Atlas Guides

Practical guides for using Atlas in your workflow. Learn how to deploy schema changes, integrate Atlas with your tools, and work with databases, ORMs, CI/CD platforms, testing, and compliance.

Evaluating Atlas

A step-by-step proof of concept, from an existing database to CI/CD

Databases

Guides for using Atlas with PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, SQL Server, and more

ORMs and Frameworks

Use your ORM of choice to define your desired schema

AI Coding Assistants

Learn how to use Atlas with Cursor, Claude Code and GitHub Copilot

Deploying to Kubernetes

Deploy database migrations to Kubernetes clusters using GitOps principles with Argo CD, Flux CD, or directly from Atlas Cloud's Schema Registry.

GitOps with Argo CD

Deploying to Kubernetes with the Atlas Operator and Argo CD

GitOps with Flux CD

Deploying to Kubernetes with the Atlas Operator and Flux CD

GitOps with Atlas Cloud

Deploying to Kubernetes from Atlas Schema Registry

Infrastructure as Code with Crossplane

Manage your database schema with Atlas using Crossplane

Deploying Schema Migrations

Comprehensive guides for deploying schema migrations across various platforms and environments, including cloud providers, container platforms, and integration with secrets management.

Introduction

Getting started with deploying schema migrations

Modern Database CI/CD

Complete guide to setting up CI/CD workflows for database schema changes with Atlas

Atlas Registry

Using Atlas Registry to deploy, read, and view migrations

Container Images

Creating container images for migrations

AWS ECS (Fargate)

Deploying to AWS with ECS/Fargate

Fly.io

Deploying to Kubernetes with the Atlas Operator and Fly.io

GCP CloudSQL

Deploying schema migrations to Google CloudSQL using Atlas

Working with secrets

Using Atlas to implement IAM Authentication and Secret Stores

AWS RDS PostgreSQL (Terraform + IAM)

Manage RDS PostgreSQL roles and schema with Atlas using separate Terraform states and IAM authentication

SSL Certs (Kubernetes)

Using SSL Certs with the Atlas Operator

Connect to DB from Actions

Connecting to your database from GitHub Actions

CI/CD Platforms

Integrate Atlas with your preferred CI/CD platform to automate database migrations as part of your deployment pipeline.

GitHub Actions

Setting up CI/CD for databases on GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Setting up CI/CD for databases on GitLab

Bitbucket Pipelines

Setting up CI/CD for databases on Bitbucket Pipelines

CircleCI

Setting up CI/CD for databases on CircleCI

Azure DevOps (GitHub)

Setting up CI/CD with Azure DevOps and GitHub

Azure DevOps (Repos)

Setting up CI/CD with Azure DevOps and Azure Repos

AI Coding Assistants

Learn how to use Atlas with AI coding assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and OpenAI Codex to generate and manage database migrations more effectively.

Introduction

Using Atlas with AI agents for database migration management

GitHub Copilot Instructions

Configure GitHub Copilot with Atlas-specific instructions

Cursor Instructions

Set up Cursor with Atlas-specific rules

Claude Code Instructions

Set up Claude Code with Atlas-specific instructions

OpenAI Codex Instructions

Set up OpenAI Codex with Atlas-specific instructions

Security and Compliance

Ensure your database migrations meet compliance requirements and follow security best practices with Atlas's approval workflows and audit capabilities.

Security Scanning

Scan running databases with atlas security scan and report the extensions carrying a published CVE, with severity gating and notifications

Shift Left Database Security

Manage roles, permissions, and row-level security policies as code across PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, SQL Server, and Snowflake

Row-Level Security Policy

Prevent missing RLS, detect BYPASSRLS drift, and block unsafe policy changes in CI

Reviewed and Approved Migrations

Enforcing reviewed and approved schema migrations for compliance

Environment Promotion

Managing environment promotion workflows for database changes

Environment Promotion for Declarative Migrations

Promoting validated schema versions from staging to production in declarative workflows

Drift Detection

Detecting and preventing database schema drift in versioned migration workflows

Data and Configuration

Manage lookup tables, reference data, configuration rows, and database-level settings as code. Atlas computes the DML to keep every environment in sync with the desired data state. For operational data work that runs on demand, Data Scripts cover transactional mutations, reports, and batched loops.

