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NSchema

CLI

5.0.0

v5.0 moves the CLI onto NSchema.Core 5.0, whose rearchitecture reshapes configuration, plugins, and planning. Changes below are relative to 4.5.1.

Added

  • --scope takes an object, not just a schema. A value is an address — --scope app for a whole schema, --scope app.orders for one object. Read under the NSQL identifier rules, so a quoted segment can carry dots and spaces (--scope '"my.schema"."Order Details"').
  • --ephemeral on plan, apply, and destroy runs against an in-memory state store discarded when the command exits, standing in for a configured STATE store — for CI pipelines that bootstrap disposable databases. Run-once script history does not persist across runs in this mode.
  • A lockfile (nschema.lock) pins declared plugin versions to concrete versions. init resolves each PLUGIN — a range to the highest available version, an exact pin to itself — and records it; later commands read the pin, so a plugin without a lockfile entry is an error that points to init.
  • plugin update [<label>] re-resolves ranges to their highest available version and rewrites the lockfile — every plugin, or a single one by label.
  • plugin outdated shows each plugin’s pinned version against the newest its range allows (what update would install) and the newest available for this engine.
  • new asks the plugins what it needs to know. A database or state plugin can declare the questions its configuration needs, composing the answers into the statement it writes.
  • --set <key>=<value> on new answers a question up front, so a scripted run never blocks. Repeatable.

Changed

  • Environments select configuration, not schema. --environment layers the environment’s files over the base configuration; schema files are no longer overlaid per environment. An overlay merges the DATABASE, STATE, or ENGINE statement attributes.
  • DATABASE and STATE replace PROVIDER and BACKEND. Each names the thing it configures. The built-in local-file store is STATE file ( path = '…' );.
  • PLUGIN declares plugin dependencies. PLUGIN <label> ( source = '…', version = '…' ); names the package and pins its version; DATABASE/STATE reference the label. The built-in label-to-package map is gone — every plugin is declared explicitly, and version/source no longer ride the configuring statement. A version may be an exact pin or a NuGet-style range ([5.0,6.0)).
  • ENGINE ( version = '…' ); asserts the engine version. A project can require an engine version range; a mismatch fails with a pointer to dotnet tool update.
  • new authors the ENGINE assertion. A scaffolded project pins the engine to the CLI’s current major (e.g. ENGINE ( version = '[5.0,6.0)' );), so it fails fast on an incompatible tool.
  • new runs init afterwards, resolving and locking the plugins it declared so the project is ready to plan immediately. Pass --no-init to skip it for an offline or edit-first workflow.
  • Planning always diffs recorded state against the project, so plan (and a fresh apply) now require both a database and a state store. Planning against the live database is no longer available; use refresh to capture the live schema first.
  • destroy reads the managed schema from the recorded state. The fallback to the working-directory schema when no store was configured is gone, and a state store is now required.
  • Plan output folds scripts into the diff. Deployment and change-event scripts are first-class parts of the diff, shown in the plan tree (and carried on the diff object in --json); the separate pre/post-deployment and data-migration sections are gone.
  • Policy-blocked plans still render. A plan blocked by policy shows the complete diff and SQL alongside the blocking diagnostics; error severity is what stops an apply.
  • --destructive-actions accepts Ignore alongside Error, Warn, and Allow.
  • Abbreviated commands are spelled out. fmt is format, db is database, and scaffold is new. The old names are gone rather than aliased, so a script still using one fails loudly instead of drifting.
  • apply re-runs policies. The policy flags now apply to apply --plan-file too, re-checking the saved plan before executing it.
  • script hash, script taint, and script untaint operate on deployment scripts. A template-scoped script is addressed as schema.name, as script hash lists it.
  • Errors you can fix are reported as diagnostics; anything else is considered a a bug. A broken configuration file, an unresolvable plugin, an unreachable database — each renders in the diagnostics table, sourced by the file and line or the plugin label that caused it. Anything else reaching the top level is a defect in NSchema: it names the exception type, links the issue tracker, and prints a stack trace unconditionally, so a report needs no re-run with a flag. Messages carry the inner-exception chain, so a cause like Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1:5432 -> Connection refused keeps the part that matters.
  • --json distinguishes the two. An expected failure emits a {"type":"diagnostics"} event; an internal error’s {"type":"error"} event gains exception and stack, so a consumer can tell “your project is wrong” from “NSchema is broken” by a null check.

