How to create a JSON server from your Prisma schema?

The library called json-server allows you to quickly run a REST API server from just a small JSON file. Which can be really useful when your building something new or trying out a frontend project.

You can make this JSON file by hand of course. But it would get tedious when your schema grows with time.

So, how can we automate the generation of this JSON file?

Here's what you need to do:

1- Install the generator

• Using npm

 npm install prisma-json-server-generator

• Using yarn:

 yarn add prisma-json-server-generator

2- Add the generator to your Prisma schema

generator json_server {
  provider       = "prisma-json-server-generator"
  outputFileName = "db.json"
}

3- Run npx prisma generate for your schema(or the example below)

model User {
  id    Int     @id @default(autoincrement())
  email String  @unique
  name  String?
  posts Post[]
}

model Post {
  id        Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  updatedAt DateTime @updatedAt
  title     String
  content   String?
  published Boolean  @default(false)
  viewCount Int      @default(0)
  author    User?    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id])
  authorId  Int?
}

Will generate the db.json file.

4- Install json-server

npm install -g json-server

5- Now run your server!

json-server db.json

You will see something like this: