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Database ​

Quick reference for importing / exporting Postgres data and managing Payload migrations.

Import database ​

  • Restore the latest production dump from ./data into your local POSTGRES_URL:
bash
pnpm db:restore:latest
  • Optional format flags: --sql or --binary.
  • The restore script resets the public schema first (DROP SCHEMA ... CASCADE), so this is destructive for the target DB.

Export database ​

This can only be done if you have admin credentials. Ask Gijs/Camil. Export source/production DB (from SOURCE_POSTGRES_*) to ./data:

bash
pnpm db:dump:production
  • Optional flags (both scripts):
    • --sql / --binary
    • --repo-safe / --no-repo-safe
    • --max-git-file-mb=95
    • --chunk-size-mb=95

Repo-safe mode compresses large dumps (.xz/.gz) and can split them into .part-* chunks so they can go into github.com (max 100MB).

Payload migrations ​

If you want changes to the production database you need to work with migrations. To create a migration start with the latest db + migrations then run pnpm payload:migrate:create. This file needs to be checked into git and part of your PR.

Common commands:

bash
pnpm payload:migrate
pnpm payload:migrate:status
pnpm payload:migrate:create
pnpm payload:migrate:down

Payload migrations docs: https://payloadcms.com/docs/database/migrations

Also available: payload:migrate:refresh, payload:migrate:reset, payload:migrate:fresh.

Quirks / gotchas ​

  • Locally you can make changes to the database and interact with console to create tables/columns. When you're done create a migration
  • Local dev commonly uses Drizzle push mode. Do not mix that local push workflow with running migrations against the same local DB.
  • Double check your migration against latest dump. So:
    • pnpm db:restore:latest
    • pnpm payload:migrate
    • pnpm payload:migrate:create -> should be empty
  • Create migrations after finishing a coherent schema change, then review generated files before committing.