Get started

This guide instructs you through:

• Creating your first database using D1, Cloudflare’s native serverless SQL database.
• Creating a schema and querying your database via the command-line.
• Connecting a Cloudflare Worker to your D1 database to query your D1 database programmatically.

You can perform these tasks through the CLI or through the Cloudflare dashboard.

Prerequisites

1. Sign up for a Cloudflare account ↗.
2. Install Node.js ↗.

Node.js version manager

Use a Node version manager like Volta ↗ or nvm ↗ to avoid permission issues and change Node.js versions. Wrangler, discussed later in this guide, requires a Node version of 16.17.0 or later.

1. Create a Worker

Create a new Worker as the means to query your database.

CLI

1. Create a new project named d1-tutorial by running:

   npm

   npm create cloudflare@latest -- d1-tutorial

   yarn

   yarn create cloudflare@latest d1-tutorial

   pnpm

   pnpm create cloudflare@latest d1-tutorial

   For setup, select the following options:

   • For What would you like to start with?, choose Hello World example.
   • For Which template would you like to use?, choose Hello World Worker.
   • For Which language do you want to use?, choose TypeScript.
   • For Do you want to use git for version control?, choose Yes.
   • For Do you want to deploy your application?, choose No (we will be making some changes before deploying).

   This creates a new d1-tutorial directory as illustrated below.

   • Directoryd1-tutorial

     • Directorynode_modules/

       • …
     • Directorytest/

       • …
     • Directorysrc

       • index.ts
     • package-lock.json
     • package.json
     • testconfig.json
     • vitest.config.mts
     • worker-configuration.d.ts
     • wrangler.toml

   Your new d1-tutorial directory includes:

   • A "Hello World" Worker in index.ts.
   • A wrangler.toml configuration file. wrangler.toml is how your d1-tutorial Worker accesses your D1 database.

Note

If you are familiar with Cloudflare Workers, or initializing projects in a Continuous Integration (CI) environment, initialize a new project non-interactively by setting CI=true as an environmental variable when running create cloudflare@latest.

For example: CI=true npm create cloudflare@latest d1-tutorial --type=simple --git --ts --deploy=false creates a basic “Hello World” project ready to build on.

Dashboard

1. Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard ↗ and select your account.
2. Go to your account > Workers & Pages > Overview.
3. Select Create.
4. Select Create Worker.
5. Name your Worker. For this tutorial, name your Worker d1-tutorial.
6. Select Deploy.

2. Create a database

A D1 database is conceptually similar to many other databases: a database may contain one or more tables, the ability to query those tables, and optional indexes. D1 uses the familiar SQL query language ↗ (as used by SQLite).

To create your first D1 database:

CLI

1. Change into the directory you just created for your Workers project:

   cd d1-tutorial

2. Run the following wrangler d1 command and give your database a name. In this tutorial, the database is named prod-d1-tutorial:

   npx wrangler d1 create prod-d1-tutorial

   ✅ Successfully created DB 'prod-d1-tutorial'
   
   [[d1_databases]]
   binding = "DB" # available in your Worker on env.DB
   database_name = "prod-d1-tutorial"
   database_id = "<unique-ID-for-your-database>"

This creates a new D1 database and outputs the binding configuration needed in the next step.

Note

The wrangler command-line interface is Cloudflare’s tool for managing and deploying Workers applications and D1 databases in your terminal. It was installed when you used npm create cloudflare@latest to initialize your new project.

Dashboard

1. Go to Storage & Databases > D1.
2. Select Create.
3. Name your database. For this tutorial, name your D1 database prod-d1-tutorial.
4. (Optional) Provide a location hint. Location hint is an optional parameter you can provide to indicate your desired geographical location for your database. Refer to Provide a location hint for more information.
5. Select Create.

Note

For reference, a good database name:

• Uses a combination of ASCII characters, shorter than 32 characters, and uses dashes (-) instead of spaces.
• Is descriptive of the use-case and environment. For example, “staging-db-web” or “production-db-backend”.
• Only describes the database, and is not directly referenced in code.

3. Bind your Worker to your D1 database

You must create a binding for your Worker to connect to your D1 database. Bindings allow your Workers to access resources, like D1, on the Cloudflare developer platform.

To bind your D1 database to your Worker:

CLI

You create bindings by updating your wrangler.toml file.

1. Copy the lines obtained from step 2 from your terminal.

2. Add them to the end of your wrangler.toml file.

   [[d1_databases]]
   binding = "DB" # available in your Worker on env.DB
   database_name = "prod-d1-tutorial"
   database_id = "<unique-ID-for-your-database>"

   Specifically:

   • The value (string) you set for binding is the binding name, and is used to reference this database in your Worker. In this tutorial, name your binding DB.
   • The binding name must be a valid JavaScript variable name ↗. For example, binding = "MY_DB" or binding = "productionDB" would both be valid names for the binding.
   • Your binding is available in your Worker at env.<BINDING_NAME> and the D1 client API is exposed on this binding.

