Database Setup

The system uses PostgreSQL through Prisma ORM. The schema lives at prisma/schema.prisma and the seed script at prisma/seed.ts.

Create the schema

With DATABASE_URL set, push the Prisma schema to your database:

pnpm db:push

prisma db push creates all tables (User, Student, Teacher, Section, Subject, Attendance, and so on) to match the schema without generating a migration history. It's ideal for development and initial setup.

Regenerating the Prisma client

The Prisma client is regenerated automatically on pnpm install (via postinstall). To regenerate it manually after schema changes, run pnpm exec prisma generate.

Seed demo data

pnpm db:seed

This runs tsx prisma/seed.ts and upserts the following demo records (re-running it will not create duplicates, and it does not delete anything):

Entity	What's created
Admin	admin@school.com — System Administrator
Teacher	teacher@school.com — Prof. Michael Fernandez
Section	BSCS 3rd Year (advised by the seeded teacher)
Subjects	OS101 Operating Systems, SE102 Software Engineering, DB103 Database Management — all taught by the seeded teacher
Students	5 students 2022-0001 … 2022-0005, each enrolled in all 3 subjects, each with a generated qrToken

The default passwords assigned by the seed are listed under Default Accounts.

Backups and recovery

Before a large import or a data reset, take a database snapshot with the standard PostgreSQL tools:

# Backup
pg_dump "$DATABASE_URL" > backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# Restore
psql "$DATABASE_URL" < backup_20260101.sql

The app also offers an in-browser JSON backup export from the admin dashboard — see Data Management.

Inspecting the database

Prisma ships with a visual data browser:

pnpm exec prisma studio

Continue to Running the App.