Fixed

  • Editing a PLUGIN version now works correctly. init preferred the lockfile’s pin unconditionally, so changing a declared version and re-running init silently kept restoring the old one.
  • An incompatible plugin doesn’t crash the CLI. This CLI will now give a proper explanation of the problem instead.
  • plugin update exits non-zero when a restore fails, rather than reporting the problem and returning 0.
  • Plugin loading now resolves a plugin’s native libraries (e.g. SQLite’s e_sqlite3) from its restored dependency closure.
  • new names the right environment variable. It pointed at a per-provider variable (NSCHEMA_POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING) that no longer has any effect; it now names NSCHEMA_DATABASE_CONNECTION_STRING.
  • Contradictory flags fail fast. --quiet with --verbose, or --json with a non-json --format, are now rejected while parsing.
  • A failed command always exits non-zero. lock release, init, new, and the plugin commands reported failures but still exited 0.
  • state show reports an error when no state has been recorded yet instead of failing on a missing source.

4.5.1

Changed

  • A RUN ONCE script that has already been run no-longer produces an informational diagnostic.

4.5.0

Added

  • refresh --force refresh fails if it finds an unreadable state payload, instead of silently overwriting it; --force replaces it, resetting the script ledger.
  • state pull [file] to pull the raw recorded state payload out of the configured backend. Writes to a file or stdout.
  • state push <file> to push the raw recorded state payload into the configured backend. Push takes the state lock (--no-lock to skip).
  • script command group to manage the scripts recorded in the state:
    • script list shows the recorded scripts (name, execution time, body hash); --json emits them as a single array.
    • script hash [name] computes the body hash of the project’s script declarations, bare on stdout for one script, or a listing of all of them, for hand-editing pulled state.
    • script taint <name> removes a script’s record, so it runs again on the next apply.
    • script untaint <name> records a script as executed without running it, using the body hash from the script’s declaration. Taint and untaint take the state lock (--no-lock to skip).

4.4.0

Added

  • Unified SCRIPT statement (via NSchema.Core 4.4.0). SCRIPT '<name>' RUN [ALWAYS | ONCE] ON <event> AS $$…$$; is the new canonical form of deployment scripts and data migrations: the event is PRE DEPLOYMENT, POST DEPLOYMENT, or a structural change (ADD COLUMN / ALTER COLUMN TYPE / ADD CONSTRAINT with a target path).
  • Run-once scripts. A RUN ONCE script is recorded in the state backend on a successful apply and skipped by later plans; a recorded script whose body has since changed stays skipped and warns. Plan output marks run-once scripts in the pre/post-deployment sections ((run once); runCondition in --json). Recording requires a state backend — planning without one warns.
  • Scripts in schema templates. Both script kinds can be declared inside a TEMPLATE … BEGIN … END; body and instantiate once per applied schema, with the {schema} token substituted in the name and the SQL.

Changed

  • Script names must be unique across the project (they identify scripts in diagnostics and run-once tracking); a template-declared script applied to multiple schemas can include {schema} in its name.

Deprecated

  • The PRE|POST DEPLOYMENT '<name>' AS $$…$$; and MIGRATION ['name'] FOR <trigger> <path> AS $$…$$; forms still work, but plan/apply/validate now surface a deprecations warning naming the SCRIPT replacement. They will be removed in NSchema 5.0.

4.3.0

Added

  • Data migrations. A MIGRATION ['name'] FOR <trigger> <schema>.<table>.<member> AS $$…$$; block (via NSchema.Core 4.3.0) attaches raw SQL to an ADD COLUMN, ALTER COLUMN TYPE, or ADD CONSTRAINT change and runs only when that change is in the plan. A required column add with a matching block is applied as add-nullable → backfill → SET NOT NULL, a matching block silences the corresponding data-hazard warning, and a block matching nothing is reported as safe to delete. The plan output gains a “Data migrations” section (dataMigrations in --json). Executing a plan with a matched block requires a provider plugin at 4.3 or later.

Changed

  • The import command now writes the per-schema header to <schema>/schema.sql instead of <schema>.sql.

Fixed

  • The nschema lock release command suggested by lock status and lock acquire now carries the --environment and --directory arguments of the current invocation.
  • The diff now shows an added or removed column’s default expression and identity marker.
  • DDL syntax errors now name the file the error was found in, alongside the existing line and column.
  • The import command no longer repeats the CREATE SCHEMA statement in every object file; only the per-schema header declares the schema.

4.2.0

Added

  • Data-hazard detection. plan and apply (via NSchema.Core 4.2.0) now flag changes that are valid against the schema but can fail on the data already in a table.

4.1.0

Added

  • Updated to NSchema.Core 4.1.0 which adds support for schema and table templates.

4.0.1

Fixed

  • Updated to NSchema.Core 4.0.1 which fixes several issues to do with action ordering when objects are renamed.

