Can't deploy my turborepo. (Could not resolve prisma client)

I cant deploy my turbo repo on vercel, my file client.ts in my DB package can’t find the generated prisma files during my turbo build. It works locally, but on vercel i get an error.

//client.ts
import { withAccelerate } from "@prisma/extension-accelerate";
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/prisma/client";

const globalForPrisma = global as unknown as { prisma: PrismaClient };

export const prisma =
	globalForPrisma.prisma || new PrismaClient().$extends(withAccelerate());

if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production") globalForPrisma.prisma = prisma;

//schema.prism
generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client"
  output   = "../../src/generated/prisma"
  moduleFormat = "esm"
  runtime = "nodejs"
}

datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

//turbo.json
{
	"$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
	"ui": "tui",
	"tasks": {
		"build": {
			"dependsOn": ["^db:generate", "^build"],
			"inputs": ["$TURBO_DEFAULT$", ".env*"],
			"outputs": ["dist/**"],
			"env": ["DATABASE_URL"]
		},
		"lint": {
			"dependsOn": ["^lint"]
		},
		"check-types": {
			"dependsOn": ["^check-types"]
		},
		"dev": {
			"dependsOn": ["^db:generate"],
			"cache": false,
			"persistent": true
		},
		"db:push": {
			"cache": false
		},
		"db:studio": {
			"cache": false,
			"persistent": true
		},
		"db:migrate": {
			"cache": false,
			"persistent": true
		},
		"db:generate": {
			"cache": false,
			"outputs": ["src/generated/**"]
		}
	}
}

https://vercel.com/spinboxxs-projects/zanadeal-monorepo-web

did you find a fix? i have the same problem

i also need help on this

This might be a bit outdated now, but I wanted to share what worked for me. I was deploying a Turborepo monorepo to Vercel with these versions:

{
  "next": "^16.1.1",
  "react": "^19.2.3",
  "prisma": "^6.19.0",
  "@prisma/client": "^6.19.0"
}

Monorepo structure (example)

My repo looked roughly like this (two Next.js apps):

apps/
  web/      # Next.js app (main)
    package.json
  docs/     # Next.js app (docs)
    package.json
packages/
  db/       # Prisma package (schema + generated client)
    prisma/
      schema.prisma
    generated/
      client/
turbo.json
pnpm-workspace.yaml

Both apps/web and apps/docs import Prisma via the shared packages/db.

What was happning

In a monorepo setup (apps/ + packages/), Prisma Client (and the Query Engine .so.node) is often generated inside a shared package (e.g. packages/db/...). With Next.js 16, builds default to Turbopack, and I found that in this mode the Prisma workaround that relies on Webpack hooks didn’t reliably run / copy the engine into the server output. This resulted in either:

build-time “could not resolve Prisma Client”, or
runtime “Prisma Client could not locate the Query Engine (rhel-openssl-3.0.x)” on Vercel

Fix (the 3 things that finally made it stable)

1) Force Next build to use Webpack

This was the most important piece for me:

// apps/<your-next-app>/package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "next build --webpack"
  }
}

2) Add Prisma’s monorepo workaround plugin to `next.config`

// apps/<your-next-app>/next.config.mjs
import { PrismaPlugin } from "@prisma/nextjs-monorepo-workaround-plugin";

const nextConfig = {
  webpack: (config, { isServer }) => {
    if (isServer) config.plugins.push(new PrismaPlugin());
    return config;
  },
};

export default nextConfig;

3) (Extra safety) Specify `binaryTargets` in `schema.prisma`

// packages/<db-package>/prisma/schema.prisma
generator client {
  provider      = "prisma-client-js"
  binaryTargets = ["native", "rhel-openssl-3.0.x"]
}

I cant deploy my turbo repo on vercel, my file client.ts in my DB package can’t find the generated prisma files during my turbo build. It works locally, but on vercel i get an error.

