django-safe-migrations 0.6.0

Detect unsafe Django migrations before they break production

Django Safe Migrations

Detect unsafe Django migrations before they break production.

Django Safe Migrations analyzes your Django migrations and warns you about operations that could cause downtime, lock tables, or cause data loss in production environments.

Features

• Detect unsafe operations before they reach production (see what we catch)
• PostgreSQL-aware rules for concurrent index creation and more
• Clear fix suggestions with safe migration patterns
• Multiple output formats: Console (with colors), JSON, GitHub Actions annotations, GitLab Code Quality, SARIF
• Easy CI/CD integration with GitHub Actions, pre-commit hooks, and GitHub Code Scanning
• Configurable rules to match your deployment strategy
• Diff mode — only check migrations changed since a branch
• Baseline support — suppress existing issues, catch only new ones
• Interactive mode — review issues one-by-one with keep/skip/fix/quit
• Watch mode — continuously re-run on file changes (requires watchdog)

Rules

Rule ID	Name	Severity	Description
SM001	not_null_without_default	ERROR	Adding NOT NULL column without default will lock table
SM002	drop_column_unsafe	WARNING	Dropping column while old code may reference it
SM003	drop_table_unsafe	WARNING	Dropping table while old code may reference it
SM004	alter_column_type	WARNING	Changing column type may rewrite table
SM005	add_foreign_key_validates	WARNING	FK constraint validates existing rows (locks)
SM006	rename_column	INFO	Column rename may break old code during deployment
SM007	run_sql_unsafe	WARNING	RunSQL without reverse_sql is not reversible
SM008	large_data_migration	INFO	Data migration may be slow on large tables
SM009	add_unique_constraint	ERROR	Adding unique constraint requires full table scan
SM010	index_not_concurrent	ERROR	Index creation without CONCURRENTLY (PostgreSQL)
SM011	unique_constraint_not_concurrent	ERROR	Unique constraint without concurrent index
SM012	enum_add_value_transaction	ERROR	Adding enum value inside transaction (PostgreSQL)
SM013	alter_varchar_length	WARNING	Decreasing VARCHAR length rewrites table
SM014	rename_model	WARNING	Model rename may break FKs and external references
SM015	alter_unique_together	WARNING	Deprecated in favor of UniqueConstraint
SM016	run_python_no_reverse	INFO	RunPython without reverse_code is not reversible
SM017	add_check_constraint	WARNING	Check constraint validates all existing rows
SM018	concurrent_in_atomic_migration	ERROR	Concurrent index operations require atomic=False
SM019	reserved_keyword_column	INFO	Column name is a reserved SQL keyword
SM020	alter_field_null_false	ERROR	AlterField null=False without data backfill
SM021	alter_field_unique	ERROR	Adding UNIQUE via AlterField on existing data
SM022	expensive_default_callable	WARNING	Default value uses expensive callable (e.g., now())
SM023	add_many_to_many	INFO	ManyToMany creates junction table (potential locks)
SM024	sql_injection_pattern	ERROR	SQL injection patterns detected in RunSQL
SM025	fk_without_index	WARNING	Foreign key without db_index on large tables
SM026	run_python_no_batching	WARNING	RunPython using .all() without batching
SM027	missing_merge_migration	ERROR	Multiple leaf migrations need merge migration
SM028	prefer_bigint_over_int	WARNING	Prefer BigAutoField over 32-bit AutoField primary keys
SM029	drop_not_null	WARNING	Dropping NOT NULL constraint may allow unintended NULLs
SM030	require_concurrent_index_delete	ERROR	Index removal without CONCURRENTLY locks table (PostgreSQL)
SM031	prefer_text_over_varchar	INFO	Consider TextField over CharField on PostgreSQL
SM032	prefer_timestamptz	INFO	DateTimeField without USE_TZ stores naive datetimes
SM033	adding_field_with_default	WARNING	NOT NULL field with Python default rewrites all rows
SM034	prefer_identity	INFO	Consider IDENTITY columns on PostgreSQL (Django < 4.0)
SM035	require_lock_timeout	INFO	DDL in RunSQL should set lock_timeout
SM036	prefer_if_exists	INFO	Use IF [NOT] EXISTS in CREATE/DROP TABLE

Installation

pip install django-safe-migrations

Add to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django_safe_migrations',
]

Usage

Management Command

# Check all migrations
python manage.py check_migrations

# Check specific apps
python manage.py check_migrations myapp otherapp

# Only check unapplied migrations
python manage.py check_migrations --new-only

# JSON output for CI
python manage.py check_migrations --format=json

# GitHub Actions annotations
python manage.py check_migrations --format=github

# Fail on warnings too
python manage.py check_migrations --fail-on-warning

# GitLab Code Quality output
python manage.py check_migrations --format=gitlab

# Diff mode - only check changed migrations
python manage.py check_migrations --diff
python manage.py check_migrations --diff main

# Baseline - suppress existing issues
python manage.py check_migrations --generate-baseline .migration-baseline.json
python manage.py check_migrations --baseline .migration-baseline.json

# Interactive review
python manage.py check_migrations --interactive

# Verbose output
python manage.py check_migrations --verbose

# Watch mode (requires: pip install django-safe-migrations[watch])
python manage.py check_migrations --watch

Example Output

Found 2 migration issue(s):

✖ ERROR [SM001] myapp/migrations/0002_add_email.py:15
   Adding NOT NULL field 'email' to 'user' without a default value will lock the table
   Operation: AddField(user.email)

   💡 Suggestion:
      Safe pattern for adding NOT NULL field:

      1. Migration 1 - Add field as nullable:
         migrations.AddField(
             model_name='user',
             name='email',
             field=models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True),
         )

