django-run-migrations

name	django-run-migrations
description	Steps for generating and applying Django migrations

When to use

Use this skill continuously after modifying any models.py schema logic to apply the changes to the database.

Steps

1. Navigate to the app context: cd app/
2. Generate the required migration definitions by running: python manage.py makemigrations
3. Execute and apply the generated migration file to the DB safely: python manage.py migrate

Validation

1. Verify that the terminal explicitly outputs "Applying..." states and succeeds without tracebacks.
2. Quickly review the auto-generated .py migration output to ensure logical alignment with your model edits.

Gotchas

• Do not manually edit auto-generated migration files unless executing an explicitly necessary, advanced requirement (i.e. complex data backfill operations). Never rewrite migrations that have already been applied to a shared or production database; instead, create a new migration for any additional schema changes.

Tips

If your changes in Django models don't cause a change in the actual database schema, you don't need to create a migration at all.

Typical changes that do not affect the DB schema include:

• choices
• verbose_name
• help_text

In these cases:

• Do not run makemigrations just to capture these metadata-only changes.
• Do not edit existing migration files that may already have been applied. The only safe exception is in a narrowly scoped, pre-merge situation where a migration has never been applied to any shared or production database and you are cleaning up that pending migration before it lands. Otherwise, always create a new migration to capture real schema changes.