Drizzle ORM — TypeScript SQL That Feels Like Code

What it is

Drizzle ORM is a TypeScript ORM that mirrors SQL syntax directly in your code. Instead of learning a new query API, you write queries that look like SQL but with full TypeScript type safety. It supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite with zero runtime overhead, meaning the generated SQL is exactly what you would write by hand.

Drizzle targets TypeScript developers building serverless functions, edge workers, and full-stack applications who want type safety without the performance cost of traditional ORMs.

How it saves time or tokens

Drizzle eliminates the gap between your mental model of SQL and your ORM code. If you know SQL, you know Drizzle. Schema-as-code means your database schema lives in TypeScript files, version-controlled alongside your application. Drizzle Kit handles migrations automatically by diffing your schema against the database. The zero-overhead design means queries compile to plain SQL with no runtime parsing or transformation.

How to use

1. Install Drizzle:

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

1. Define your schema:

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

export const users = pgTable('users', {
  id: serial('id').primaryKey(),
  name: text('name').notNull(),
  email: text('email').notNull().unique(),
  createdAt: timestamp('created_at').defaultNow(),
});

1. Query with full type safety:

import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/postgres-js';
import postgres from 'postgres';
import { users } from './schema';
import { eq } from 'drizzle-orm';

const client = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);
const db = drizzle(client);

const result = await db.select().from(users).where(eq(users.email, 'alice@example.com'));
// result is typed as { id: number; name: string; email: string; createdAt: Date }[]

Example

Joins and relations with type inference:

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

export const posts = pgTable('posts', {
  id: serial('id').primaryKey(),
  title: text('title').notNull(),
  authorId: integer('author_id').references(() => users.id),
});

const postsWithAuthors = await db
  .select({ title: posts.title, author: users.name })
  .from(posts)
  .innerJoin(users, eq(posts.authorId, users.id));

Related on TokRepo

• Database tools — AI-assisted database utilities and ORMs
• AI coding tools — development tools and frameworks

Common pitfalls

• Drizzle's SQL-like API means you need to know SQL. Developers expecting a high-level abstraction like ActiveRecord may find it verbose for simple CRUD.
• Migration files generated by Drizzle Kit should be reviewed before running in production. Automatic diffing can produce unexpected ALTER TABLE statements.
• The ecosystem of plugins and extensions is smaller than Prisma's. Check community adapter availability for your specific database driver.