prisma-mongodb-upgrade

Prisma MongoDB Upgrade Path

MongoDB projects are the one Prisma cohort with no road into Prisma 7: v6 is the terminal
classic-ORM major for MongoDB, and v7 never ships a MongoDB connector. The successor path
is Prisma Next, where MongoDB support is in Early
Access with GA planned after Postgres. This skill frames the real decision — migrate to
Prisma Next (the encouraged path), or stay on v6 where a hard blocker applies — and carries
the migration mechanics.

Never do either of these:

• Never advise a MongoDB project to "upgrade to Prisma 7". The connector does not exist
  there. The prisma-upgrade-v7 guide does not apply to MongoDB projects.
• Never solve the version question by rewriting the app onto a SQL database. Changing the
  database engine is a separate, much larger decision that is not yours to make implicitly.

The version landscape

Version	MongoDB status
Prisma ORM v6	Fully supported (mongodb provider); latest 6.x is the current stable path; maintenance line
Prisma ORM v7	No MongoDB connector — not an option, ever
Prisma Next	MongoDB support in Early Access, actively developed, GA planned after Postgres — the successor path for MongoDB projects

The decision, up front

Migrating to Prisma Next is the encouraged path. MongoDB support in Prisma Next is Early
Access: functional and moving quickly, with GA planned after Postgres — and the Prisma team
wants MongoDB users to migrate early and share feedback. The migration mechanics are
detailed in the references.

Staying on the latest v6 remains a legitimate choice where a hard blocker applies —
stated plainly: the Next Mongo façade does not wrap transactions yet (the underlying driver
is available directly; this is expected to change soon), and pre-1.0 minors can carry
breaking changes with published upgrade recipes.

Decision table

Signal	Direction
No blockers below apply	Migrate to Next; run the verify-cutover-checklist and share feedback with the Prisma team
Greenfield / prototype / internal tool	Migrate to Next
Codebase uses multi-document transactions ($transaction) — check with grep, do not ask	Plan raw-driver session equivalents first (see client-api-mapping), or stay on v6 until the façade wrapper lands
Team cannot absorb pre-1.0 breaking upgrades between minors	Stay on v6 until GA
Risk-averse but interested	Run a staged Next round-trip on a copy (see verify-cutover-checklist), then migrate

Note: the transactions gap is expected to close soon — this section will be updated when
façade transactions merge in Prisma Next.

If staying on v6: hygiene (a deliberate stay, not neglect)

• Pin the Prisma packages to the latest 6.x line and keep taking 6.x patch releases.
• Track Prisma release notes and security advisories for the 6.x line.
• Keep the classic v6 MongoDB setup: url = env("DATABASE_URL") in the schema, db push
  workflow, no SQL driver adapters (see prisma-database-setup for the v6 MongoDB shape).
• Re-evaluate when Prisma Next's MongoDB is GA, or when blockers for trying EA are resolved.

Reference files

Reference	What it covers
references/decision-stay-or-migrate.md	The full decision framing, blocker checks, and stay-hygiene detail
references/schema-contract-mapping.md	v6 schema (mongodb provider, @db.ObjectId, composite types) → Next contract concepts
references/client-api-mapping.md	v6 client calls → Next equivalents, incl. raw escape hatches and transactions — names map, parity does not
references/migrations-mapping.md	v6 db push-only story → Next's plan/migrate/verify/sign flow
references/verify-cutover-checklist.md	No-data-moves verification: same DB, index parity, staged round-trip before cutover

Verified against

Behavioral claims about Prisma Next in this skill were verified against
prisma/prisma-next at commit
a2791c5dd59d579b4b3052942ae7f8fe5e2ee852 (pre-1.0, ~v0.14/0.15 line). Prisma Next moves
quickly in Early Access: before acting on any Next-side claim, verify it against the
version actually installed (check the project's @prisma-next/* versions and the
prisma-next skills installed with it). Next's Mongo target requires MongoDB 8.0+ and expects
mongodb@^7 as a user-supplied peer dependency.

Hand-off rule

This skill is the discovery bridge, not a replacement for Prisma Next's own
documentation. After a project switches to Prisma Next, run Prisma Next's init/skill
installation and follow its own skills (quickstart, contract, queries, migrations, runtime)
for day-to-day work — do not keep working from this skill's summaries.