---
title: "Deploy Express + Prisma | API with Postgres and Migrations That Run"
description: "Express 5 and Prisma 7 on Railway, migrations run in the pre-deploy step"
category: "Starters"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/express-prisma-or-api-with-postgres-and-
---

# Deploy Express + Prisma | API with Postgres and Migrations That Run

Express 5 and Prisma 7 on Railway, migrations run in the pre-deploy step

**[Deploy Express + Prisma | API with Postgres and Migrations That Run on Railway](https://railway.com/template/express-prisma-or-api-with-postgres-and-)**

- **Creator:** Pavel Volkov's Projects
- **Category:** Starters
- **Total deploys:** 4

## Template content

### API

- **Source:** https://github.com/ak40u/express-prisma-railway-starter
- **Public domain:** Yes

### Postgres

- **Image:** ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:17

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host an Express + Prisma API on Railway

An Express 5 API on Prisma 7 and Postgres, deployed with its database migrations in the pre-deploy step.

## About Hosting Express with Prisma

The interesting part of this template is where the migrations run.

The Express/Prisma starter most people deploy has not been updated since January 2023. It pins Prisma 4, long past end of life, and its build script is `yarn migrate:deploy && tsc` - it applies migrations during the **build**. Builds have no database attached, so the migration cannot connect and the build fails before TypeScript is ever invoked. Fewer than half of its deployments come up.

Railway has a step meant for this. The repository ships a railway.json declaring `preDeployCommand: npm run migrate`, which runs after the build and before the new version takes traffic, when DATABASE_URL exists. Migrations apply on every deploy, and a failed migration stops the rollout instead of putting new code in front of an old schema.

## Common Use Cases

- A typed REST API with a real relational schema behind it
- The backend half of a front end you host separately
- A starting point for a service that will grow a real data model, with migrations already wired

## Dependencies for Express + Prisma Hosting

- Postgres, included in this template, on a persistent volume
- Nothing else. The API has no other external dependency.

### Deployment Dependencies

- Prisma documentation: https://www.prisma.io/docs
- Express: https://expressjs.com
- Source: https://github.com/ak40u/express-prisma-railway-starter

### Implementation Details

Endpoints:

| Method | Path | Does |
|---|---|---|
| GET | / | Lists the endpoints |
| GET | /health | Runs SELECT 1, so it reports unhealthy when Postgres is unreachable |
| GET | /notes | Last 100 notes, newest first |
| POST | /notes | Creates a note from {"body": "..."} |

Three details worth knowing before you extend it:

- **Prisma 7 changed how connections are configured.** `url` is no longer allowed in schema.prisma; the CLI reads it from prisma.config.ts and the runtime gets it through a driver adapter - `new PrismaClient({ adapter: new PrismaPg(...) })`.
- **The lockfile is committed and audited clean.** Railway refuses to build when the committed lockfile carries a HIGH advisory, and Prisma's own dependency tree currently pulls a vulnerable find-my-way, so package.json overrides it forward. Run `npm audit --audit-level=high` before pushing.
- **Build and deploy settings live in the repository**, in railway.json, not only in this template. Fork it and they travel with your code.

## Why Deploy Express + Prisma on Railway?

Postgres, a private network and a domain in one deploy, and the migration step happens where it can actually reach the database. Push to the repository and the next deploy migrates and ships.

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Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/express-prisma-or-api-with-postgres-and-