planetscale

PlanetScale

Use PlanetScale for serverless MySQL-compatible databases with non-blocking schema change workflows built on Vitess.

When to Use

• You need a managed MySQL-compatible database with zero-downtime migrations.
• Your team wants Git-like branching for schema development.
• You are building a serverless or edge application that benefits from connection pooling.
• You need horizontal sharding without managing Vitess directly.

Prerequisites

• A PlanetScale account (free tier available).
• The pscale CLI installed locally.
• Node.js 18+ if using Prisma or other ORM integrations.

Install the pscale CLI

# macOS
brew install planetscale/tap/pscale

# Linux (deb)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/planetscale/cli/releases/latest/download/pscale_linux_amd64.deb -o pscale.deb
sudo dpkg -i pscale.deb

# Verify installation
pscale version

# Authenticate
pscale auth login

Create and Manage Databases

# Create a new database
pscale database create my-app --region us-east

# List databases
pscale database list

# Show database info
pscale database show my-app

# Delete a database (destructive)
pscale database delete my-app

Branching Workflow

PlanetScale branches work like Git branches for your database schema. The main branch is the production branch by default.

# Create a development branch from main
pscale branch create my-app add-users-table

# List all branches
pscale branch list my-app

# Open a shell on the branch to apply schema changes
pscale shell my-app add-users-table

Apply Schema Changes on a Branch

-- Inside the pscale shell on the development branch
CREATE TABLE users (
  id         BIGINT       NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  email      VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  name       VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMP    DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  updated_at TIMESTAMP    DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  UNIQUE KEY idx_users_email (email)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;

CREATE TABLE orders (
  id         BIGINT    NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id    BIGINT    NOT NULL,
  total      DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0.00,
  status     ENUM('pending','paid','shipped','cancelled') DEFAULT 'pending',
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  KEY idx_orders_user_id (user_id),
  KEY idx_orders_status (status)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;