#30267·Prisma

generate silently emits empty client (zero models) — 5.x/6.x, macOS/Linux/Docker

Author: ambral-appCreated Sep 12, 2026Updated Sep 12, 2026

Bug: prisma generate silently emits empty client (zero models)

npx prisma generate reports success but produces a client with no models — node_modules/@prisma/client/index.d.ts is a 1-line stub. No error, exit 0.

Minimal repro (fails everywhere tested)

// schema.prisma
generator client { provider = "prisma-client-js" }
datasource db { provider = "sqlite"  url = "file:./dev.db" }
model Widget { id Int @id @default(autoincrement())  name String }
npx prisma generate
grep -c widget node_modules/@prisma/client/index.d.ts  # → 0 (expect >0)

Also fails identically on a full 17-model MySQL schema. prisma validate passes; prisma db push works (schema-engine healthy; only codegen output is empty).

Matrix (all produce empty output)

macOS darwin-arm64 Node 23 + 6.19.3/6.4.1; Linux debian-openssl-3.0.x Node 20 + 6.19.3; Docker node:20 (+slim) + 6.4.1/5.22.0. Clean installs, cleared caches, no shadow schema files.

Expected

Generated client contains model delegates, or a loud error — never silent empty output with exit 0.