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Overview

Durcno's migration system helps you track, generate, apply and rollback schema changes to your PostgreSQL database.

This section covers the CLI commands you need to manage migrations:

  • npx durcno generate — create a new migration for schema changes. See more
  • npx durcno migrate — apply pending migrations to database. See more
  • npx durcno push — generate and apply a migration in one step. See more
  • npx durcno down <migration> — rollback a specific migration. See more
  • npx durcno squash <start> <end> — squash a range of migrations into one. See more
  • npx durcno status — view the status of migrations. See more

Durcno tracks your schema changes automatically, so you can focus on building features instead of writing SQL migration scripts by hand.

How Migrations Work​

Durcno generates migrations by comparing your current schema definition with the DDL statements from previous migrations. Each migration contains up.ts and down.ts files that export DDL statement objects.

This approach keeps your migration history clean and makes it easy to understand what changed in each migration.

ISO Timestamp Naming​

Durcno uses a modified ISO timestamp format (e.g., 2025-12-20T14-30-52.123Z) for migration folder names.

note

Standard ISO format uses : (e.g., 2025-12-20T14:30:52.123Z), but Durcno replaces : with - to ensure compatibility with Windows file systems where : is not allowed in folder names.

This naming convention offers significant advantages when working with git branches or remote teams:

  • No merge conflicts: Unlike sequential numbering, timestamp-based names are unique per creation time, so migrations created on different branches won't clash
  • Easy to merge: Team members can create migrations independently without coordinating migration numbers
  • Clear chronology: The ISO format naturally sorts migrations by creation time, making history easy to follow
  • Self-contained migrations: Each migration's DDL statements stand on their own, making it straightforward to merge branches with different migration histories

Notes​

  • Migrations are stored in the out directory configured by durcno.config.ts (default: migrations).
  • Each migration folder contains:
    • up.ts — exports DDL statement objects to apply the migration
    • down.ts — exports DDL statement objects to rollback the migration

Next: read the detailed guide for each CLI command.