4.0.0

Version 4.0.0 changes the provider and backend model to function as plugins resolved through the NuGet package manager.

Added

  • Third-party providers and backends. A PROVIDER / BACKEND block can name any plugin package with a source attribute.
  • nschema init now restores plugins. init now pre-fetches the provider and backend plugins pinned in your config. Operations restore implicitly on first use; init just does it up front so the first real command is fast.
  • --no-init flag. Skips the implicit plugin restore and requires the plugins to be cached already.
  • lock command group. nschema lock status / lock acquire / lock release inspect, manually hold, and release the state lock. lock acquire holds a lock that outlives the command (for out-of-band checks before a migration), with an optional --ttl (e.g. 30m) and --reason, lock status surfaces any information about the currently held lock. lock release requires the lock id by default (refusing if it no longer matches the held lock), with --force to release whatever lock is held without naming it.
  • --no-lock flag on apply, refresh, and destroy. Runs without taking the state lock.
  • nschema state show <file> renders a state file on disk directly, without a configured backend.
  • nschema db show renders the live database schema, read directly from the database via the provider — the online counterpart to state show.
  • plugin command group. nschema plugin list shows the provider and backend plugins your project pins and whether each is restored; plugin show
  • --format option (text | json | markdown), selecting the output format for any command. --json is now shorthand for --format json.
  • Markdown output. --format markdown renders the plan, SQL, and schema as Markdown for a PR comment or a CI job summary.

Changed

  • Providers and backends are now plugins. They ship as separate NuGet packages instead of being bundled with the tool; nschema restores the one pinned in your config on first use (it shells out to the .NET SDK to do so). The local-file state backend remains built in.
  • Scaffolding moved from init to nschema scaffold. Creating a starter project is now nschema scaffold (init became the restore command above). Its PROVIDER / BACKEND config blocks and the sample schema are rendered by the plugins themselves.
  • PROVIDER / BACKEND blocks now require a pinned version (the plugin package version); the built-in file backend is the exception. A first-party label (postgres, sqlite, sqlserver, s3) still resolves to its package automatically.
  • A PROVIDER block is now required to select a provider. NSCHEMA_POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING and the other connection-string variables no longer name the provider on their own — they still override the connection string set in the block.
  • doctor reports plugin problems as diagnostics. A provider or backend that fails to restore or configure is now reported by doctor as a health-check finding (every such problem at once) instead of aborting on the first.
  • Lock commands grouped under lock. lock-status → nschema lock status; force-unlock → nschema lock release, whose prompt is now skipped with --auto-approve/-y (consistent with apply/destroy) instead of --force. The lock-id safety check is unchanged.
  • show split by what it shows. The recorded state is now nschema state show (offline; the state noun group will grow pull/push/move), and a saved plan is nschema plan show <file>. The top-level show command is gone.
  • completion install / completion uninstall subcommands replace the --install-autocomplete / --uninstall-autocomplete flags. nschema completion <shell> still prints the script.
  • Built on NSchema.Core 4.0.0 and the 4.0 provider/backend packages.

Fixed

  • Running nschema --help in a busy directory like root would cause a performance slowdown due to the --environment arg autocomplete recursively scanning all the files in the directory. This has been fixed by removing autocomplete.
  • Torn reads of the local state file. The built-in file state store now writes to a temporary sibling file and atomically renames it into place, so a command reading the recorded state while another run writes it.

Removed

  • The NSCHEMA config block. destructive_action moved to the --destructive-actions flag / the NSCHEMA_DESTRUCTIVE_ACTION_POLICY environment variable; dialect and transaction_mode (never wired in) are gone. An NSCHEMA block is now rejected as an unknown configuration block.
  • The top-level show, lock-status, and force-unlock commands, replaced by state show / plan show and the lock group above. The show --online live-schema view is now nschema db show (a db noun group) rather than a mode flag.

3.4.0

Added

  • doctor command. A new nschema doctor command runs read-only health checks against your declared infrastructure, including database connectivity, state-store reachability, and the state lock. It exits 1 when any configured check fails, for gating in CI.
  • force-unlock <lock-id>. force-unlock now accepts the lock id (shown in the blocked operation’s error) and refuses if it no longer matches the held lock — a safety guard against breaking a lock that changed under you. Bare force-unlock still releases whatever lock is held. Requires NSchema.Core 3.4.0 and NSchema.Aws 3.2.0.
  • lock-status command. A new nschema lock-status reports whether the state store is locked. Supports --json for structured output and --detailed-exitcode (exit 2 when locked) for CI gating.