Database Adapters

An Adapter in NextAuth.js connects your application to whatever database or backend system you want to use to store data for user accounts, sessions, etc.

You do not need to specify an adapter explicitly unless you want to use advanced options such as custom models or schemas, if you want to use the Prisma adapter instead of the default TypeORM adapter, or if you are creating a custom adapter to connect to a database that is not one of the supported databases.

Database Schemas#

Configure your database by creating the tables and columns to match the schema expected by NextAuth.js.

TypeORM Adapter#

NextAuth.js comes with a default adapter that uses TypeORM so that it can be used with many different databases without any further configuration, you simply add the node module for the database driver you want to use to your project and pass a database connection string to NextAuth.js.

The default adapter is the TypeORM adapter, the following configuration options are exactly equivalent.

database: {
  type: 'sqlite',
  database: ':memory:',
  synchronize: true
}

adapter: Adapters.Default({
  type: 'sqlite',
  database: ':memory:',
  synchronize: true
})

adapter: Adapters.TypeORM.Adapter({
  type: 'sqlite',
  database: ':memory:',
  synchronize: true
})

The tutorial Custom models with TypeORM explains how to extend the built in models and schemas used by the TypeORM adapter. You can use these models in your own code.

tip

The synchronize option in TypeORM will generate SQL that exactly matches the documented schemas for MySQL and Postgres.

However, it should not be enabled against production databases as it may cause data loss if the configured schema does not match the expected schema!

Prisma Adapter#

You can also use NextAuth.js with the experimental adapter for Prisma 2.

To use this adapter, you need to install Prisma Client and Prisma CLI:

npm install @prisma/client
npm install prisma --save-dev

Configure your NextAuth.js to use the Prisma adapter:

pages/api/auth/[...nextauth].js

import NextAuth from 'next-auth'
import Providers from 'next-auth/providers'
import Adapters from 'next-auth/adapters'
import { PrismaClient } from '@prisma/client'

const prisma = new PrismaClient()

export default NextAuth({
  providers: [
    Providers.Google({
      clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID,
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET
    })
  ],
  adapter: Adapters.Prisma.Adapter({ prisma }),
})

tip

While Prisma includes an experimental feature in the migration command that is able to generate SQL from a schema, creating tables and columns using the provided SQL is currently recommended instead as SQL schemas automatically generated by Prisma may differ from the recommended schemas.

Prisma Schema#

Create a schema file in prisma/schema.prisma similar to this one:

schema.prisma

generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client-js"
}

datasource db {
  provider = "sqlite"
  url      = "file:./dev.db"
}

model Account {
  id                 Int       @default(autoincrement()) @id
  compoundId         String    @unique @map(name: "compound_id")
  userId             Int       @map(name: "user_id")
  providerType       String    @map(name: "provider_type")
  providerId         String    @map(name: "provider_id")
  providerAccountId  String    @map(name: "provider_account_id")
  refreshToken       String?   @map(name: "refresh_token")
  accessToken        String?   @map(name: "access_token")
  accessTokenExpires DateTime? @map(name: "access_token_expires")
  createdAt          DateTime  @default(now()) @map(name: "created_at")
  updatedAt          DateTime  @default(now()) @map(name: "updated_at")

  @@index([providerAccountId], name: "providerAccountId")
  @@index([providerId], name: "providerId")
  @@index([userId], name: "userId")

  @@map(name: "accounts")
}

model Session {
  id           Int      @default(autoincrement()) @id
  userId       Int      @map(name: "user_id")
  expires      DateTime
  sessionToken String   @unique @map(name: "session_token")
  accessToken  String   @unique @map(name: "access_token")
  createdAt    DateTime @default(now()) @map(name: "created_at")
  updatedAt    DateTime @default(now()) @map(name: "updated_at")

  @@map(name: "sessions")
}

model User {
  id            Int       @default(autoincrement()) @id
  name          String?
  email         String?   @unique
  emailVerified DateTime? @map(name: "email_verified")
  image         String?
  createdAt     DateTime  @default(now()) @map(name: "created_at")
  updatedAt     DateTime  @default(now()) @map(name: "updated_at")

  @@map(name: "users")
}

model VerificationRequest {
  id         Int      @default(autoincrement()) @id
  identifier String
  token      String   @unique
  expires    DateTime
  createdAt  DateTime  @default(now()) @map(name: "created_at")
  updatedAt  DateTime  @default(now()) @map(name: "updated_at")

  @@map(name: "verification_requests")
}

note

Set the datasource option appropriately for your database:

schema.prisma

datasource db {
  provider = "mysql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

schema.prisma

datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

Generate Client#

Once you have saved your schema, use the Prisma CLI to generate the Prisma Client:

npx prisma generate

To configure you database to use the new schema (i.e. create tables and columns) use the prisma migrate command:

npx prisma migrate dev

To generate a schema in this way with the above example code, you will need to specify your datbase connection string in the environment variable DATABASE_URL. You can do this by setting it in a .env file at the root of your project.

As this feature is experimental in Prisma, it is behind a feature flag. You should check your database schema manually after using this option. See the Prisma documentation for information on how to use prisma migrate.

Custom Models#

You can add properties to the schema and map them to any database column names you wish, but you should not change the base properties or types defined in the example schema.

The model names themselves can be changed with a configuration option, and the datasource can be changed to anything supported by Prisma.

You can use custom model names by using the modelMapping option (shown here with default values).

pages/api/auth/[...nextauth].js

...
adapter: Adapters.Prisma.Adapter({
  prisma,
  modelMapping: {
    User: 'user',
    Account: 'account',
    Session: 'session',
    VerificationRequest: 'verificationRequest'
  }
})
...

tip

If you experience issues with Prisma opening too many database connections in local development mode (e.g. due to Hot Module Reloading) you can use an approach like this when initalising the Prisma Client:

pages/api/auth/[...nextauth].js

let prisma

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === "production") {
  prisma = new PrismaClient()
} else {
  if (!global.prisma) {
    global.prisma = new PrismaClient()
  }
  prisma = global.prisma
}

Custom Adapter#

See the tutorial for creating a database adapter for more information on how to create a custom adapter. Have a look at the adapters repository to see community maintained custom adapters or add your own.