postgres-best-practices

name	postgres-best-practices
description	Best practices and guidelines for working with Postgres. Covers schema design, indexing strategies, query optimization, migrations, and common pitfalls. Use when writing SQL, designing database schemas, optimizing queries, or setting up a Postgres database.

Postgres Best Practices

Guidelines and best practices for working with Postgres, covering schema design, indexing, query optimization, and common pitfalls.

Supported Versions

This skill covers PostgreSQL 14 through 18. Version-specific features are tagged (e.g., [PG15+], [PG18+]); environment-dependent examples identify required privileges, extensions, or multi-node setup.

PostgreSQL provides 5 years of support per major version. Always run the latest minor release.

Version	Initial Release	End of Life
18	September 2025	November 2030
17	September 2024	November 2029
16	September 2023	November 2028
15	October 2022	November 2027
14	September 2021	November 2026

Source: postgresql.org/support/versioning

References

Area	Resource	When to Use
Schema Design	references/schema-design.md	Designing tables, choosing data types, normalizing, partitioning
Indexing	references/indexing.md	Choosing index types, composite indexes, partial/covering indexes
Query Optimization	references/query-optimization.md	Reading EXPLAIN ANALYZE, fixing bottlenecks, planner tuning
Query Patterns	references/query-patterns.md	CTEs, window functions, lateral joins, UPSERT, JSONB, anti-patterns
Performance Diagnostics	references/performance-diagnostics.md	pg_stat views, lock analysis, VACUUM, connection management
Logical Replication	references/logical-replication.md	Pub/sub replication, live migrations, CDC
Hot Standby	references/hot-standby.md	Streaming replication, read replicas, failover
Transaction Isolation	references/transaction-isolation.md	Isolation levels, lost updates, serialization failures, retry logic
Backup & Restore	references/backup-restore.md	pg_dump/pg_restore, pg_basebackup, PITR, recovery
Security & Roles	references/security-roles.md	Privileges, RLS, pg_hba.conf, authentication, SSL
Bulk Data Loading	references/bulk-loading.md	COPY patterns, ETL staging, optimizing large loads, batch ops
Connection Pooling	references/connection-pooling.md	PgBouncer config, pool modes, prepared statements, sizing
Major Version Upgrades	references/major-version-upgrades.md	pg_upgrade, logical replication migration, pre/post checklists