Db Design
by @codekungfu
Deep database design workflow—entities and relationships, keys and constraints, normalization vs denormalization, indexing strategy, integrity, and operation...
clawhub install db-design📖 About This Skill
name: db-design description: Deep database design workflow—entities and relationships, keys and constraints, normalization vs denormalization, indexing strategy, integrity, and operational concerns. Use when designing OLTP schemas or reviewing greenfield data models.
DB Design
Good OLTP design balances integrity, write paths, query patterns, and evolution—not “third normal form everywhere.”
When to Offer This Workflow
Trigger conditions:
Initial offer:
Use six stages: (1) domain & access patterns, (2) entities & relationships, (3) keys & constraints, (4) normalization trade-offs, (5) indexing & performance, (6) operations & evolution). Confirm RDBMS and scale expectations.
Stage 1: Domain & Access Patterns
Goal: List critical queries and writes: QPS, joins, filters, hot rows.
Exit condition: Top access paths ranked by business importance.
Stage 2: Entities & Relationships
Goal: ER model; cardinality; optional vs required relationships.
Practices
Stage 3: Keys & Constraints
Goal: Primary keys (surrogate vs natural); foreign keys with explicit ON DELETE policy; unique constraints for business rules.
Multi-tenant
tenant_id on rows that need isolation; composite keys or indexes as appropriateStage 4: Normalization Trade-offs
Goal: Normalize to reduce update anomalies; denormalize read hotspots with documented trade-offs.
Stage 5: Indexing & Performance
Goal: Indexes serve real queries; watch write amplification and index bloat.
Stage 6: Operations & Evolution
Goal: Migration strategy (expand/contract); backup/restore; PII columns flagged.