pytest-mrt 0.9.0

Catch database migration rollback failures before they reach production

pytest-mrt

A pytest plugin that catches database migration rollback failures before they reach production.

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alembic downgrade -1 ran clean. No errors. Your monitoring went green.

But the users' phone numbers are gone. The column came back. The data didn't.

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What it does

Most tools verify that migrations run without errors.
pytest-mrt verifies that your data survives a rollback.

It seeds real rows before each migration, rolls back, and checks nothing was lost. It also statically scans migration files for 30 known dangerous patterns across both Alembic and Django migrations.

Django note: static pattern detection is fully supported. Dynamic rollback verification (manage.py migrate --backwards) is on the roadmap for v0.9 — not yet implemented.

Install

pip install pytest-mrt

Setup (2 minutes)

1. Create conftest.py in your project root:

# conftest.py
import os
from pytest_mrt import MRTConfig


def pytest_configure(config):
    config._mrt_config = MRTConfig(
        alembic_ini="alembic.ini",                               # path to your alembic.ini
        db_url=os.environ.get("TEST_DATABASE_URL", "sqlite:///test.db"),  # test database
    )

2. Write a test:

# tests/test_migrations.py


def test_migrations_are_safe(mrt):
    mrt.assert_all_reversible()

3. Run:

pytest tests/test_migrations.py -s

mrt is a pytest fixture — just add it as a parameter and it works. No import needed in test files.

Static analysis (no database needed)

mrt check migrations/versions/

╭──────────┬──────────────────────────┬─────────┬──────┬────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Revision │ Pattern                  │ Sev     │ Line │ Message                            │
├──────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 004      │ DROP COLUMN in upgrade   │ error   │   12 │ Data permanently lost on rollback  │
│ 005      │ No-op downgrade          │ error   │    8 │ downgrade() does nothing           │
│ 006      │ INDEX without CONCURR.   │ warning │   19 │ Locks table during index build     │
╰──────────┴──────────────────────────┴─────────┴──────┴────────────────────────────────────╯
2 error(s), 1 warning(s)

What gets caught

Errors (will cause data loss or a broken rollback):

• op.drop_column() in upgrade — data is gone even if downgrade re-adds the column
• op.drop_table() in upgrade — all rows permanently lost
• TRUNCATE in migration
• def downgrade(): pass — rollback silently does nothing
• No downgrade() function
• rename_table / rename_column without reverse
• DROP VIEW without recreating in downgrade
• ALTER TYPE ... ADD VALUE (PostgreSQL ENUM) — can't roll back once rows use the new value
• Add column + migrate data + drop original in one migration

Warnings (review before deploying):

• NOT NULL without server_default
• Column type change
• Raw op.execute() / context.execute() without reverse
• op.execute(sa.text(...)) — SQL inside sa.text() wrapper now fully analyzed
• op.bulk_insert() without corresponding DELETE in downgrade
• Bulk UPDATE without a reverse UPDATE in downgrade
• ON DELETE CASCADE added
• CREATE INDEX without CONCURRENTLY (PostgreSQL)
• ADD COLUMN with DEFAULT on large tables
• CREATE UNIQUE CONSTRAINT on existing data
• DROP INDEX without recreating
• DROP CONSTRAINT without recreating
• ALTER SEQUENCE / setval
• NOT NULL via raw SQL without reverse
• NOT NULL without restoring nullable in downgrade

Databases

	Static analysis	Dynamic verification
PostgreSQL	✅	✅
SQLite	✅	✅
MySQL / MariaDB	✅	✅
Oracle	✅	✅
SQL Server	✅	✅

pip install pytest-mrt[mysql]    # PyMySQL
pip install pytest-mrt[oracle]   # python-oracledb
pip install pytest-mrt[mssql]    # pymssql

CI/CD integration

Drop mrt check into any pipeline as a pre-deploy gate:

# GitHub Actions — blocks merge if unsafe migrations are detected
- name: Migration safety check
  run: mrt check alembic/versions/ --strict

Full examples for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, and pre-commit hooks are in examples/ci-integration/.

Docker

Run tests locally against PostgreSQL or MySQL without installing anything:

docker compose run test-postgres
docker compose run test-mysql

See docker-compose.yml for the full configuration.

Performance

	10 migrations	50 migrations	100 migrations
mrt check (static, no DB)	22 ms	108 ms	216 ms
mrt fixture (SQLite)	0.33 s	4.3 s	15.6 s

Safe to run mrt check on every commit. Dynamic suite fits comfortably for projects up to ~200 migrations. For larger codebases, use MRTConfig(skip={...}) to exclude already-reviewed revisions. See benchmarks for methodology and PostgreSQL/MySQL numbers.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full release history.

Documentation

Full docs at croc100.github.io/pytest-mrt

• Getting started (step-by-step)
• All 30 patterns explained
• CLI & fixture reference
• Detection accuracy report — what each pattern catches and doesn't catch
• API reference — stable public API
• FAQ — timeouts, large codebases, Django, error handling

Sponsorship

pytest-mrt is MIT-licensed and free to use. If it saves you from a production incident, consider sponsoring development:

github.com/sponsors/croc100

Sponsorship directly funds:

• New pattern development (Oracle, SQL Server, more Django patterns)
• Django dynamic rollback verification (v0.9 target)
• Maintained compatibility with new Alembic and SQLAlchemy releases

License

MIT