selfpost/docs/schema-migrations.md

SQLite schema and migrations

What this file is. A living reference for the embedded SQLite schema: the 2.0 baseline, the migrations added after it, and how a database is opened. When you add or review a migration, update this file in the same change.

Source of truth in code: internal/store/migrations/*.sql, applied by internal/store/store.go (migrate()).

Related: architecture.md § Persistence; plans/panel-redesign.md § No compatibility; development.md § Documentation.

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Current snapshot

Field	Value
Chain head	user_version = 1
Files	0001_init.sql (the 2.0 baseline)
File mark	PRAGMA application_id = 0x53503230 ("SP20")
Database file	/data/selfpost.db (bind mount)
Compatibility	2.x MINOR releases must boot a 2.0.0 data directory. Nothing is carried over from 1.x.

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2.0 starts from an empty data directory

Decided by the owner on 2026-09-21: the redesign is a breaking release, the 1.x migration chain (0001 … 0010, with its admin table created in the first file and dropped in the fifth) is deleted from the binary, and there is no upgrade path. The only live 1.x installation is the owner's and is set up again on 2.0. The 1.x chain stays in git history (last present at 1.9.5).

What that means in practice:

• A fresh /data gets the baseline and nothing else.
• A 1.x database is refused, not migrated. store.Open returns ErrForeignSchema for a file that has a schema version but not the 2.x application_id. Without that check a 1.x file at user_version = 10 would read as "already migrated" and the panel would start on tables it does not know. The file is not modified. The same applies to restoring a 1.x full backup into a 2.0 container.
• A database whose version is higher than the build knows is refused too.
• Domains can still be carried by hand: a 1.x domain export (JSON, with the DKIM key and applications) imports into 2.0 — the transfer format is not the database.

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How migrations run

1. Migrations are embedded at build time (//go:embed migrations/*.sql).
2. Filenames are sorted lexicographically; file order = version number.
3. PRAGMA user_version records progress: after file i (0-based), version is i + 1.
4. Each pending migration runs in its own transaction, then bumps user_version.
5. There is no down-migration; fixes ship as a new 00NN_*.sql file.

Implication: once 2.0.0 is released, 0001_init.sql is never edited again and no file is deleted, renamed or reordered — every 2.x database has already run it. Until that release the baseline is still being written: later steps of the redesign and the features queued behind it (the next one is 0002_inbound_spam_log.sql of inbound-antispam-panel, 2.1.0) add files after it.

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Migration chain

Ver	File	Shipped	Kind	Summary
1	0001_init.sql	2.0.0	DDL	The whole 2.0 schema, below

Kind: DDL — schema only; data — INSERT/UPDATE that must stay correct for operators upgrading from older 2.x images.

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Schema at head (v1)

Table	Role
settings	Key/value settings of the instance — what is true whoever is signed in (send-log retention). Nothing that belongs to a user
users	Panel logins. role is global or domain; email is the user's own address; all_domains / all_inbound_domains widen a domain user to every domain of that direction
sessions	Panel login sessions (token hash, owning user by id and deleted with them, sliding idle expiry)
domains	Sending (outbound) domains. dmarc_rua is where aggregate reports go ('' = no reports)
user_domains	Outbound domains assigned to a domain user
applications	SASL applications per domain, with the client-IP restriction (auth_ip_restrict, auth_allowed_ips)
application_addresses	Explicit From addresses (list mode)
rate_limits	Level-2 limits per domain / application, manual or auto
send_log	Delivery journal
logtail_state	Log-tailer read position
inbound_domains	Inbound relay domains
inbound_transports	Upstream host / port / TLS per inbound domain
inbound_recipients	Allow-list when recipient_mode = list
user_inbound_domains	Inbound domains assigned to a domain user — granted separately from the outbound ones
dmarc_reports	Parsed aggregate report summaries
dmarc_report_records	Per-source rows inside a report

TestBaselineSchema (internal/store/schema_test.go) pins every table, column and index of this list.

What changed against the last 1.x schema

1.x	2.0	Why
admin created in 0001, dropped in 0005	never exists	the reason for the squash
users.role = global / domain_admin	global / domain	the role is a reach, not a rank — everyone in the panel is an administrator
users.dmarc_report_email	users.email	a user's e-mail is theirs; it is what the panel writes to, and a domain's report address can be filled with it
instance setting dmarc_report_email (mirror of the global user's field); domains.dmarc_rua NULL = inherit the instance default	domains.dmarc_rua alone: the address, '' = no reports	a domain's report address is one of three explicit choices — no reports, hosted, a typed address; nothing is inherited and no user's default exists (2026-10-10)
—	user_inbound_domains	inbound is delegated per user, separately from outbound
—	users.all_domains, users.all_inbound_domains	"All" includes domains added later
rate_limits.allowed_ips (unused since 1.9.0)	gone	client IPs belong to the application (auth_allowed_ips)

Where a domain's DMARC reports go

domains.dmarc_rua is the address itself and the only thing stored; '' means no reports, and it is what a new domain has. The choice shown in Domain settings is derived from it: '' is no reports, the address SelfPost derives for the domain and the server's hostname (dmarc.HostedReportAddress, offered while hosted reports are enabled) is hosted, anything else is an address typed for the domain. Nothing refers to a user: deleting one changes no domain.

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Adding a migration

1. Add internal/store/migrations/00NN_short_name.sql (next number).
2. Update the table in Migration chain, the snapshot at the top, and the affected rows of Schema at head.
3. Update TestBaselineSchema if tables, columns or indexes change, and add a test that opens a database at the previous version and migrates it.
4. A data migration states in a comment which 2.x versions it is written for.