Note

When you execute the wrangler d1 create command, the client API package (which implements the D1 API and database class) is automatically installed. For more information on the D1 Client API, refer to D1 Client API.

You can also bind your D1 database to a Pages Function. For more information, refer to Functions Bindings for D1.

Dashboard

You create bindings by adding them to the Worker you have created.

1. Go to Workers & Pages > Overview.

2. Select the d1-tutorial Worker you created in step 1.

3. Select Settings.

4. Scroll to Bindings, then select Add.

5. Select D1 database.

6. Name your binding in Variable name, then select the prod-d1-tutorial D1 database you created in step 2 from the dropdown menu. For this tutorial, name your binding DB.

7. Select Deploy to deploy your binding. When deploying, there are two options:

   • Deploy: Immediately deploy the binding to 100% of your audience.
   • Save version: Save a version of the binding which you can deploy in the future.

   For this tutorial, select Deploy.

4. Run a query against your D1 database

Configure your D1 database

CLI

With wrangler.toml configured properly, set up your database. Use the example schema.sql file below to initialize your database.

1. Copy the following code and save it as a schema.sql file in the d1-tutorial Worker directory you created in step 1:

   DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Customers;
   CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Customers (CustomerId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, CompanyName TEXT, ContactName TEXT);
   INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerID, CompanyName, ContactName) VALUES (1, 'Alfreds Futterkiste', 'Maria Anders'), (4, 'Around the Horn', 'Thomas Hardy'), (11, 'Bs Beverages', 'Victoria Ashworth'), (13, 'Bs Beverages', 'Random Name');

2. Initialize your database to run and test locally first. Bootstrap your new D1 database by running:

   npx wrangler d1 execute prod-d1-tutorial --local --file=./schema.sql

3. Validate your data is in your database by running:

   npx wrangler d1 execute prod-d1-tutorial --local --command="SELECT * FROM Customers"

   🌀 Mapping SQL input into an array of statements
   🌀 Executing on local database production-db-backend (5f092302-3fbd-4247-a873-bf1afc5150b) from .wrangler/state/v3/d1:
   ┌────────────┬─────────────────────┬───────────────────┐
   │ CustomerId │ CompanyName         │ ContactName       │
   ├────────────┼─────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
   │ 1          │ Alfreds Futterkiste │ Maria Anders      │
   ├────────────┼─────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
   │ 4          │ Around the Horn     │ Thomas Hardy      │
   ├────────────┼─────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
   │ 11         │ Bs Beverages        │ Victoria Ashworth │
   ├────────────┼─────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
   │ 13         │ Bs Beverages        │ Random Name       │
   └────────────┴─────────────────────┴───────────────────┘

Dashboard

Use the Dashboard to create a table and populate it with data.

1. Go to Storage & Databases > D1.

2. Select the prod-d1-tutorial database you created in step 2.

3. Select Console.

4. Paste the following SQL snippet.

   DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Customers;
   CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Customers (CustomerId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, CompanyName TEXT, ContactName TEXT);
   INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerID, CompanyName, ContactName) VALUES (1, 'Alfreds Futterkiste', 'Maria Anders'), (4, 'Around the Horn', 'Thomas Hardy'), (11, 'Bs Beverages', 'Victoria Ashworth'), (13, 'Bs Beverages', 'Random Name');

5. Select Execute. This creates a table called Customers in your prod-d1-tutorial database.

6. Select Tables, then select the Customers table to view the contents of the table.

Write queries within your Worker

After you have set up your database, run an SQL query from within your Worker.

CLI

1. Navigate to your d1-tutorial Worker and open the index.ts file. The index.ts file is where you configure your Worker’s interactions with D1.

2. Clear the content of index.ts.

3. Paste the following code snippet into your index.ts file:

   export interface Env {
     // If you set another name in wrangler.toml as the value for 'binding',
     // replace "DB" with the variable name you defined.
     DB: D1Database;
   }
   
   export default {
     async fetch(request, env): Promise<Response> {
       const { pathname } = new URL(request.url);
   
       if (pathname === "/api/beverages") {
         // If you did not use `DB` as your binding name, change it here
         const { results } = await env.DB.prepare(
           "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = ?",
         )
           .bind("Bs Beverages")
           .all();
         return Response.json(results);
       }
   
       return new Response(
         "Call /api/beverages to see everyone who works at Bs Beverages",
       );
     },
   } satisfies ExportedHandler<Env>;

   In the code above, you:

   1. Define a binding to your D1 database in your TypeScript code. This binding matches the binding value you set in wrangler.toml under [[d1_databases]].
   2. Query your database using env.DB.prepare to issue a prepared query with a placeholder (the ? in the query).
   3. Call bind() to safely and securely bind a value to that placeholder. In a real application, you would allow a user to define the CompanyName they want to list results for. Using bind() prevents users from executing arbitrary SQL (known as “SQL injection”) against your application and deleting or otherwise modifying your database.
   4. Execute the query by calling all() to return all rows (or none, if the query returns none).
   5. Return your query results, if any, in JSON format with Response.json(results).

