pgevolve

Postgres-specific declarative schema management.

pgevolve treats a directory of CREATE-style SQL files as the source of truth for one or more Postgres schemas, introspects a live database to derive its current state, and computes ordered, dependency-aware migration plans that bring the database to the desired state. It refuses to lose data unless explicitly authorized in a per-plan intent file.

Current release: v0.4.6 (Postgres 14–18). See CHANGELOG.md for per-release detail.

Documentation: https://saosebastiao.github.io/pgevolve/

Install

From crates.io (recommended):

cargo install pgevolve

From source:

git clone https://github.com/saosebastiao/pgevolve
cd pgevolve
cargo install --path crates/pgevolve

pgevolve requires Rust 1.95+.

Getting started

# 1. Scaffold a project (creates `pgevolve.toml`, `schema/`, `plans/`).
pgevolve init

# 2. Author your schema as CREATE-style SQL under `schema/`.
#    File layout is enforced by the `layout_profile` setting; the default
#    (`schema-mirror`) wants `schema/<schema>/<kind>/<name>.sql`.

# 3. Plan a migration against a configured environment.
pgevolve plan --db dev
#   wrote plans/2026-05-23-<short-id>/{plan.sql, intent.toml, manifest.toml}

# 4. Review the generated plan.sql + intent.toml in code review.

# 5. Apply it.
pgevolve apply plans/2026-05-23-<short-id> --db dev

Full walkthrough: docs/user/getting-started.md.

CLI surface

Command	What it does	Touches DB	Writes files
`pgevolve init`	Scaffold project files	no	yes
`pgevolve lint`	Run universal + layout-profile rules	no	no
`pgevolve validate`	Parse + build source IR; with `--shadow`, round-trip the IR through ephemeral Postgres; `--shadow-validate` cross-checks dep graph against `pg_depend`	shadow only	no
`pgevolve diff --db <env>`	Build source + catalog IR; print change set (`--format=human\|json\|sql`); `--shadow-validate` opt-in	read-only	no
`pgevolve plan --db <env> [-o <dir>]`	Full pipeline; write plan directory; gates on unwaived `LintAtPlan` findings; `--shadow-validate` opt-in	read-only	yes
`pgevolve apply <plan-dir> --db <env>`	Execute plan	read+write	no
`pgevolve status --db <env>`	Show recent applies and per-step state	read-only	no
`pgevolve dump --db <env> -o <dir>`	Introspect live DB and write source SQL	read-only	yes
`pgevolve bootstrap --db <env>`	Install/upgrade the `pgevolve` metadata schema	read+write	no
`pgevolve graph`	Render source dep graph (`--graph-format dot\|mermaid`); no DB required	no	optional (`-o`)
`pgevolve doctor --db <env>`	Health check: bootstrap status, NOT VALID constraints, INVALID indexes, object counts, recent failures	read-only	no
`pgevolve cluster …`	Cluster-level surface: plan/apply role + role-attribute changes (`CREATE ROLE`, `ALTER ROLE`, `GRANT role TO role`)	varies	varies
`pgevolve rewrite-table <qname> --db <env> --confirm-rewrite`	Destructive table rewrite — skeleton; not yet implemented	—	—

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 lint/validation error, 2 drift or pre-flight mismatch, 3 apply error, 4 config or CLI input error. Full reference: docs/user/commands.md.

Configuration

pgevolve.toml:

[project]
name           = "myapp"
schema_dir     = "schema"
plan_dir       = "plans"
layout_profile = "schema-mirror"          # also: kind-grouped | feature-grouped | free-form | <path-to-custom.toml>

[managed]
schemas        = ["app", "billing"]       # schemas under pgevolve's control
ignore_objects = ["app.legacy_etl_*"]     # qname or glob

[planner]
strategy = "online"                       # "atomic" | "online"

[planner.online_rewrites]
create_index_concurrent       = true
fk_not_valid_then_validate    = true
check_not_valid_then_validate = true
not_null_via_check_pattern    = true

[environments.dev]
url = "postgres://localhost/myapp_dev"

[environments.prod]
url_env  = "DATABASE_URL_PROD"            # read DSN from env var
strategy = "online"

Connection precedence (mirrors psql): --url CLI flag → [environments.<env>].url → [environments.<env>].url_env → PGEVOLVE_DATABASE_URL → libpq env (PGHOST, PGUSER, ...).

Full reference: docs/user/configuration.md.

Highlights

Declarative source of truth. CREATE-style SQL under schema/ is the only source; the plan is always derived, never authored.
Lenient drift. Cross-cutting state (owner, grants, RLS policies, reloptions) marked None in source is treated as unmanaged — the differ never reverts catalog values you haven't claimed. Per-feature unmanaged-* lints surface the drift instead.
Audited apply. Every step lands in pgevolve.apply_log / pgevolve.plan_steps with success/failure/abort transitions; the executor refuses to apply a tampered plan (BLAKE3 plan-id + manifest-embedded pre-image catalog).
Online rewrites by default. Concurrent index create/drop, NOT VALID + VALIDATE for FK and CHECK, the 4-step SET NOT NULL via CHECK pattern, REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW CONCURRENTLY upgrade. Opt out per-environment with strategy = "atomic".
All actively-maintained PG majors. PG 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 covered in CI on every push; per-version SQL paths in the catalog reader.
Conformance-driven. ~260 fixture-based end-to-end tests gate CI. Every claimed capability has a fixture; see docs/spec/testing.md.

Documentation

docs/user/ — user guide: installation, getting started, configuration reference, command reference, cookbook, troubleshooting, plan-format walkthrough.
docs/system/ — architecture and internals: architecture, IR, planner, executor.
docs/spec/ — living capability catalogue: every object kind, column type, constraint, index option, lint rule, CLI command, with implementation status. The authoritative answer to "does pgevolve do X?".
docs/CONSTITUTION.md — binding principles for the project (license, dependency policy, type-system rigor, release discipline). Worth reading once if you intend to contribute.
docs/v1.md — v1.0 charter: the gate, stability commitments, quality bar, PG-version policy, parking lot. Read this to understand what pgevolve commits to keep stable, and what's deliberately deferred past v1.0.
docs/RELEASING.md — release runbook.

License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option. All dependencies are permissive-licensed (MIT/Apache-2.0/BSD-family/ISC/Unicode/CC0/Zlib); no copyleft. Policy enforced by cargo deny check (see deny.toml) in CI.

pgevolve-core 0.4.6