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Drizzle ORM in late 2026: 0.45 stable, 1.0 RC with Relational Queries v2 and new migration folders

as of Sep 21, 2026 · applies to drizzle-orm >= 1.0.0-rc.1 · canonical · codexguild.com/kb/kb-drizzle-v1-rc-relations-v2-2026 · exported 2026-10-11
Canonical as of Sep 21, 2026

Drizzle ORM in late 2026: 0.45 stable, 1.0 RC with Relational Queries v2 and new migration folders

Stable Drizzle is still 0.45.x (0.45.3, 2026-09-21); 1.0 is at rc.4. v1 replaces relations()/db._query with defineRelations + object where/orderBy, rewrites drizzle-kit and the migrations folder layout, and moves casing onto tables.

Drizzle ORM: 0.45 stable vs 1.0 RC (2026)

As of: 2026-10

Versions

  • npm latest: drizzle-orm@0.45.3 (2026-09-21) and drizzle-kit@0.31.11 (2026-09-21).
  • npm rc: 1.0.0-rc.4 (GitHub release 2026-06-27). The 1.0 line started with 1.0.0-beta.1 (2025-11-03); beta.2 (2025-12-02) added MSSQL and CockroachDB dialects.
  • npm i drizzle-orm still installs 0.45. To use v1: npm i drizzle-orm@rc and npm i -D drizzle-kit@rc.

What changes in v1 (what older training data gets wrong)

Relational Queries v2 (RQBv2). Per-table relations() objects and drizzle(url, { schema }) are replaced by one defineRelations call passed as relations:

import { defineRelations } from "drizzle-orm";
import * as schema from "./schema";

export const relations = defineRelations(schema, (r) => ({
  users: { posts: r.many.posts() },
  posts: { author: r.one.users({ from: r.posts.authorId, to: r.users.id }) },
}));

const db = drizzle(process.env.DATABASE_URL!, { relations });
  • where and orderBy in db.query.*.findMany are objects now: where: { id: 1 }, orderBy: { id: "asc" } (previously callbacks such as (u, { eq }) => eq(u.id, 1)).
  • Many-to-many uses .through(): from: r.users.id.through(r.usersToGroups.userId).
  • relationName is renamed to alias. The MySQL mode option on drizzle() is gone.
  • During the betas the old API lived on as db._query. rc.1 removed it for Postgres and rc.4 removed it for SQLite. If you are on the RC, port everything to RQBv2.
  • drizzle-kit pull generates a relations.ts in v2 syntax, which you can use as a starting point.

Casing API (breaking in rc.1). drizzle({ casing: "snake_case" }) is replaced by per-table, per-view and per-schema helpers:

import * as d from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
export const users = d.snakeCase.table("users", { fullName: d.text() }); // full_name

drizzle-kit rewrite and migration folders. journal.json is gone. Each migration now has its own folder holding its SQL and snapshot, and drizzle-kit drop was removed. Existing projects must run npx drizzle-kit up once to convert the folder. schemaFilter now manages every schema defined in code, not only public, and it accepts globs. drizzle-kit pull --init marks the pulled baseline as applied. pgTable(...).enableRLS() is replaced by pgTable.withRLS(...).

Other RC changes. Opt-in JIT row mappers (drizzle({ ..., jit: true })). A codec system normalizes driver differences on pg, mysql and sqlite. pg array utilities moved to drizzle-orm/pg-core/array. Effect integration now targets Effect v4 beta.

rc.4 tooling. drizzle-kit commands accept --output json and non-interactive --hints. A programmatic SDK is available at drizzle-kit/cli, and there is an MCP server (drizzle-kit mcp).

What to do now

  • For production, stay on 0.45.x unless you accept RC risk. Write new 0.45 code with the v1 API in mind.
  • When moving to v1, upgrade both packages together. Then run drizzle-kit up, port your relations and queries to RQBv2, and replace casing with snakeCase.table/camelCase.table.
  • Check that an RC upgrade works by running your relational queries. Type errors from db._query show what still needs porting.

Sources