Data Scripts

Run data operations as code: transactional mutations, reports, and batched loops with atlas script exec, query, and loop

Seed Data as Code

Manage lookup tables, reference data, and application configuration rows declaratively across PostgreSQL and MySQL with three sync modes

PostgreSQL Seed and Lookup Data

Manage countries, currencies, status types, and feature flags with the HCL data block or SQL INSERT statements

MySQL Seed and Lookup Data

Define MySQL lookup tables and seed data as code, with INSERT, UPSERT, and SYNC modes

SQL Server Seed and Lookup Data

Define SQL Server lookup tables and seed data as code, with INSERT, UPSERT, and SYNC modes

ClickHouse Seed and Lookup Data

Manage ClickHouse lookup tables and dimension data as code, with mutations emitted automatically for updates and deletes

ClickHouse Settings

Manage ClickHouse session settings and SETTINGS PROFILE definitions as code

Database-per-Tenant

Manage database schemas in multi-tenant architectures where each tenant has their own database. Learn how to define target groups, deploy migrations across multiple databases, and use the Atlas Cloud Control Plane for centralized management.

Introduction

Utilizing Atlas to manage database schemas in Database-per-Tenant architectures

Target Groups

Defining target groups

Deploying

Deploying migrations to Database-per-Tenant architecture

Rollout Strategies

Staged deployments with canary patterns, parallelism, and error handling

Declarative Flow

Plan a schema change once, approve it once, and apply it across all tenants

Cloud Control Plane

Using the Atlas Cloud Control Plane to manage migrations across multiple databases

dbt

Manage the schema layer a dbt project runs on and the roles and grants dbt connects with while dbt maintians ownership of its models.

Schema Management for dbt Projects

Manage databases, source tables, lookup data, and grants with Atlas, with dbt's models excluded

Atlas vs dbt

How the two work together on the same warehouse change, and the one config line that separates them

ClickHouse and dbt

Engine and sort order on source tables, schema-scope grants for dbt, and dimension data as code

Safe DDL on Large Warehouse Tables

Which ALTER statements rewrite data on large tables, and blocking destructive statements

Drift Detection for Your Warehouse

Detect a warehouse that stopped matching its schema while dbt keeps rebuilding models

Migration Tools

Compare Atlas with other migration tools and learn how to migrate from existing tools to Atlas.

Atlas vs Flyway

Comparing Atlas with Flyway and migrating from Flyway

Atlas vs Liquibase

Comparing Atlas with Liquibase

Flyway Snapshot Alternative

Using Atlas schema inspect as an alternative to Flyway's snapshot command

Flyway Undo Alternative

Using Atlas Migrate Down as an alternative to Flyway's undo scripts

Migrating from Flyway

Step-by-step guide to migrate your Flyway-based project to Atlas

golang-migrate

Working with golang-migrate and Atlas

Importing from goose

Importing existing migrations from goose

Testing

Comprehensive testing guides for ensuring your database migrations work correctly across different scenarios and database objects.

docker-compose

Creating Atlas integration tests with docker-compose

GitHub Actions

Creating Atlas integration tests with GitHub Actions

Data Migrations

Testing data migrations with Atlas

Views

Testing views with Atlas

Functions

Testing functions with Atlas

Domains

Testing domains with Atlas

Stored Procedures

Testing stored procedures with Atlas

Triggers

Testing triggers with Atlas

Atlas Cloud

Manage roles and permissions, monitor your database schema for drift, and deploy the Atlas Agent to track schema changes across your infrastructure.

Roles & Permissions

Manage organization roles and repository permissions in Atlas Cloud

Monitoring with GitHub Actions

Get visibility into your database schema in under 5 minutes using GitHub Actions

Monitoring with GitLab CI

Get visibility into your database schema in under 5 minutes using GitLab CI

Monitoring with Bitbucket

Get visibility into your database schema in under 5 minutes using Bitbucket Pipelines

Deploying with Helm

Deploy the Atlas Agent using Helm on Kubernetes

Deploying with Terraform

Deploy the Atlas Agent to AWS using Terraform

Additional Guides

Additional resources for specific use cases and advanced features, including Docker deployment, Terraform integration, template directories, and programmatic inspection.

Atlas in Docker

Learn how to run Atlas in Docker containers

Named Databases with Terraform

Managing named databases with Terraform and Atlas

Template Directories

Using template directories for dynamic migration generation

Schema Health Check

Find invalid database objects with atlas schema validate: functions that no longer compile, stale views, and broken references

Programmatic Inspection Output

Using Go templates for programmatic inspection output

OpenAPI Specs

Generate OpenAPI specs from your database schemas using Atlas exporters

GraphQL Schemas

Generate GraphQL schemas from your database schemas using Atlas exporters

Azure Fabric Data Warehouse

Manage Azure Fabric Data Warehouse schemas with declarative and versioned workflows