create-db-cli

Use create-db for instant Prisma Postgres provisioning from the terminal.

Priority

CRITICAL

Why It Matters

create-db is the fastest way to get a working Prisma Postgres instance for development, demos, and CI previews. It can also emit machine-readable output and write env variables directly.

Commands

npx create-db@latest
npx create-db@latest create [options]
npx create-db@latest regions

Aliases:

npx create-pg@latest
npx create-postgres@latest

Command discovery (`--help`)

Always use --help first when integrating CLI commands:

npx create-db@latest --help
npx create-db@latest create --help
npx create-db@latest regions --help

Top-level commands currently exposed:

create (default) to provision a database
regions to list available regions

`create` options

Flag	Shorthand	Description
`--region [string]`	`-r`	Region choice: `ap-southeast-1`, `ap-northeast-1`, `eu-central-1`, `eu-west-3`, `us-east-1`, `us-west-1`
`--interactive [boolean]`	`-i`	Open region selector
`--json [boolean]`	`-j`	Output machine-readable JSON
`--env [string]`	`-e`	Write `DATABASE_URL` and `CLAIM_URL` into a target `.env`
`--ttl [string]`	`-t`	Auto-delete after a TTL like `30m` or `1h-24h`
`--copy [boolean]`	`-c`	Copy the connection string to the clipboard
`--quiet [boolean]`	`-q`	Only print the connection string
`--open [boolean]`	`-o`	Open the claim URL in your browser

Lifecycle and claim flow

Databases are temporary by default.
Unclaimed databases are auto-deleted after ~24 hours.
Claim the database using the URL shown in command output to keep it permanently.

Programmatic usage (library API)

You can also use create-db programmatically in Node.js/Bun instead of shelling out to the CLI.

Install:

npm install create-db
# or
bun add create-db

Create a database:

import { create, isDatabaseSuccess, isDatabaseError } from "create-db";

const result = await create({
  region: "us-east-1",
  userAgent: "my-app/1.0.0",
});

if (isDatabaseSuccess(result)) {
  console.log(result.connectionString);
  console.log(result.claimUrl);
  console.log(result.deletionDate);
}

if (isDatabaseError(result)) {
  console.error(result.error, result.message);
}

List regions programmatically:

import { regions } from "create-db";

const available = await regions();
console.log(available);

Programmatic create() defaults to us-east-1 if no region is passed.

Common patterns

# quick database
npx create-db@latest

# region-specific database
npx create-db@latest --region eu-central-1

# interactive region selection
npx create-db@latest --interactive

# write env vars for app bootstrap
npx create-db@latest --env .env

# auto-delete sooner
npx create-db@latest --ttl 2h

# copy connection string to clipboard
npx create-db@latest --copy

# print only the connection string
npx create-db@latest --quiet

# CI-friendly output
npx create-db@latest --json

References

npx create-db docs

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