//client.ts
import { withAccelerate } from "@prisma/extension-accelerate";
import { PrismaClient } from "./generated/prisma/client";

const globalForPrisma = global as unknown as { prisma: PrismaClient };

export const prisma =
	globalForPrisma.prisma || new PrismaClient().$extends(withAccelerate());

if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production") globalForPrisma.prisma = prisma;

//schema.prism
generator client {
  provider = "prisma-client"
  output   = "../../src/generated/prisma"
  moduleFormat = "esm"
  runtime = "nodejs"
}

datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

//turbo.json
{
	"$schema": "https://turbo.build/schema.json",
	"ui": "tui",
	"tasks": {
		"build": {
			"dependsOn": ["^db:generate", "^build"],
			"inputs": ["$TURBO_DEFAULT$", ".env*"],
			"outputs": ["dist/**"],
			"env": ["DATABASE_URL"]
		},
		"lint": {
			"dependsOn": ["^lint"]
		},
		"check-types": {
			"dependsOn": ["^check-types"]
		},
		"dev": {
			"dependsOn": ["^db:generate"],
			"cache": false,
			"persistent": true
		},
		"db:push": {
			"cache": false
		},
		"db:studio": {
			"cache": false,
			"persistent": true
		},
		"db:migrate": {
			"cache": false,
			"persistent": true
		},
		"db:generate": {
			"cache": false,
			"outputs": ["src/generated/**"]
		}
	}
}

https://vercel.com/spinboxxs-projects/zanadeal-monorepo-web

did you find a fix? i have the same problem

i also need help on this

This might be a bit outdated now, but I wanted to share what worked for me. I was deploying a Turborepo monorepo to Vercel with these versions:

{
  "next": "^16.1.1",
  "react": "^19.2.3",
  "prisma": "^6.19.0",
  "@prisma/client": "^6.19.0"
}

Monorepo structure (example)

My repo looked roughly like this (two Next.js apps):

apps/
  web/      # Next.js app (main)
    package.json
  docs/     # Next.js app (docs)
    package.json
packages/
  db/       # Prisma package (schema + generated client)
    prisma/
      schema.prisma
    generated/
      client/
turbo.json
pnpm-workspace.yaml

Both apps/web and apps/docs import Prisma via the shared packages/db.

What was happning

build-time “could not resolve Prisma Client”, or
runtime “Prisma Client could not locate the Query Engine (rhel-openssl-3.0.x)” on Vercel

Fix (the 3 things that finally made it stable)

1) Force Next build to use Webpack

This was the most important piece for me:

// apps/<your-next-app>/package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "next build --webpack"
  }
}

2) Add Prisma’s monorepo workaround plugin to `next.config`

// apps/<your-next-app>/next.config.mjs
import { PrismaPlugin } from "@prisma/nextjs-monorepo-workaround-plugin";

const nextConfig = {
  webpack: (config, { isServer }) => {
    if (isServer) config.plugins.push(new PrismaPlugin());
    return config;
  },
};

export default nextConfig;

3) (Extra safety) Specify `binaryTargets` in `schema.prisma`

// packages/<db-package>/prisma/schema.prisma
generator client {
  provider      = "prisma-client-js"
  binaryTargets = ["native", "rhel-openssl-3.0.x"]
}

Can't deploy my turborepo. (Could not resolve prisma client)

Monorepo structure (example)

What was happning

Fix (the 3 things that finally made it stable)

1) Force Next build to use Webpack

2) Add Prisma’s monorepo workaround plugin to next.config

3) (Extra safety) Specify binaryTargets in schema.prisma

Can't deploy my turborepo. (Could not resolve prisma client)

Monorepo structure (example)

What was happning

Fix (the 3 things that finally made it stable)

1) Force Next build to use Webpack

2) Add Prisma’s monorepo workaround plugin to next.config

3) (Extra safety) Specify binaryTargets in schema.prisma

2) Add Prisma’s monorepo workaround plugin to `next.config`

3) (Extra safety) Specify `binaryTargets` in `schema.prisma`

2) Add Prisma’s monorepo workaround plugin to `next.config`

3) (Extra safety) Specify `binaryTargets` in `schema.prisma`