drizzle

Drizzle ORM Schema Style Guide

Adding a Model or Repository? Ship a sibling test in the same PR — every new file under packages/database/src/models/** or src/repositories/** needs a matching __tests__/<name>.test.ts. See the testing skill (.agents/skills/testing/references/db-model-test.md) for the getTestDB() integration pattern, user-isolation tests, the BM25 describe.skipIf(!isServerDB) guard, and schema gotchas. CI's coverage patch gate won't reliably catch a brand-new untested file, so this is on you.

Configuration

• Config: drizzle.config.ts
• Schemas: packages/database/src/schemas/
• Migrations: packages/database/migrations/
• Dialect: postgresql with strict: true

Helper Functions

Location: packages/database/src/schemas/_helpers.ts

• timestamptz(name): Timestamp with timezone
• createdAt(), updatedAt(), accessedAt(): Standard timestamp columns
• timestamps: Object with all three for easy spread

Naming Conventions

• Tables: Plural snake_case (users, session_groups)
• Columns: snake_case (user_id, created_at)
• New tables: Check nearby existing tables before naming a new one. Preserve the established noun family and suffix. For example, if the user-scoped table is user_xxx_logs, the workspace-scoped counterpart should be workspace_xxx_logs, not workspace_xxx_records or another new synonym.

// ✅ Good: follows the existing user/workspace table family.
export const userSignupLogs = pgTable('user_signup_logs', { ... });
export const workspaceSignupLogs = pgTable('workspace_signup_logs', { ... });

// ❌ Bad: introduces a new suffix for the same concept.
export const workspaceSignupRecords = pgTable('workspace_signup_records', { ... });

Column Definitions

Primary Keys

Do not use auto-incrementing primary keys (serial, bigserial, generated identity columns). They create sequence-state problems during cross-database migrations, restores, and data copy jobs. Prefer text IDs from application generators (idGenerator, createNanoId) or uuid for internal tables.

Keep $defaultFn(...) when a table normally owns ID generation. Callers can still pass an explicit id; the default only runs when the insert omits it. Do not remove the default just because one flow needs to supply a request-scoped ID.

// ✅ Good: app-generated text ID; explicit inserts can still override it.
id: text('id')
  .primaryKey()
  .$defaultFn(() => idGenerator('agents'))
  .notNull(),

// ❌ Bad: sequence state is fragile across DB migrations and restores.
id: serial('id').primaryKey(),

ID prefixes make entity types distinguishable. For internal tables, use uuid.

Do not use composite primary keys on new tables. Give every table a single-column surrogate PK and carry business uniqueness in a uniqueIndex instead. PK columns cannot be nullable, so when the uniqueness scope later grows by a nullable dimension the composite PK must be torn down and rebuilt — exactly what happened when ai_providers / ai_models were workspace-scoped (migration 0110 replaced their composite PKs with a surrogate _id plus partial unique indexes). A unique index still works as the arbiter for onConflictDoUpdate upserts.

// ✅ Good: surrogate PK; uniqueness scope can evolve without a PK rebuild.
export const workspaceUserSettings = pgTable(
  'workspace_user_settings',
  {
    id: uuid('id').defaultRandom().notNull().primaryKey(),
    workspaceId: text('workspace_id').references(() => workspaces.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' }).notNull(),
    userId: text('user_id').references(() => users.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' }).notNull(),
    ...timestamps,
  },
  (t) => [uniqueIndex('workspace_user_settings_workspace_id_user_id_unique').on(t.workspaceId, t.userId)],
);

// ❌ Bad: locked to exactly these columns; adding a nullable scope column
// (workspaceId, deviceId, …) later forces a full PK rebuild migration.
(t) => [primaryKey({ columns: [t.workspaceId, t.userId] })],

Existing composite PKs are legacy — leave them alone unless they block a scope change, then migrate them the 0110 way.

Foreign Keys

userId: text('user_id')
  .references(() => users.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' })
  .notNull(),

Timestamps

...timestamps,  // Spread from _helpers.ts

Optional and Undefined Values

Do not introduce artificial sentinel strings for missing values, such as unknown, unless the domain already has that explicit state and existing code uses it consistently. Prefer nullable columns, optional TypeScript fields, or a separate concrete status enum when the value is genuinely absent.

