YepAPI/skills

Database Design

Rules

• Normalize to 3NF by default — denormalize only for measured performance needs
• Index strategy: primary keys (auto), foreign keys, frequently filtered/sorted columns
• Migrations: version-controlled, up + down, descriptive names
• Seed data for development — realistic test data, not foo/bar
• Soft deletes (deletedAt) for user-facing records — hard delete for truly ephemeral data
• UUIDs for public-facing IDs — auto-increment integers for internal relations
• Connection pooling for serverless — PgBouncer, Prisma Accelerate, or Supabase pooler
• Backup strategy: automated daily backups, test restore process
• Query optimization: EXPLAIN ANALYZE, avoid SELECT *, use specific columns