After configuring your Worker, you can test your project locally before you deploy globally.

Dashboard

You can query your D1 database using your Worker.

1. Go to Workers & Pages > Overview.

2. Select the d1-tutorial Worker you created.

3. Select Edit Code.

4. Clear the contents of the worker.js file, then paste the following code:

   export default {
     async fetch(request, env) {
       const { pathname } = new URL(request.url);
   
       if (pathname === "/api/beverages") {
         // If you did not use `DB` as your binding name, change it here
         const { results } = await env.DB.prepare(
           "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = ?"
         )
           .bind("Bs Beverages")
           .all();
         return new Response(JSON.stringify(results), {
           headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
         });
       }
   
       return new Response(
         "Call /api/beverages to see everyone who works at Bs Beverages"
       );
     },
   };

5. Select Save.

5. Deploy your database

Deploy your database on Cloudflare’s global network.

CLI

To deploy your Worker to production using Wrangler, you must first repeat the database configuration steps after replacing the --local flag with the --remote flag to give your Worker data to read. This creates the database tables and imports the data into the production version of your database.

1. Bootstrap your database with the schema.sql file you created in step 4:

   npx wrangler d1 execute prod-d1-tutorial --remote --file=./schema.sql

2. Validate the data is in production by running:

   npx wrangler d1 execute prod-d1-tutorial --remote --command="SELECT * FROM Customers"

3. Deploy your Worker to make your project accessible on the Internet. Run:

   npx wrangler deploy

   Outputs: https://d1-tutorial.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev

   Outputs: https://d1-tutorial.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev

   You can now visit the URL for your newly created project to query your live database.

   For example, if the URL of your new Worker is d1-tutorial.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev, accessing https://d1-tutorial.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev/api/beverages sends a request to your Worker that queries your live database directly.

4. Test your database is running successfully. Add /api/beverages to the provided Wrangler URL. For example, https://d1-tutorial.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev/api/beverages.

Dashboard

1. Go to Workers & Pages > Overview.
2. Select your d1-tutorial Worker.
3. Select Deployments.
4. From the Version History table, select Deploy version.
5. From the Deploy version page, select Deploy.

This deploys the latest version of the Worker code to production.

6. (Optional) Develop locally with Wrangler

If you are using D1 with Wrangler, you can test your database locally. While in your project directory:

1. Run wrangler dev:

   npx wrangler dev

   When you run wrangler dev, Wrangler provides a URL (most likely localhost:8787) to review your Worker.

2. Go to the URL.

   The page displays Call /api/beverages to see everyone who works at Bs Beverages.

3. Test your database is running successfully. Add /api/beverages to the provided Wrangler URL. For example, localhost:8787/api/beverages.

If successful, the browser displays your data.

Note

You can only develop locally if you are using Wrangler. You cannot develop locally through the Cloudflare dashboard.

7. (Optional) Delete your database

To delete your database:

CLI

Run:

npx wrangler d1 delete prod-d1-tutorial

Dashboard

1. Go to Storages & Databases > D1.

2. Select your prod-d1-tutorial D1 database.

3. Select Settings.

4. Select Delete.

5. Type the name of the database (prod-d1-tutorial) to confirm the deletion.

If you want to delete your Worker:

CLI

Run:

npx wrangler delete d1-tutorial

Dashboard

1. Go to Workers & Pages > Overview.

2. Select your d1-tutorial Worker.

3. Select Settings.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page, then select Delete.

5. Type the name of the Worker (d1-tutorial) to confirm the deletion.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have:

• Created a D1 database
• Created a Worker to access that database
• Deployed your project globally

Next steps

If you have any feature requests or notice any bugs, share your feedback directly with the Cloudflare team by joining the Cloudflare Developers community on Discord ↗.

• See supported Wrangler commands for D1.
• Learn how to use the D1 client API within your Worker.
• Learn the basics of using Workers with D1 and CLI development in a guided learning experience with Cloudflare CLI tutor.
• Explore community projects built on D1.