integer("id").primaryKey().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity()

// Timestamps (always with timezone)
created_at: timestamp("created_at", { withTimezone: true }).notNull().defaultNow()
updated_at: timestamp("updated_at", { withTimezone: true }).notNull().defaultNow()

Naming conventions

• Index: idx_{table}_{column} → idx_items_name
• One domain per schema file → songs.ts, dictionary.ts

Avoid

• serial() → use integer().generatedAlwaysAsIdentity()
• Timestamps without { withTimezone: true }
• Foreign keys without explicit onDelete