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Drizzle Workflow: Dev → Production

How to manage database schema changes across development and production environments using Drizzle ORM.

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How to manage database schema changes across development and production environments using Drizzle ORM.

Development: db:push

bunx drizzle-kit push — diffs TypeScript schema against live DB and applies changes directly.

  • Officially recommended for prototyping and solo development
  • No files produced, no history tracked
  • Destructive: may drop+recreate columns instead of renaming — fine when data is disposable
  • Use --strict flag if you want approval before SQL executes

This is the right tool when there's no production data to protect.

Production: generate + migrate

drizzle-kit generate produces versioned SQL files. migrate() applies them in order.

  • SQL files are version-controlled, reviewable in PRs
  • Ordered history enables reproducing any DB state from scratch
  • Required when real user data exists and schema changes must be non-destructive

Workflow: edit schema → drizzle-kit generate → review SQL → apply via migrate()

Transitioning from push to migrations

When a production DB is first created (fresh, no prior data):

  1. drizzle-kit generate --name=init — produces a single baseline SQL from current schema
  2. Apply to fresh prod DB via programmatic migrate()
  3. All subsequent changes: edit schema → generate → review SQL → migrate

No hacks needed for fresh DBs. The "baseline problem" (syncing push history with migration journal) only affects teams that already pushed data into prod — avoid this by switching before prod goes live.

If transitioning with an existing prod DB that was managed via push: generate the baseline SQL, then manually insert its hash into __drizzle_migrations to mark it as already applied (Discussion #1604). There is no official drizzle-kit baseline command.

Production migration gotchas

Issue Impact Mitigation
No migration locking (#874) Concurrent deploys run migrations twice Wrap migrate() with pg_advisory_lock
CLI unreliable with Bun (bun#23740) drizzle-kit migrate hangs or crashes Use programmatic migrate() from drizzle-orm/.../migrator
migrate() keeps process alive Bun hangs on open handles Explicit process.exit(0) after completion
No rollback support (#1339) No down migrations Write manual rollback SQL if needed
Editing generated SQL Corrupts snapshot state, wrong diffs forever Never manually edit generated migration files
Enum rename Generates drop+recreate, fails with existing data Manual ALTER TYPE ... RENAME VALUE
pgEnum not exported CREATE TYPE silently omitted from output Always export enum objects

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