      2. Data migration - Backfill existing rows in batches

      3. Migration 3 - Add NOT NULL constraint:
         migrations.AlterField(
             model_name='user',
             name='email',
             field=models.CharField(max_length=255, null=False),
         )

⚠ WARNING [SM002] myapp/migrations/0003_remove_old.py:10
   Dropping column 'old_field' from 'user' - ensure all code references have been removed first
   Operation: RemoveField(user.old_field)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Summary: 1 error(s), 1 warning(s)

🔄 CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

# .github/workflows/check-migrations.yml
name: Check Migrations

on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - "**/migrations/**"

jobs:
  check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.12"

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install django-safe-migrations Django

      - name: Check migrations
        run: python manage.py check_migrations --format=github --fail-on-warning

Pre-commit Hook

# .pre-commit-config.yaml
repos:
  - repo: local
    hooks:
      - id: check-migrations
        name: Check Django migrations
        entry: python manage.py check_migrations --new-only
        language: system
        types: [python]
        pass_filenames: false

⚙️ Configuration

Command Options

Option	Description
--format	Output format: console, json, github, gitlab, sarif
--output, -o	Output file path (defaults to stdout)
--fail-on-warning	Exit with error code on warnings
--new-only	Only check unapplied migrations
--no-suggestions	Hide fix suggestions
--exclude-apps	Apps to exclude from checking
--include-django-apps	Include Django's built-in apps
--diff [BASE_REF]	Only check migrations changed since BASE_REF (default: main)
--baseline FILE	Exclude issues present in baseline file
--generate-baseline FILE	Generate baseline file from current issues
--interactive	Interactively review each issue
--verbose	Show progress information during analysis
--watch	Watch migration files and re-run on changes
--list-rules	List all available rules and exit

Programmatic Usage

from django_safe_migrations import MigrationAnalyzer

analyzer = MigrationAnalyzer()

# Analyze all migrations
issues = analyzer.analyze_all()

# Analyze specific app
issues = analyzer.analyze_app('myapp')

# Analyze only new migrations
issues = analyzer.analyze_new_migrations()

for issue in issues:
    print(f"[{issue.rule_id}] {issue.message}")
    if issue.suggestion:
        print(f"Suggestion: {issue.suggestion}")

📚 Safe Migration Patterns

Adding a NOT NULL Column

❌ Unsafe:

migrations.AddField(
    model_name='user',
    name='email',
    field=models.CharField(max_length=255),  # NOT NULL, no default!
)

✅ Safe:

# Migration 1: Add nullable field
migrations.AddField(
    model_name='user',
    name='email',
    field=models.CharField(max_length=255, null=True),
)

# Migration 2: Backfill data (data migration)
def backfill_emails(apps, schema_editor):
    User = apps.get_model('myapp', 'User')
    User.objects.filter(email__isnull=True).update(email='[e-mail]')

migrations.RunPython(backfill_emails)

# Migration 3: Add NOT NULL constraint
migrations.AlterField(
    model_name='user',
    name='email',
    field=models.CharField(max_length=255),
)

Creating an Index (PostgreSQL)

❌ Unsafe:

migrations.AddIndex(
    model_name='user',
    index=models.Index(fields=['email'], name='user_email_idx'),
)

✅ Safe:

from django.contrib.postgres.operations import AddIndexConcurrently

class Migration(migrations.Migration):
    atomic = False  # Required!

    operations = [
        AddIndexConcurrently(
            model_name='user',
            index=models.Index(fields=['email'], name='user_email_idx'),
        ),
    ]

⚠️ Known Limitations

Static Analysis Only

Django Safe Migrations performs static analysis of migration files. It cannot:

• Know the actual size of your tables (all tables are treated equally)
• Detect issues that depend on runtime data (e.g., whether NULL values exist)
• Know your specific deployment strategy or downtime tolerance

Recommendation: Use suppression comments with explanations when you've verified a migration is safe for your specific situation.

Database-Specific Rules

Some rules only apply to PostgreSQL:

Rule	PostgreSQL Only	Reason
SM010	Yes	CONCURRENTLY is PostgreSQL-specific
SM011	Yes	Concurrent unique indexes are PostgreSQL-specific
SM012	Yes	Enum handling is PostgreSQL-specific
SM018	Yes	AddIndexConcurrently is PostgreSQL-specific
SM021	Yes	Concurrent unique constraint pattern
SM030	Yes	RemoveIndexConcurrently is PostgreSQL-specific
SM031	Yes	TEXT vs VARCHAR optimization is PostgreSQL-specific
SM034	Yes	IDENTITY columns are PostgreSQL-specific

For MySQL, SQLite, or other databases, these rules are automatically skipped.

Cannot Detect All Unsafe Patterns

The analyzer may miss unsafe patterns in:

• Complex RunSQL statements (only basic pattern matching)
• Dynamic SQL generated at runtime
• Migrations that call external services
• Custom migration operations

False Positives

Some detected issues may be false positives:

• SM001 on new tables (no existing rows to worry about)
• SM010 on small lookup tables (concurrent not needed)
• SM020 when you've already backfilled NULL values

Use suppression comments to document why a pattern is safe in your case:

# safe-migrations: ignore SM001 -- new table, no existing data
migrations.AddField(...)

Source Inspection Limitations

Rules that inspect Python source code (like SM026 for RunPython batching) may not work in all environments:

• Compiled/optimized Python installations
• Some Docker configurations
• When source files are not available

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/YasserShkeir/django-safe-migrations.git
cd django-safe-migrations

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pre-commit install

# Run tests
pytest

# Run linters
make lint

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

💖 Support

If this project helps you ship safer migrations, consider supporting its development:

🙏 Acknowledgments

Inspired by:

• strong_migrations (Ruby)
• django-pg-zero-downtime-migrations
• squawk