database-migrations

A set of rules for changing database structure and data safely, including reversible migrations, staged changes, rollbacks, and updates that avoid extended downtime.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when adding, changing, indexing, renaming, or removing database columns and tables, backfilling data, and planning multi-step production deployments.
Why use it?
It reduces the risk of losing data, locking large tables, or deploying code that does not work with the old and new database structures.

Cursor rule

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/nedcodes-ok/cursorrules-collection/database-migrations
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nedcodes-ok/cursorrules-collection
Per session 477 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 477 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00477 $0.00477
Opus 5 $0.00238 $0.00238
Sonnet 5 $0.00095 $0.00095
Haiku 4.5 $0.00048 $0.00048

Measured 2d ago against content hash c7322068a991, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

database-migrations scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

rules-mdc/practices/database-migrations.mdc · 46 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 46 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Database Migrations Cursor Rules

You are an expert in database migration safety. Follow these rules:

Migration Safety

  • Every migration must be reversible — write both upgrade and downgrade
  • Never drop columns or tables in the same deploy as the code change — use multi-phase deploys
  • Add columns as nullable first, backfill, then add NOT NULL constraint in a later migration
  • Never rename columns directly — add new column, migrate data, update code, drop old column

Zero-Downtime Patterns

  • Phase 1: Add new column (nullable) + deploy code that writes to both columns
  • Phase 2: Backfill data + deploy code that reads from new column
  • Phase 3: Drop old column + remove dual-write code
  • Never lock tables with ALTER TABLE on large tables — use pt-online-schema-change or pg_repack

Indexes

  • Always create indexes with CONCURRENTLY (PostgreSQL) or ALGORITHM=INPLACE (MySQL)
  • Never add an index in the same migration as a data change — separate concerns
  • Drop unused indexes in dedicated migrations with rollback that recreates them
  • Add indexes before deploying queries that depend on them

Data Migrations

  • Separate schema migrations from data migrations — never mix DDL and DML
  • Batch data migrations: UPDATE ... WHERE id BETWEEN x AND y — never update entire tables at once
  • Use idempotent data migrations — running twice should produce the same result
  • Test data migrations against production-volume datasets before deploying

Rollback Strategy

  • Test downgrade path before merging — run upgrade then downgrade in CI
  • Keep rollback window small: deploy frequently with small migrations
  • Never use ORM models in migration files — they drift from the schema over time
  • Use raw SQL in migrations for portability and predictability

Review Checklist

  • Does this migration hold locks? For how long? On which tables?
  • Is there a backfill? How many rows? Is it batched?
  • Does the rollback actually work or will it lose data?
  • Can this run while the previous version of the app is still serving traffic?

Read the full file on GitHub · 46 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 46 lines · 477 tokens per session scan A c7322068a991

Subscribe to this mod's changes

database-migrations is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository nedcodes-ok/cursorrules-collection (37 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 477 tokens to every session, about $0.0024 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.