Database

A guide to safer database changes, including migrations, indexes, query design, and preventing N+1 queries, where one request accidentally causes many database queries.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when designing data models, writing SQL or ORM queries, adding indexes, preventing N+1 queries, or creating reversible, backward-compatible migrations tested on staging and copied production data.
Why use it?
It reduces risks such as data loss, broken code, slow queries, and long production locks when changing tables or retrieving data.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/sergei-aronsen/claude-code-toolkit/database
Any agent
npx skills add sergei-aronsen/claude-code-toolkit --skill database
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sergei-aronsen/claude-code-toolkit

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 29 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,857 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
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 $0.00029 $0.01857
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00928
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00371
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00186

Measured 2d ago against content hash 543f45e91488, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Database 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.

templates/base/skills/database/SKILL.md · 368 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 368 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Database Skill

Load this skill when working with databases, migrations, queries, or data modeling.


Rule

DATABASE CHANGES MUST BE SAFE AND REVERSIBLE!

  • Always test migrations on staging
  • Never delete data without backup
  • Index queries, not tables

Migration Best Practices

Safe Migration Checklist

  • Migration is reversible (has down method)
  • No data loss
  • No long locks on production tables
  • Tested on copy of production data
  • Backward compatible with current code

Dangerous Operations

Operation Risk Safe Alternative
Drop column Data loss Add new column, migrate, then drop
Rename column Breaks code Add alias, dual-write, then rename
Add NOT NULL Fails on existing nulls Add nullable, backfill, then add constraint
Change type Data corruption Add new column, migrate data

Migration Patterns

Adding Column Safely
-- Step 1: Add nullable column
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN phone VARCHAR(20);

-- Step 2: Backfill data (in batches)
UPDATE users SET phone = 'unknown' WHERE phone IS NULL LIMIT 1000;

-- Step 3: Add NOT NULL constraint (after all data filled)
ALTER TABLE users ALTER COLUMN phone SET NOT NULL;
Zero-Downtime Column Rename
-- Step 1: Add new column
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN full_name VARCHAR(255);

-- Step 2: Dual-write in application (write to both columns)

-- Step 3: Backfill existing data
UPDATE users SET full_name = name WHERE full_name IS NULL;

-- Step 4: Switch reads to new column

-- Step 5: Stop writing to old column

-- Step 6: Drop old column (separate migration, later)
ALTER TABLE users DROP COLUMN name;

Index Strategies

When to Add Index

Query Pattern Index Type
WHERE status = ? Single column
WHERE user_id = ? AND status = ? Composite (user_id, status)
WHERE email LIKE 'john%' Single column (prefix only)
ORDER BY created_at DESC Single column DESC
WHERE status = ? ORDER BY created_at Composite (status, created_at)

Read the full file on GitHub · 368 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 · 368 lines · 29 tokens per session scan A 543f45e91488

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Database is a skill published in the GitHub repository sergei-aronsen/claude-code-toolkit (5 stars, last pushed 16d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 1,857 once invoked, about $0.0001 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 2026-08-31.

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