Data and state evolution

data-and-state-evolution — data outlives code; change its shape in phases

Purpose: code review optimizes for what a senior catches on sight, but the highest-cost slop in this category is invisible in a diff: a migration that is fine on the empty dev DB and locks a 10M-row table in prod, a renamed column that 500s the old code still running mid-deploy, a backfill with no rollback. A wrong code deploy reverts in minutes; a wrong data migration can be unrecoverable. That asymmetry demands its own discipline — this skill is it.

Scope: anything with a persisted or shared shape — DB schemas, API request/response payloads, event/queue messages, serialized caches, file formats. For the error-handling and validation around that data, pair with craft:robustness-at-boundaries; for proving the migration ran, craft:trustworthy-tests.

Reflex card

1. Expand → migrate → contract — never break in one step. Any backward-incompatible change to a shape something else reads ships as three changes: add the new shape alongside the old, migrate every reader/writer, then remove the old shape as its own later change. (Sato's Parallel Change.)
2. Survive one deploy window. During rollout, old code and new code run against the same schema simultaneously. If the old version crashes on the new schema (or vice versa), the change is not safe — phase it.
3. Migrations are code — versioned, reviewed, tested, deployed with the same rigor as application changes. "All database changes are migrations." (Fowler & Sadalage.)
4. Every migration has a tested rollback. A down that raises NotImplementedError is a one-way door pretending to be a migration. If rollback is truly impossible (data destroyed), say so explicitly and get sign-off — don't hide it behind an empty stub.
5. Dry-run on a copy at production scale before prod. Forward and rollback. An empty dev database proves syntax, not safety — row counts, lock time, and constraint violations only show up at scale.
6. Watch nullability and defaults drift. NOT NULL without a default and a backfill breaks every existing row. Loosening to nullable quietly moves the crash downstream — every consumer now needs a null path it doesn't have. Changing a default changes behavior for every caller that relied on the old one.
7. Batch big backfills. UPDATE on a large table in one statement/transaction locks it for the duration. Backfill in bounded batches, separately from the schema change, resumable if interrupted.
8. Never change a field's meaning while keeping its name. A reader can't tell "old semantics" from "new semantics" by looking at the value. New meaning → new field; retire the old one through expand/contract.

Red flags (run these on your own diff)

• DROP/RENAME of a column/table in the same deploy as the code change that stops (or starts) reading it.
• ADD COLUMN ... NOT NULL with no default and no backfill step.
• A migration with no down, or a down that is pass / raises NotImplemented.
• Schema change + data backfill + code change all in one deploy/transaction.
• An unbatched UPDATE/ALTER touching a table whose production size you don't know.
• Type narrowing (shrinking a VARCHAR, int→smallint, dropping precision) with no audit of existing max values.
• An enum/check-constraint value removed while rows still hold it.
• An event/API field whose meaning changed but whose name didn't.
• "Tested it locally" where local = an empty or toy-sized database.

The decision procedure

For any change to a persisted/shared shape, in order:

1. Who reads this shape today? List them: code paths, other services, queue consumers, analytics jobs, cached serializations. Unknown readers = not ready.
2. Can the currently deployed code run against the new schema? If no → expand/contract; never a one-shot.
3. Sequence it: (a) expand — additive schema change, deploy; (b) code writes both / reads either, deploy; (c) backfill, batched; (d) flip reads to the new shape, deploy; (e) contract — drop the old shape, as its own change, later.
4. Dry-run forward and rollback on a copy with production-scale data. Record row counts and timing.
5. Paste the evidence — the dry-run output is part of the diff's Definition of Done, not an optional extra.

Steps 3–4 scale with blast radius: a column on a 100-row internal config table does not need the full ceremony — but you must be able to say the blast radius is small, not assume it.

Before / after (compact — worked example in examples/)

-- ❌ One deploy: breaks every running instance that still writes `username`
ALTER TABLE users RENAME COLUMN username TO handle;

-- ✅ Expand → migrate → contract (three deploys)
ALTER TABLE users ADD COLUMN handle TEXT;                     -- 1. expand (additive)
-- 2. code writes both, reads handle ?? username; batched backfill
UPDATE users SET handle = username WHERE handle IS NULL AND id BETWEEN :lo AND :hi;
ALTER TABLE users DROP COLUMN username;                       -- 3. contract (own deploy, later)

What this is NOT (don't over-correct)

• Not schema fear. Evolutionary design expects the schema to change continuously; the point is phasing, not freezing.
• Not "make everything nullable." Nullable-by-default is its own drift — after the backfill completes, contract to the real constraint (SET NOT NULL).
• Not heavyweight DBA process everywhere. The numbers here (one deploy window, batch sizes) are defaults that proxy for blast radius — a tiny internal table earns a lighter path, a 10M-row hot table earns a heavier one. Judge the radius; don't apply ceremony mechanically.

Critique mode

For each schema/data/shape change in the diff: name the readers; check it survives a deploy window (old + new code concurrently); check the rollback exists and was run; check NOT NULL/defaults/backfill; check backfill batching against the table's real size; check no field changed meaning under a stable name. No dry-run evidence → the change is unverified, say so. Tag findings [data-and-state-evolution · breaking-shape-change|no-rollback|nullability-drift|unbatched-backfill|semantic-drift · SEV].

References

• Worked before/after: examples/breaking-vs-expand-contract.md
• Parallel change (expand/contract), evolutionary database design: ../../references/PRINCIPLES.md §D
• Rule 13 + Definition of Done: ../../RULES.md