Seeding

turbine seed runs a seed file to populate your database. The file can be TypeScript, JavaScript, or SQL — Turbine picks the right runner for each. TypeScript seeds run through tsx, so there's no separate build step.

npx turbine seed

defineSeed — TypeScript seeds

defineSeed wraps a function that receives a connected client. It reads DATABASE_URL, runs your function, and disconnects when it's done — you don't manage the connection lifecycle.

// seed.ts
import { defineSeed } from 'turbine-orm';
 
export default defineSeed(async (db) => {
  await db.raw`
    INSERT INTO organizations (name, slug) VALUES (${'Acme'}, ${'acme'})
    ON CONFLICT (slug) DO NOTHING
  `;
  console.log('Seeded.');
});

The db handed to the callback is a base client — use db.raw or db.sql for inserts. For fully typed table accessors, import your generated client instead and manage its lifecycle yourself:

// seed.ts
import { turbine } from './generated/turbine';
 
const db = turbine({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL });
 
await db.organizations.createMany({
  data: [
    { name: 'Acme', slug: 'acme' },
    { name: 'Widgets', slug: 'widgets' },
  ],
});
 
await db.disconnect();

Either file runs the same way: npx turbine seed.

JavaScript and SQL seeds

  • .js — imported dynamically. If the default export is a function, Turbine calls it.
  • .sql — executed as raw SQL against the database.
-- seed.sql
INSERT INTO organizations (name, slug) VALUES ('Acme', 'acme')
ON CONFLICT (slug) DO NOTHING;

Note: TypeScript seeds need tsx available (a dev dependency in most TypeScript projects). If it's missing, Turbine tells you to install tsx or use a .js / .sql seed instead.

File resolution

Turbine resolves the seed file in this order:

  1. The seed field in turbine.config.ts (an explicit path always wins — even if the file doesn't exist yet).
  2. The first default candidate found: seed.ts, then seed.js, then seed.sql.
// turbine.config.ts
import type { TurbineCliConfig } from 'turbine-orm/cli';
 
export default {
  url: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  seed: './turbine/seed.ts',
} satisfies TurbineCliConfig;

(seedFile is still accepted as an alias for seed.)

Seeding in CI/CD

For automated environments, pair migrate deploy with seed. migrate deploy applies pending migrations non-interactively — it never prompts, so it's safe in a pipeline — then seed on top:

# CI: bring a fresh database up to date, then seed it
npx turbine migrate deploy
npx turbine seed

migrate deploy refuses to run on a checksum mismatch or a missing migration file (exit 1 with a clear message), so a drifted migration history fails the build instead of silently diverging. See migrate deploy for the full contract.

See also

  • CLI — turbine seed, turbine migrate deploy, and every flag.
  • Schema & Migrations — the migration workflow seeds run on top of.
  • API Reference — createMany, raw, and sql for writing seed data.