SAFETY LEVELS

Choose the right balance between safety and optimization for your use case.

OVERVIEW

Four safety levels control how aggressively CAPYSQUASH consolidates your migrations. Each level applies different consolidation rules and balances safety vs optimization.

Principle: Higher safety = fewer consolidation rules = lower risk = less optimization

COMPARISON TABLE

PARANOID MODE

capysquash squash migrations/*.sql --safety paranoid

What it does:

• Consolidates CREATE TABLE + ALTER TABLE statements
• Preserves exact column ordering
• Validates against actual database
• Removes only provably dead code

What it doesn't do:

• No DROP/CREATE cycle removal
• No function deduplication
• No RLS policy consolidation
• No aggressive reordering

CONSERVATIVE MODE

capysquash squash migrations/*.sql --safety conservative

What it does:

• All Paranoid features
• Column ordering may be optimized
• No database validation required
• Faster processing

What it doesn't do:

• No DROP/CREATE cycle removal
• No function deduplication
• No RLS policy consolidation

STANDARD MODE (RECOMMENDED)

capysquash squash migrations/*.sql --safety standard

What it does:

• All Conservative features
• Removes unnecessary DROP/CREATE cycles
• Consolidates RLS policies
• Optimizes statement ordering

What it doesn't do:

• No function deduplication
• No static dead code removal

AGGRESSIVE MODE

capysquash squash migrations/*.sql --safety aggressive

What it does:

• All Standard features
• Deduplicates identical functions
• Removes statically-provable dead code
• Uses AI for semantic analysis (optional)

What it doesn't do:

• Not recommended for production without thorough testing

CHOOSING A SAFETY LEVEL

Decision Tree

Are you squashing for the first time?
├─ YES → Start with PARANOID
└─ NO
    └─ Is this for production?
        ├─ YES → Use CONSERVATIVE
        └─ NO
            └─ Is this a staging/testing environment?
                ├─ YES → Use STANDARD (recommended)
                └─ NO → Use AGGRESSIVE for dev

By Use Case

Individual Developers:

• Local development → AGGRESSIVE or STANDARD
• Pre-production → STANDARD or CONSERVATIVE
• Production → CONSERVATIVE or PARANOID

Teams:

• Development branches → STANDARD
• Staging environment → STANDARD or CONSERVATIVE
• Production → CONSERVATIVE
• First-time use → PARANOID

Agencies:

• Client projects → CONSERVATIVE
• Internal tools → STANDARD
• Legacy cleanup → PARANOID first, then CONSERVATIVE

EXAMPLES

Paranoid Mode Example

# Requires database connection
export PROD_DB_DSN="postgres://user:pass@localhost/db"

# Run with paranoid mode
capysquash squash migrations/*.sql \
  --safety paranoid \
  --output clean/

Conservative Mode Example

# Production-ready without database
capysquash squash migrations/*.sql \
  --safety conservative \
  --output production/

Standard Mode Example

# Recommended for most use cases
capysquash squash migrations/*.sql \
  --safety standard \
  --output optimized/

Aggressive Mode Example

# Maximum cleanup for development
capysquash squash migrations/*.sql \
  --safety aggressive \
  --output dev-clean/

VALIDATION

After squashing, always validate:

capysquash validate migrations/ clean/

This is required for Paranoid mode, but recommended for all levels.

NEXT STEPS

• pgsquash-engine Commands Reference
• Configuration Options
• Docker Validation