Migration

Name: Migration
Author: girijashankarj

girijashankarj/cursor-handbook

1 installs
27 repo stars
Updated April 25, 2026
girijashankarj/cursor-handbook

Safe workflow to create and apply database schema changes with up/down migrations, safety checks, batched data migration, and testing.

About

Guides creating and applying database schema changes safely with reversible migrations and safety checks. A developer uses it when modifying the database schema.

Writes UP and DOWN migrations with concurrent indexes
Batches idempotent data migrations and tests rollback

Migration by the numbers

1 all-time installs (skills.sh)
Ranked #770 of 911 Databases skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
Data as of Jul 22, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)

npx skills add https://github.com/girijashankarj/cursor-handbook --skill migration

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Installs	1
repo stars	★ 27
Last updated	April 25, 2026
Repository	girijashankarj/cursor-handbook ↗

What it does

Safe workflow to create and apply database schema changes with up/down migrations, safety checks, batched data migration, and testing.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Skill: Create Database Migration

Trigger

When the user needs to modify the database schema.

Steps

Step 1: Plan the Change

[ ] Define what's changing and why
[ ] Check for backward compatibility
[ ] Identify affected queries and code
[ ] Determine if data migration is needed

Step 2: Create Migration File

[ ] Name: YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_descriptive_name.sql
[ ] Write UP migration (apply change)
[ ] Write DOWN migration (rollback)
[ ] Include required columns: {{CONFIG.database.timestampFields.created}}, {{CONFIG.database.timestampFields.updated}}, {{CONFIG.database.softDeleteField}}

Step 3: Safety Checks

[ ] No DELETE FROM statements (soft delete only)
[ ] New columns have defaults or are nullable
[ ] Indexes created with CONCURRENTLY for large tables
[ ] No column renames (add new → migrate → drop old)
[ ] Foreign keys have appropriate cascade rules

Step 4: Data Migration

If needed:

[ ] Write data migration script
[ ] Use batch processing (1000-5000 rows per batch)
[ ] Make it idempotent (safe to re-run)
[ ] Include progress logging

Step 5: Test Migration

[ ] Apply to development database
[ ] Verify data integrity
[ ] Test rollback
[ ] Test with production-like data volume
[ ] Verify affected queries still work

Step 6: Update Code

[ ] Update models/types to match new schema
[ ] Update affected queries
[ ] Run type check: {{CONFIG.testing.typeCheckCommand}}
[ ] Run affected tests

If a step fails

Step	Failure	Recovery
Step 2	Syntax error in migration	Fix SQL; re-run
Step 4	Data migration fails mid-run	Script should be idempotent; fix and re-run; if partial data, document manual cleanup
Step 5	Test migration fails	Run DOWN migration to revert; fix UP migration; retest
Step 5	Rollback test fails	Fix DOWN migration; ensure DOWN fully reverts UP before retrying