Review Database

Database & SQL Review

Structured database review producing actionable, prioritized findings with code-level references.

Workflow

1. Scope and explore

• Confirm scope with the user: full codebase, specific packages/directories, specific migrations, changed files only (PR or branch diff), or specific concern.
• Resolve scope to a file/package list. Based on what the user requested:
• Changed files (PR or branch): Run git diff --name-only --diff-filter=d ...HEAD to get changed files (default ` is main). If the user references a PR number, use gh pr diff --name-only instead. Filter to relevant file types (.go, .sql). Derive affected Go packages from the file paths (unique parent directories containing .go` files).
• Explicit paths/packages: The user may specify directories (e.g. internal/store/), Go package patterns (e.g. ./internal/store/...), individual files, or specific migration files. When given a directory or package pattern, include all files under it.
• Full codebase: No filtering. Explore everything (default).
• Pass the resolved scope (file list) to all exploration and investigation subagents so they only read and analyze scoped files.
• Explore the scoped code using parallel subagents (subagent_type="explore"). Read all in-scope .sql files, schema definitions, and source files that interact with the database (queries, connection setup, transaction handling).

2. Launch investigation subagent

Launch a single investigation subagent (subagent_type="generalPurpose", model: sonnet per subagent-model-routing) with the list of in-scope files.

Prompt it to:

• Read all in-scope .sql files, schema definitions, and source files that interact with the database.
• Detect which database engine is in use by checking imports (pgx, pq, lib/pq for PostgreSQL; go-sql-driver/mysql for MySQL), migration tool configs, and connection strings. Apply the appropriate engine-specific checklist from [reference.md](reference.md).
• Analyze against all database categories: migration safety, query performance, connection & transaction management, and schema design (see [reference.md](reference.md)).
• Detect if horizontal sharding is in use (VSchema files, Citus distribution config, Spanner interleaved tables, shard-routing middleware, or multi-column partition keys). If detected, analyze hot-path queries against the checklist in [reference-sharding.md](reference-sharding.md): flag scatter queries, missing sharding keys in WHERE clauses, cross-shard JOINs, and cross-shard transactions.
• For PostgreSQL projects: check if npx is on PATH (which npx). If available, run npx squawk-cli against in-scope .sql migration files only (when scope is narrowed, limit to .sql files in the resolved file list). If npx is not available, check for squawk directly on PATH. If neither is available, note in Tool Availability and continue with manual review only.
• Include a Tool Availability section listing each tool's status (ran / skipped + reason).
• For each finding, search nearby code and project documentation for existing TODOs or notes.
• Return findings using the per-category findings template with DB- prefixed IDs (e.g. DB1, DB2).
• Every finding must include specific file paths, line numbers or function names, a severity rating (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW), and tracking status.

3. Present results

Resolve the review output directory (skip if REVIEW_DIR was provided by the review-all orchestrator):

REVIEW_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
REVIEW_DIR=".reviews/${REVIEW_DATE}"
if [ -d "$REVIEW_DIR" ]; then REVIEW_DIR=".reviews/${REVIEW_DATE}-$(date +%H%M)"; fi
~/.claude/scripts/ensure-gitignore.sh '.reviews/'
mkdir -p "$REVIEW_DIR"

Capture run metadata (see [Run metadata header](#run-metadata-header) below) and prepend the rendered block to ${REVIEW_DIR}/DATABASE-REVIEW.md.

Write the output to ${REVIEW_DIR}/DATABASE-REVIEW.md, structured as:

1. Run metadata header
2. Tool availability summary
3. Findings table (with tracking status inline)
4. Recommended fix order

Present the report to the user.

---

Run metadata header

Capture once near REVIEW_DIR resolution and prepend the rendered block to the output document:

RUN_DATETIME=$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M UTC")
GIT_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
GIT_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
GIT_COMMIT_FULL=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
GIT_SUBJECT=$(git log -1 --pretty=%s)
# When scope is diff-based, also: BASE_REF=; BASE_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short "$BASE_REF")

Header template (placed at the top of the output .md, before the H1 title):

> **Run:** {RUN_DATETIME}
> **Branch:** {GIT_BRANCH} @ {GIT_COMMIT} (`{GIT_COMMIT_FULL}`)
> **Subject:** {GIT_SUBJECT}
> **Base:** {BASE_REF} @ {BASE_COMMIT}   
> **Scope:** {scope description}

---

Finding link wrapping (PR mode)

When the review is scoped to a GitHub PR (pr_url is provided by the caller, or, when run standalone, gh pr view --json url -q .url 2>/dev/null returns one), wrap every path:line reference inside the finding tables below as a Markdown link:

~/.claude/scripts/pr-deeplink.sh "$pr_url"  
# pr_url set   → [path:line](https://github.com/.../pull/N/files#diff-R)
# pr_url empty → path:line   (plain text, unchanged)

The display text stays path:line so plain and linked tables look identical; only the URL goes in the link target. Pass L as the fourth argument for findings about removed code (default is R). Omit ` for file-level findings to get a file-anchor link. Apply the same wrapping to path:line references inside the Tracked column (e.g. TODO in foo.go:42). Findings themselves follow terse-comments: concrete fix, optional bug:/risk:/nit:/unsure:` prefix, no praise or restating the diff.

---

Output Templates

Per-category findings

| # | Finding | Severity | Tracked |
|---|---------|----------|---------|
| DB1 | **Description.** Specific code reference (file:line). Explanation. | HIGH | — |
| DB2 | Description with code reference. | MEDIUM | TODO in file:line |

Tracked column values: Use — for new findings. For already-captured findings: TODO in file:line, FIXME in file:line, README, #123 (issue reference), etc.

Re-evaluation table (for follow-up reviews)

| Finding | Status | What Changed |
|---------|--------|--------------|
| ~~1. Description~~ | FIXED | Brief explanation of the fix |
| 2. Description | Still applicable | No changes |

---

Guidelines

• Search the organization's codebase (Sourcegraph, GitHub) for existing patterns before recommending changes.
• Include effort estimates to help prioritize implementation.
• When the user asks for a follow-up review, find the most recent review directory (ls -d reviews/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort | tail -1) containing DATABASE-REVIEW.md, re-evaluate all prior findings, and update with the re-evaluation table appended.
• For detailed framework categories, see [reference.md](reference.md).
• REVIEW.md integration: If a REVIEW.md context section was provided by the review-all orchestrator (or exists at the repository root when running standalone), treat its rules as additional review criteria. "Always check" items are HIGH severity; domain-specific items (Database section) are MEDIUM severity. "Skip" patterns exclude matching files from review scope.
• Findings must cite probed evidence (path:line, grep output, command result), not pattern-matched suspicion. Per ~/.claude/rules/probe-not-assume.md.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: paultyng
• Source: paultyng/skill-issue
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.