CLI

Better Auth comes with a built-in CLI to help you manage the database schemas, initialize your project, and generate a secret key for your application.

Generate

The generate command creates the schema required by Better Auth. If you're using a database adapter like Prisma or Drizzle, this command will generate the right schema for your ORM. If you're using the built-in Kysely adapter, it will generate an SQL file you can run directly on your database.

npx @better-auth/cli@latest generate

Options

• --output - Where to save the generated schema. For Prisma, it will be saved in prisma/schema.prisma. For Drizzle, it goes to schema.ts in your project root. For Kysely, it’s an SQL file saved as schema.sql in your project root.
• --config - The path to your Better Auth config file. By default, the CLI will search for a auth.ts file in ./, ./utils, ./lib, or any of these directories under src directory.
• --y - Skip the confirmation prompt and generate the schema directly.

Migrate

The migrate command applies the Better Auth schema directly to your database. This is available if you’re using the built-in Kysely adapter. For other adapters, you'll need to apply the schema using your ORM's migration tool.

npx @better-auth/cli@latest migrate

Options

• --config - The path to your Better Auth config file. By default, the CLI will search for a auth.ts file in ./, ./utils, ./lib, or any of these directories under src directory.
• --y - Skip the confirmation prompt and apply the schema directly.

Init

The init command allows you to initialize Better Auth in your project.

npx @better-auth/cli@latest init

Options

• --name - The name of your application. (Defaults to your package.json's name property.)
• --framework - The framework your codebase is using. Currently, the only supported framework is nextjs.
• --plugins - The plugins you want to use. You can specify multiple plugins by separating them with a comma.
• --database - The database you want to use. Currently, the only supported database is sqlite.
• --package-manager - The package manager you want to use. Currently, the only supported package managers are npm, pnpm, yarn, bun. (Defaults to the manager you used to initialize the CLI.)

Secret

The CLI also provides a way to generate a secret key for your Better Auth instance.

npx @better-auth/cli@latest secret

Common Issues

Error: Cannot find module X

If you see this error, it means the CLI can’t resolve imported modules in your Better Auth config file. We're working on a fix for many of these issues, but in the meantime, you can try the following:

• Remove any import aliases in your config file and use relative paths instead. After running the CLI, you can revert to using aliases.