Recipes

Copy-paste patterns for dropping prefID into the tools you already use — ORMs, databases, and human-friendly codes.

Drizzle — id as the column default

Generate the id in the schema with $defaultFn, so every insert gets a typed, prefixed key automatically.

import { id } from "prefid";
import { pgTable, text } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";

export const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: text("id").primaryKey().$defaultFn(() => id("user")),
  email: text("email").notNull(),
});

const { id } = require("prefid");
const { pgTable, text } = require("drizzle-orm/pg-core");

const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: text("id").primaryKey().$defaultFn(() => id("user")),
  email: text("email").notNull(),
});

Prisma — id from your app

Prisma can't call JavaScript in the schema, so declare a plain String @id and pass the value when you create the row.

prisma

// schema.prisma
model User {
  id    String @id   // supply the value from your app
  email String @unique
}

import { id } from "prefid";

await prisma.user.create({
  data: { id: id("user"), email },
});

const { id } = require("prefid");

await prisma.user.create({
  data: { id: id("user"), email },
});

Postgres — the column type

A prefID is just a string. Store it as TEXT with a PRIMARY KEY (or UNIQUE) constraint — the database stays the ultimate referee for uniqueness.

sql

-- prefID ids are strings; store them as TEXT (or VARCHAR).
CREATE TABLE users (
  id    TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
  email TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE
);

Mongoose / MongoDB — string _id

Use a prefID as the document _id instead of an ObjectId — you get a readable, self-describing key with the same one-per-document guarantee.

import { id } from "prefid";
import { Schema, model } from "mongoose";

const userSchema = new Schema({
  _id: { type: String, default: () => id("user") },
  email: { type: String, required: true },
});

export const User = model("User", userSchema);

const { id } = require("prefid");
const { Schema, model } = require("mongoose");

const userSchema = new Schema({
  _id: { type: String, default: () => id("user") },
  email: { type: String, required: true },
});

module.exports.User = model("User", userSchema);

Human-friendly codes

For coupon, invite, or referral codes that people read and type, pair template with the BASE32_CROCKFORD alphabet — it drops the look-alike characters I, L, O, U.

import { template, BASE32_CROCKFORD } from "prefid";

// Coupon / invite codes: unambiguous (no 0/O or 1/l) and easy to read aloud.
const coupon = template("SAVE-####-####", { alphabet: BASE32_CROCKFORD });

coupon(); // => "SAVE-7K2M-9XQP"

const { template, BASE32_CROCKFORD } = require("prefid");

// Coupon / invite codes: unambiguous (no 0/O or 1/l) and easy to read aloud.
const coupon = template("SAVE-####-####", { alphabet: BASE32_CROCKFORD });

coupon(); // => "SAVE-7K2M-9XQP"