drizzle-team/drizzle-orm

Drizzle ORM is a lightweight TypeScript library that makes it easier to work with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite) in JavaScript and TypeScript projects. An ORM, which stands for Object-Relational Mapper, is a tool that lets you interact with a database using your programming language's syntax rather than writing raw SQL strings. Drizzle takes a specific approach: rather than hiding SQL behind heavy abstractions, it gives you a TypeScript API that mirrors how SQL actually works, so the database queries you write in code look and behave like the SQL they produce. The main problem Drizzle addresses is the awkwardness and error-proneness of working with databases in TypeScript projects. Writing raw SQL strings means no type checking, typos in column names or wrong data types only appear at runtime. Heavy-weight ORMs often add complexity, abstract away too much, or struggle with serverless deployments. Drizzle is intentionally thin (about 7.4 KB minified) with zero dependencies, and it works in every major JavaScript runtime, Node.js, Bun, Deno, Cloudflare Workers, edge functions, and even browsers. The way it works is through a schema definition system: you declare your database tables as TypeScript objects, and Drizzle infers types from that schema automatically. Queries are written using a chainable API that resembles SQL structure (select, from, where, join) while remaining fully type-safe. A companion tool called Drizzle Kit handles database migrations, it compares your schema definition to the current database and generates or applies the necessary SQL changes. You would use Drizzle when building web applications (especially serverless or edge-deployed ones) that need database access with strong TypeScript type safety and minimal overhead. The tech stack is TypeScript/JavaScript, with support for all major SQL databases including serverless options like Neon, Turso, PlanetScale, and Cloudflare D1.