prisma-zodify

A Prisma generator that produces accurate, type-safe Zod schemas from your Prisma models, enums, and input types.

• Zero runtime overhead — generated at build time, not runtime
• Parity with Prisma — relations, optional fields, defaults, @updatedAt, lists, enums, Decimal, Json, Bytes, BigInt
• Create & Update inputs — opt-in *CreateInputSchema and *UpdateInputSchema for every model
• Dual package — ships ESM + CJS
• Works with Zod 3.23+ and Zod 4 — no vendor lock-in
• Small & focused — one dependency (@prisma/generator-helper)

Installation

npm install --save-dev prisma-zodify
# or
pnpm add -D prisma-zodify
# or
yarn add -D prisma-zodify

prisma-zodify has peer dependencies on prisma (>=5) and zod (>=3.23); install both in your project if you haven't already.

Usage

Add the generator to your schema.prisma:

generator zod {
  provider = "prisma-zodify"
  output   = "./generated/zod"
}

Run Prisma:

npx prisma generate

Import the schemas anywhere in your project:

import { UserSchema, UserCreateInputSchema, RoleSchema } from './generated/zod';

const user = UserSchema.parse(await prisma.user.findFirstOrThrow());

const input = UserCreateInputSchema.parse({
  email: '[email protected]',
  name: 'Ada Lovelace',
});

Example

Given this Prisma schema:

generator zod {
  provider = "prisma-zodify"
  output   = "./generated/zod"
}

enum Role {
  USER
  ADMIN
}

model User {
  id        String   @id @default(cuid())
  email     String   @unique
  name      String?
  role      Role     @default(USER)
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  updatedAt DateTime @updatedAt
  posts     Post[]
}

model Post {
  id       String  @id @default(cuid())
  title    String
  views    Int     @default(0)
  authorId String
  author   User    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id])
}

prisma-zodify generates:

// generated/zod/index.ts
import { z } from 'zod';

// ============================================================================
// Enums
// ============================================================================

export const RoleSchema = z.enum(['USER', 'ADMIN']);
export type Role = z.infer<typeof RoleSchema>;

// ============================================================================
// Models
// ============================================================================

export const UserSchema = z.object({
  id: z.string(),
  email: z.string(),
  name: z.string().nullable(),
  role: RoleSchema,
  createdAt: z.coerce.date(),
  updatedAt: z.coerce.date(),
});
export type User = z.infer<typeof UserSchema>;

export const PostSchema = z.object({
  id: z.string(),
  title: z.string(),
  views: z.number().int(),
  authorId: z.string(),
});
export type Post = z.infer<typeof PostSchema>;

// ============================================================================
// Input Types
// ============================================================================

export const UserCreateInputSchema = z.object({
  id: z.string().optional(),
  email: z.string(),
  name: z.string().nullable().optional(),
  role: RoleSchema.optional(),
  createdAt: z.coerce.date().optional(),
});
export type UserCreateInput = z.infer<typeof UserCreateInputSchema>;

export const UserUpdateInputSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().optional(),
  name: z.string().nullable().optional(),
  role: RoleSchema.optional(),
  createdAt: z.coerce.date().optional(),
});
export type UserUpdateInput = z.infer<typeof UserUpdateInputSchema>;

// …and the same for Post

Configuration

All options go inside the generator block in schema.prisma. Every value is a string (Prisma's generator config format).

| Option | Type | Default | Description | | ------------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | output | string | ./generated/zod | Directory for generated files. | | useDateCoercion | "true" | "false" | "true" | Use z.coerce.date() instead of z.date() for DateTime. | | generateInputs | "true" | "false" | "true" | Emit *CreateInputSchema and *UpdateInputSchema for each model. | | emitInferredTypes | "true" | "false" | "true" | Emit export type User = z.infer<typeof UserSchema> alongside schemas. | | importPath | string | "zod" | Module the generated file imports Zod from. | | prefix | string | "" | Prepended to every generated schema identifier. | | suffix | string | "Schema" | Appended to every generated schema identifier. | | decimalFormat | "string" \| "number" \| "union" | "union" | How Decimal is represented in Zod. union → z.union([z.number(), z.string()]). |

Full example

generator zod {
  provider          = "prisma-zodify"
  output            = "./src/schemas"
  useDateCoercion   = "true"
  generateInputs    = "true"
  emitInferredTypes = "true"
  importPath        = "zod"
  prefix            = ""
  suffix            = "Schema"
  decimalFormat     = "string"
}

Type mapping

| Prisma | Zod (default) | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------ | | String | z.string() | | Boolean | z.boolean() | | Int | z.number().int() | | BigInt | z.bigint() | | Float | z.number() | | Decimal | z.union([z.number(), z.string()]) | | DateTime | z.coerce.date() | | Json | z.unknown() | | Bytes | z.instanceof(Uint8Array) | | T? | .nullable() | | T[] | z.array(T) | | enum E | z.enum([...]) | | @relation | skipped in base schemas — use the FK column instead |

Create vs Update inputs

• Create — required fields stay required. Fields with @default(...), @id @default(...), or that are nullable become .optional(). Fields with @updatedAt are skipped.
• Update — every scalar and enum field becomes .optional(). @id and @updatedAt are skipped.

This matches how Prisma Client handles them in the common case without having to traverse the full input-type graph from the DMMF schema.

Recipes

Validating API request bodies

import { UserCreateInputSchema } from './generated/zod';

app.post('/users', async (req, res) => {
  const parsed = UserCreateInputSchema.safeParse(req.body);
  if (!parsed.success) return res.status(400).json(parsed.error.flatten());
  const user = await prisma.user.create({ data: parsed.data });
  res.json(user);
});

Validating responses

import { UserSchema } from './generated/zod';

const user = UserSchema.parse(await prisma.user.findUniqueOrThrow({ where: { id } }));

Extending generated schemas

import { UserCreateInputSchema } from './generated/zod';

export const SignupSchema = UserCreateInputSchema.extend({
  password: z.string().min(12),
  confirmPassword: z.string(),
}).refine((v) => v.password === v.confirmPassword, {
  message: 'Passwords must match',
  path: ['confirmPassword'],
});

Programmatic API

You can invoke the generator directly — useful for tests or custom pipelines:

import { generateModel, generateEnum } from 'prisma-zodify';

const code = generateModel(model, {
  output: '/tmp',
  useDateCoercion: true,
  generateInputs: true,
  emitInferredTypes: true,
  importPath: 'zod',
  prefix: '',
  suffix: 'Schema',
  decimalFormat: 'union',
});

Development

git clone https://github.com/filstawski/prisma-zodify.git
cd prisma-zodify
npm install
npm run build
npm test

To try the generator against the bundled example:

npm run build
npx prisma generate --schema ./examples/basic/schema.prisma

Versioning

prisma-zodify follows Semantic Versioning:

• Patch — bug fixes, doc updates
• Minor — new options, new generator outputs (backwards-compatible)
• Major — breaking changes to generated output or config surface

The peer ranges on prisma and zod mean you're free to upgrade those independently; a major-version bump of prisma-zodify is only required when the generator itself breaks.

License

MIT © Filip Podstawski