| name | specx-sqlalchemy-migrations |
| description | Add or repair Alembic migrations for Specx SQLAlchemy services. Use when adding SQLAlchemy models or repositories, replacing metadata.create_all schema bootstraps, creating async Alembic env.py, adding migration Makefile targets, generating initial revisions, or testing migration drift. |
Specx SQLAlchemy Migrations
Use this skill whenever a Specx project has SQLAlchemy models or persistence
adapters. Read references/alembic.md before editing migration files.
Workflow
- Add
alembic>=1.18.5 as a runtime dependency when SQLAlchemy adapters
exist, together with SQLAlchemy's asyncio extra and the selected driver.
- Add
alembic.ini, migrations/env.py, migrations/script.py.mako, and
migrations/versions/.
- Use Alembic's async pattern for async SQLAlchemy engines.
- Put app-wide SQLAlchemy settings/session factory under top-level
infrastructure/sqlalchemy/.
- Keep scope-owned ORM models and repositories under
core/<scope>/infrastructure/sqlalchemy/.
- Add a project-local SQLAlchemy declarative base under
src/<package>/foundation/sqlalchemy_model.py; do not use shared packaged
metadata for generated services.
- Put reusable model discovery under top-level
infrastructure/sqlalchemy/model_discovery.py. Use that same function from
migrations/env.py and its guardrail test before assigning
target_metadata; do not duplicate discovery or maintain hard-coded model
module names.
- Set
target_metadata to the project-local BaseSQLAlchemyModel.metadata.
- Generate or hand-review an initial migration for current models.
- Add
make migrate and make makemigrations.
- Add tests that run
alembic upgrade head against an isolated database,
check for pending autogenerate changes, and prove every core SQLAlchemy
model file is included by the exact discovery function Alembic uses. Use
the production database family when dialect behavior matters.
Guardrails
- Do not call
Base.metadata.create_all, metadata.create_all, or
drop_all from src/.
- Do not run migrations from FastAPI startup by default. Run migrations as an
operational command before app startup.
- Do not put app-wide engine/session factory code inside one core scope.
- Do not let delivery controllers import ORM models, repositories, sessions, or
migration helpers.
- Do not let Alembic drift checks depend on incomplete metadata. Model discovery
must include every
core/*/infrastructure/sqlalchemy/models/*.py file.
- Do not trust autogenerated migrations without review.
- Do not edit, delete, or reorder a revision that may already have been applied;
add a new corrective revision.
- Do not pass SQLite's
autocommit connect argument on Python 3.11. For a
savepoint-based SQLite test harness spanning Python versions, use
SQLAlchemy's connect and begin event-hook recipe.
Code Style
Use blank lines as logical separators in all code. Keep related statements
together, but separate independent setup, action, assertion, response, branch,
and transformation groups so long blocks stay readable.
References
references/alembic.md - async Alembic layout, env.py, Makefile targets,
initial migration, and migration tests.