Does your code work locally?

Yes, everything works as intended.

I've been at this for 12 hours and really have no idea what is wrong.

Did you commit your schema files?

Yes

Folder structure is:

/app

/prisma

/public

...

Build command: npm run build

Start command: npm run start

 "scripts": {
    "build": "react-router build",
    "start": "prisma migrate deploy --schema=./prisma/schema.prisma && prisma generate --schema=./prisma/schema.prisma && react-router-serve ./build/server/index.js",
    "dev": "react-router dev",
    "typecheck": "react-router typegen && tsc",
    "format": "prettier --write ."
  },
  "prisma": {
    "schema": "./prisma/schema.prisma",
    "seed": "ts-node ./prisma/seed.ts"
  },

I've tried a lot of different permutations of the scripts and really am lost 😅

Hey, you should move prisma generate to the build step instead since you only need to run it when code changes.

Update your scripts:

"scripts": {
  "build": "prisma generate --schema=./prisma/schema.prisma && react-router build",
  "start": "prisma migrate deploy --schema=./prisma/schema.prisma && prisma db seed && react-router-serve ./build/server/index.js",
  "dev": "react-router dev",
  "typecheck": "react-router typegen && tsc",
  "format": "prettier --write ."
}

Hey, you should move prisma generate to the build step instead since you only need to run it when code changes.

Update your scripts:

"scripts": {
  "build": "prisma generate --schema=./prisma/schema.prisma && react-router build",
  "start": "prisma migrate deploy --schema=./prisma/schema.prisma && react-router-serve ./build/server/index.js",
  "dev": "react-router dev",
  "typecheck": "react-router typegen && tsc",
  "format": "prettier --write ."
}

Private networking is not available during build.

OP won’t be able to migrate or seed.

Should I put migrate/seed in the pre deploy step instead?

Yes, but I doubt that’ll fix the primary issue as it’s not about not being able to find your database, but rather the Prisma schema itself.

But you can give it a try.

I managed to get a different error, I'll post it in a second, but the schema has now been found which is good.

Oh thats good.

I have confirmed that the env is being read by seed.ts

Did you migrate it before seeding?

Seems like it’s trying to modify a table that doesn’t exist yet.

My Pre-deploy command is npx prisma migrate deploy && npx prisma db seed

I assumed migrate runs first in this syntax

Here is the updated scripts section too (apologies for the code spam 😅)

  "scripts": {
    "build": "DATABASE_URL=\"postgres://placeholder:5432\" npx prisma generate && react-router build",
    "start": "react-router-serve ./build/server/index.js",
    "dev": "react-router dev",
    "typecheck": "react-router typegen && tsc",
    "format": "prettier --write ."
  },
  "prisma": {
    "seed": "tsx ./prisma/seed.ts"
  },

Go to your database service in Railway and go to the database tab and check if the desired tables exist.

No tables exist other than a _prisma_migration

This btw. You’ll need to move migration and seed command to the pre-deploy step.

I believe I've done this, it's under the Deploy header right?

Yes.

Cool, yep, that's done

I'm sure this is close to being solved

In your database URL variable in the shell command, try using the provided reference variable.

Add a variable entry called DATABASE_URL in your service with the value ${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}, and remove the existing DATABASE_URL=… in your script.

So just replace the fake db env with the ${{}} syntax?

The {{}} goes in your Railway dashboard, the variables tab in your service.

Wait hold up.

I already have one, unless I misunderstand. My service has the private URL

Try deleting that table. Perhaps Prisma thinks it already successfully migrated everything when it hasn’t yet.

Then redeploy the service.

Didn't see a way to delete the migration table, but I've redeployed and will see

I might just delete the database, maybe that'll do it

Hm…

Okay try this

In your local environment, set your database URL to be your database’s public URL. (Note that this may incur some egress costs)

Then run npx prisma migrate status (or pnpx, depending on your pkg manager).

See if Prisma thinks everything has been applied.

It says "Database schema is up to date"

I also get the same error as before when running the seed locally with the public url

Try prisma migrate reset.

Just did that and applied the db seed again, same error 😅

Sanity check, you’re operating on the railway database right?

Yes, 100%

Try prisma db push --force-reset.

And check if any tables exist in your Railway dashboard.

I just ran the following:

npx prisma migrate dev

npx prisma generate

npx prisma db seed

Now all the tables have appeared! However, I'd rather have this run automatically when deploying.

Should I just move generate into the pre deploy then, as it works in this order?

Interesting… doing dev migrate did it.

Did you previously have anything in prisma/migrations/ directory prior to this working?

In the branch I pushed, I don't think so

I think what you needed was to generate migration files. This was why Prisma couldn’t find the tables. Your deployment had nothing to migrate from.

You should be running migrate dev before pushing to remote.

This will create the migration files, giving your Railway deployment something to migrate from.

Think that was the issue here.

But good to know it’s fixed.

Also, use migrate deploy in your scripts. Don’t use dev in a prod environment.

But yes, keep that in mind whenever you make any changes to the schema from now on.

Perfect, so whenever I make changes locally I run migrate dev and push that? Then Railway will know what to do with them. Sounds good. Really appreciate the help and your time 😊

I'm not sure how the Bounty Board works, but don't you get a reward or something for helping?

Think Railway needs to mark the solution for me to earn it.