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yellowjacket/.pi/skills/yellowjacket-dev/references/schema-change.md
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yonluandClaude Opus 5 c9905fbcff docs: drop the webkit2_41 tag from the commands agents run
The commit before this removed the tag from the Makefile, lefthook,
both packaging recipes and CI, but left it in CLAUDE.md's "Running
tests" section and the yellowjacket-dev skill — which are the copies a
coding agent actually runs, so a stale tag there is worse than one in
prose. skill-check does not catch this: it verifies that documented
make targets exist, not that documented go commands do.

The historical mentions in .planning/ and .pi/journal.md are left
alone; they are records of what was true then.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UDCbcCZQepnpSQYJ6SxxZm
2026-08-14 14:02:41 -04:00

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# Changing the database schema
The reasoning — why there are two files, what the old 48-step migration
chain got wrong, and when squashing is legitimate — is in `CLAUDE.md`
under *Backend packages → database*. Read it once. This is the
checklist.
**A brand-new table needs one file, not two.** The rule below is about
a *column added to a table that already exists*. `applySchema` runs
every file in `sql/schemas/` on every open, so a
`CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS` reaches an existing install verbatim and a
migration for it would be a second description of the same table — the
thing the third rule forbids. Its indexes go in the schema file too,
because the column and the index arrive together.
A new table has a second gate: **`backend/datamap`**. Add an entry
stating its Kind and Lifetime, or `TestCatalogCoversSchema` fails — and
if it is `Authored` and cascades, `TestAuthoredCascadesAreDeliberate`
wants an explicit exemption with a note, because authored data is what
a user cannot get back.
Adding a **column** to an existing table needs **two** files, not one:
1. **`backend/database/sql/schemas/*.sql`** — `CREATE TABLE ... IF NOT
EXISTS`, the literal target shape, what sqlc reads and what a fresh
install gets verbatim. Add the new column **last** in the
`CREATE TABLE`.
2. **`backend/database/sql/migrations/NNNN_description.sql`** — the
`ALTER TABLE ... ADD COLUMN` (and any index on it) that gets an
existing database to the same shape. Schema files are a no-op against
a table that already exists, so without this an upgrade never gets
the column.
Then:
```bash
make generate # sqlc + templ
go test ./backend/database/ # migration + column-order tests
make test
```
Rebuild any seed you rely on (`make sandbox-seed NAME=default`) and
delete your own dev `YJ_HOME` if you want to see the fresh-install path
rather than the migrated one.
## The three ways this goes wrong
- **Column order must match between the two paths.** `ADD COLUMN`
always appends, so a migrated column declared anywhere but last in
`CREATE TABLE` leaves fresh and upgraded installs disagreeing on
order — and sqlc binds `SELECT *` positionally, so one of them
silently reads the wrong field.
`TestMigrations_ColumnOrderMatchesFreshInstall` is the regression test.
- **Do not put an index on a migrated column in `sql/schemas/`.**
Schema files run *before* migrations, against a database that may not
have the column yet, and the predicate fails. Declare the index in the
migration, after the `ALTER TABLE`.
- **Do not add a third description of the schema anywhere.** A
migration's `ADD COLUMN` failing with "duplicate column name" against
an already-current database is expected and tolerated, not an error to
route around.
New queries go in `backend/database/sql/queries/`; generated Go lands in
`backend/database/sql/sqlcgen/`, which is never edited by hand. Tests
use `database.NewTestDB(t)`, built by the same `applySchema` production
uses, so the two cannot diverge.