// ✅ Good: absent until the final stage writes a real decision.
export type UserSignupLogFinalDecision = 'allow' | 'block' | 'error';

finalDecision: varchar('final_decision', { length: 32 }).$type<UserSignupLogFinalDecision>(),

// ❌ Bad: invents a new state that callers now need to handle everywhere.
export type UserSignupLogFinalDecision = 'allow' | 'block' | 'error' | 'unknown';

finalDecision: varchar('final_decision', { length: 32 })
  .$type<UserSignupLogFinalDecision>()
  .notNull()
  .default('unknown');

Database Enums

Default to not using PostgreSQL/Drizzle pgEnum. Database enums are expensive to evolve safely: adding members needs migrations, removing or renaming members is awkward, and deployment order becomes more fragile.

For product/business states, use text() or varchar() with a TypeScript value type via $type<...>(). Keep those TS-only value types in the domain/shared type module, then import them into the schema. For cloud DB schemas, that usually means cloudDB/types.ts.

Do not copy existing DB enums as a pattern. Treat them as legacy or explicitly reviewed exceptions. If a new pgEnum seems necessary, stop and justify why the value set is effectively immutable and why the migration cost is acceptable.

Field Descriptions

For columns whose meaning is not obvious from the name alone, add JSDoc on the schema field. Include a concrete example when it clarifies the stored value or the lifecycle moment that writes it. This is especially important for external IDs, lifecycle statuses, denormalized snapshots, JSONB signals, and fields whose name could mean either a request ID or a persisted row ID.

// ✅ Good: explain the table's business object first, then only document
// non-obvious lifecycle or risk-control fields.
/**
 * User signup logs - one row per signup flow, collecting stage-level
 * risk-control decisions before and after the auth provider creates a user.
 */
export const userSignupLogs = pgTable('user_signup_logs', {
  /** Final signup outcome reason, for example user_created, llm_block, or guard_error */
  finalReason: text('final_reason'),

  /** Aggregated risk level derived from stage decisions, for example block -> high */
  riskLevel: varchar('risk_level', { length: 16 }).$type<UserSignupLogRiskLevel>(),

  /** Ordered stage-level decisions and metadata grouped by signup review stage */
  stageResults: jsonb('stage_results').$type<UserSignupLogStageResults>(),
});

// ❌ Bad: comments restate obvious column names without adding domain meaning.
/** User email */
email: text('email'),

JSONB Types

Avoid Record<string, unknown> or similarly loose JSONB types for schema columns. Define a concrete interface that describes the expected JSON shape, even when most properties are optional. This keeps callers, migrations, and review queries aligned on the same data contract.

interface UserSignupLogMetadata {
  payloadPath?: string;
  requestPath?: string;
}

metadata: jsonb('metadata').$type<UserSignupLogMetadata>(),

// ❌ Bad: hides the contract and makes downstream access untyped.
metadata: jsonb('metadata').$type<Record<string, unknown>>(),

A loosely-typed JSONB column is often a symptom of a deeper problem: the column was reserved speculatively ("for future extension") and nothing actually writes it. Don't add metadata / extra JSONB columns for hypothetical future needs — a column earns its place only when a concrete writer ships alongside it. When review finds such a column, the fix is to delete the column, not to invent an interface for data that doesn't exist; add a properly-typed column once the real requirement arrives.

Indexes

// Return array (object style deprecated)
(t) => [uniqueIndex('client_id_user_id_unique').on(t.clientId, t.userId)],

Type Inference

export const insertAgentSchema = createInsertSchema(agents);
export type NewAgent = typeof agents.$inferInsert;
export type AgentItem = typeof agents.$inferSelect;

Example Pattern

export const agents = pgTable(
  'agents',
  {
    id: text('id')
      .primaryKey()
      .$defaultFn(() => idGenerator('agents'))
      .notNull(),
    slug: varchar('slug', { length: 100 })
      .$defaultFn(() => randomSlug(4))
      .unique(),
    userId: text('user_id')
      .references(() => users.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' })
      .notNull(),
    clientId: text('client_id'),
    chatConfig: jsonb('chat_config').$type<LobeAgentChatConfig>(),
    ...timestamps,
  },
  (t) => [uniqueIndex('client_id_user_id_unique').on(t.clientId, t.userId)],
);

Common Patterns

Junction Tables (Many-to-Many)

The surrogate-PK rule above applies to junction tables too — pair uniqueness goes in a uniqueIndex, not a composite PK (many existing junction tables still use composite PKs; that is legacy, not the template):

export const agentsKnowledgeBases = pgTable(
  'agents_knowledge_bases',
  {
    id: uuid('id').defaultRandom().notNull().primaryKey(),
    agentId: text('agent_id')
      .references(() => agents.id, { onDelete: 'cascade' })
      .notNull(),
    knowledgeBaseId: text('knowledge_base_id')
      .references((

---

*Content truncated.*