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.