> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.jethings.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Reviewer Workflow

> How to validate a migration PR and apply it to the dev database

This page is for whoever is responsible for reviewing a migration PR and merging its changes into the dev database. It assumes the PR has already passed normal code review — this is the DB-specific check before merge.

## Workflow

<Steps>
  <Step title="Check out the PR branch and pull latest main">
    ```bash theme={null}
        git checkout <branch>
        git pull origin main
    ```

    Pulling main into the branch first (rather than testing it in isolation) surfaces any schema conflicts with migrations merged after the branch was created — better to catch drift here than after merge.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Regenerate the Prisma client locally">
    ```bash theme={null}
        pnpm prisma:generate:local
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run a full local bootstrap against the merged branch">
    ```bash theme={null}
        pnpm db:bootstrap:local
    ```

    Watch the output closely for warnings or errors — not just a failed exit code. Prisma often prints non-fatal warnings (e.g. about implicit data loss on a column change) that won't stop the migration but should stop *you*. See [Data Migration](/migration/data-migration) for handling this safely.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Resolve any warnings/errors/ data migration">
    If something's wrong — fix it on the branch (or kick it back to the developer) before proceeding. Don't merge a migration with an unresolved warning just because it "ran."
  </Step>

  <Step title="If everything passes: force-add the migration file and merge">
    The migration file generated in step 3 (under `prisma/migrations/`) is **not tracked by git by default** — this repo has `prisma/migrations` under `.gitignore`. Before merging, explicitly force-add it:

    ```bash theme={null}
        git add -f prisma/migrations/migration.sql
        git commit -m "chore: add migration for <branch/feature name>"
    ```

    Confirm it shows up in `git status`/the diff before pushing — a missed `-f` here means the migration file silently never reaches `main`, and `db:bootstrap:dev` will run against a schema that doesn't match what was actually reviewed.

    Once confirmed committed, merge the branch into `main`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Apply the migration to the dev database">
    ```bash theme={null}
        git checkout main
        pnpm db:bootstrap:dev
    ```

    This runs `prisma migrate deploy` against `.env.dev` (applying only pending migration files, unlike `migrate dev` which also generates new ones) followed by the dev seed script.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Info>
  Repeat this exact process for every branch/PR that touches the schema — each
  one gets its own local bootstrap-and-verify pass before merge, even if it
  looks like a small change.
</Info>