drizzle-team/drizzle-orm · error · Error

TextDecoder is not available. Please provide either Buffer o

Error message

TextDecoder is not available. Please provide either Buffer or TextDecoder polyfill.

What it means

Thrown by normalizeFieldValue (sql-js/session.ts:208) when a SQLite cell comes back as a Uint8Array (BLOB) but the runtime has neither Node's Buffer nor a global TextDecoder. sql.js returns binary columns as Uint8Array, and Drizzle needs one of those globals to convert the bytes into a usable value, so it errors asking for a polyfill.

Source

Thrown at drizzle-orm/src/sql-js/session.ts:208

	/** @internal */
	isResponseInArrayMode(): boolean {
		return this._isResponseInArrayMode;
	}
}

function normalizeFieldValue(value: unknown) {
	if (value instanceof Uint8Array) { // eslint-disable-line no-instanceof/no-instanceof
		if (typeof Buffer !== 'undefined') {
			if (!(value instanceof Buffer)) { // eslint-disable-line no-instanceof/no-instanceof
				return Buffer.from(value);
			}
			return value;
		}
		if (typeof TextDecoder !== 'undefined') {
			return new TextDecoder().decode(value);
		}
		throw new Error('TextDecoder is not available. Please provide either Buffer or TextDecoder polyfill.');
	}
	return value;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to b7862528fd)

Solutions

1. Provide a Buffer polyfill (e.g. `buffer` package) in the bundle for browser/edge.
2. Ensure the global TextDecoder is available (e.g. `util.TextDecoder` polyfill via node util in older runtimes).
3. Avoid selecting BLOB columns in environments that cannot satisfy either polyfill.

Example fix

// before (browser bundle without polyfills)
import { drizzle } from 'drizzle-orm/sql-js';
const db = drizzle(new Database(data));
await db.select().from(files); // files.content is BLOB -> throws
// after
import { Buffer } from 'buffer';
globalThis.Buffer = Buffer;
const db = drizzle(new Database(data));
await db.select().from(files);

function hasBinaryDecoder() {
  return typeof Buffer !== 'undefined' || typeof TextDecoder !== 'undefined';
}
if (!hasBinaryDecoder()) {
  throw new Error('Provide a Buffer or TextDecoder polyfill before reading BLOB columns with sql.js');
}

function binaryDecoderAvailable(): boolean {
  return typeof Buffer !== 'undefined' || typeof TextDecoder !== 'undefined';
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running sql.js (drizzle-orm/sql-js) in a restricted runtime (some edge workers, legacy bundlers, minimal sandboxes) that lacks both Buffer and TextDecoder while reading a BLOB/binary column.

Common situations: Bundling sql.js for the browser without a Buffer polyfill; running in a minimal JS engine without Web APIs; tree-shaking or polyfill config dropping TextDecoder; reading BLOB columns in environments configured for text-only.

Related errors

• TextDecoder is not available. Please provide either Buffer o
• Method not implemented.
• Failed query: ${queryString} params: ${params}

AI-assisted analysis of drizzle-team/drizzle-orm@b7862528fd (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/6155b3595a6ca2f4.json. Report an issue: GitHub.