Rowcast Schema

Schema-first migration toolkit for PDO databases (PHP 8.4+).

Zero external dependencies. Describe your database structure in a PHP file, diff it against a live database, and generate reversible PHP migrations automatically. Designed to work alongside Rowcast.

Documentation: English | Русский

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.4
• PDO extension

Installation

composer require ascetic-soft/rowcast-schema

Optional YAML schema support:

composer require symfony/yaml

Quick Start

1. Create a configuration file

Create rowcast-schema.php in your project root (default path):

<?php

return [
    'connection' => [
        'dsn' => 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=app',
        'username' => 'root',
        'password' => 'secret',
    ],
    'schema' => __DIR__ . '/schema.php',
    'migrations' => __DIR__ . '/migrations',
    'migration_table' => '_rowcast_migrations',
    'ignore_tables' => [
        '/^tmp_/',
        '/^audit_/',
        static fn (string $table): bool => str_ends_with($table, '_shadow'),
    ],
];

You can also store config in a custom location and pass it via CLI:

vendor/bin/rowcast-schema --config=database/rowcast-schema.php diff

Config may return either an array or a factory Closure(string $projectDir): array. Factory mode is useful for loading environment variables from your app kernel/project root.

migration_table defines the table used to track applied migrations. This table is always ignored automatically in schema diff. Use ignore_tables to add custom ignore rules: regex strings and/or callbacks.

2. Define a schema

schema.php:

<?php

return [
    'tables' => [
        'users' => [
            'columns' => [
                'id' => ['type' => 'integer', 'primaryKey' => true, 'autoIncrement' => true],
                'email' => ['type' => 'string', 'length' => 255],
                'status' => ['type' => 'enum', 'values' => ['active', 'banned']],
                'created_at' => ['type' => 'datetime', 'default' => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'],
            ],
            'indexes' => [
                'idx_users_email' => ['columns' => ['email'], 'unique' => true],
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

3. Generate and apply a migration

# Generate a migration from schema diff
vendor/bin/rowcast-schema diff

# Generate an empty migration file
vendor/bin/rowcast-schema make

# Apply pending migrations
vendor/bin/rowcast-schema migrate

# Check sync status
vendor/bin/rowcast-schema status

Global CLI option:

• --config=path (or --config path) — use a custom configuration file path.

Schema Definition

Supported formats

The format is detected automatically by schema path:

• if schema is a directory, attribute parser is used
• if schema is a file, parser is selected by extension (.php, .yaml, .yml)

Attribute-based schema

You can define schema directly in PHP classes via attributes.

rowcast-schema.php:

<?php

return [
    'connection' => [
        'dsn' => 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=app',
        'username' => 'root',
        'password' => 'secret',
    ],
    'schema' => __DIR__ . '/src/Entity',
    'migrations' => __DIR__ . '/migrations',
];

Entity example:

<?php

use AsceticSoft\RowcastSchema\Attribute\Column;
use AsceticSoft\RowcastSchema\Attribute\ForeignKey;
use AsceticSoft\RowcastSchema\Attribute\Index;
use AsceticSoft\RowcastSchema\Attribute\Table;

enum UserStatus: string
{
    case Active = 'active';
    case Banned = 'banned';
}

#[Table] // User -> users
#[Index('idx_users_email', columns: ['email'], unique: true)]
final class User
{
    #[Column(primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true)]
    public int $id;

    #[Column(length: 255)]
    public string $email;

    #[Column]
    public UserStatus $status; // BackedEnum(string) -> type=enum, values from enum cases
}

#[Table('blog_posts')]
final class Post
{
    #[Column(primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true)]
    public int $id;

    #[Column]
    #[ForeignKey('fk_posts_user', referenceTable: 'users', referenceColumns: ['id'], onDelete: 'CASCADE')]
    public int $userId;
}

Type inference for attribute columns:

• property type mapping: int, string, bool, float, array, DateTimeInterface
• BackedEnum (string) -> enum + automatic values
• BackedEnum (int) -> integer
• override is still possible via #[Column(type: ...)]
• if #[Column(default: ...)] is omitted and a property has a class default (e.g. public bool $published = false;), that value is used as the DB default
• when both are present, #[Column(default: ...)] has priority over the property default

Abstract column types

integer, smallint, bigint, string, text, boolean, decimal, float, double, datetime, date, time, timestamp, timestamptz, uuid, json, binary, enum

Custom database types (pgvector/citext/etc.)

Schema files may also use raw database type strings in type. Unknown types are preserved as custom databaseType and emitted to SQL as-is.

return [
    'tables' => [
        'embeddings' => [
            'columns' => [
                'id' => ['type' => 'bigint', 'primaryKey' => true, 'autoIncrement' => true],
                'gigachat_vector' => ['type' => 'vector(1536)', 'nullable' => true],
                'title_ci' => ['type' => 'citext'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

This works for extension types such as vector (pgvector), citext, PostGIS types, and other vendor-specific types.

Column properties

For type: string, default length is 255 when length is omitted.

Migration Builder API

Generated migrations and manual migration code use a unified column API:

$table->column('id', 'integer')->primaryKey();
$table->column('email', 'string'); // VARCHAR(255) by default
$table->column('status', ColumnType::String)->length(50);
$table->column('payload', 'jsonb'); // custom raw DB type

To execute arbitrary SQL inside a migration:

public function up(SchemaBuilder $schema): void
{
    $schema->sql("UPDATE users SET status = 'active' WHERE status IS NULL");
}

column() accepts:

• ColumnType enum values (ColumnType::String, ColumnType::Datetime, ...)
• known abstract type strings ('string', 'integer', ...)
• any custom database type string ('jsonb', 'citext', 'numeric(20,6)', ...)

Foreign keys

'foreignKeys' => [
    'fk_posts_user' => [
        'columns' => ['user_id'],
        'referenceTable' => 'users',
        'referenceColumns' => ['id'],
        'onDelete' => 'CASCADE',
        'onUpdate' => 'SET NULL',
    ],
],

CLI Commands

vendor/bin/rowcast-schema <command> [options]

How It Works

1. Parse — reads schema file (.php / .yaml) or scans attribute directory and builds an internal Schema model.
2. Introspect — reads the current database structure via PDO.
3. Diff — SchemaDiffer computes a list of operations (create, drop, add, alter, etc.).
4. Generate — creates a PHP migration class with up() and down() methods.
5. Execute — MigrationRunner applies operations through a database-specific SQL platform.
6. Track — applied versions are stored in the _rowcast_migrations table.

SQLite Support

SQLite has limited DDL capabilities (ALTER TABLE, foreign keys). For unsupported operations, Rowcast Schema uses a rebuild pipeline:

1. Create a temporary table with the new structure
2. Copy data from the original table
3. Drop the original and rename the temporary table
4. Recreate indexes and foreign keys

This enables complex schema changes on SQLite transparently.

Architecture

AsceticSoft\RowcastSchema\
├── Attribute\
│   ├── Table, Column             # Entity/table and property/column metadata
│   └── Index, ForeignKey         # Index and FK metadata
├── Schema\
│   ├── Schema                        # Root schema model
│   ├── Table, Column, Index, ForeignKey  # Schema components
│   └── ColumnType                    # Abstract type enum
├── Parser\
│   ├── SchemaParserInterface         # Parser contract
│   ├── PhpSchemaParser               # PHP array parser (default)
│   ├── YamlSchemaParser              # YAML parser (optional)
│   ├── AttributeSchemaParser         # Attribute directory parser
│   ├── ArraySchemaBuilder            # Shared array → Schema builder
│   ├── AttributeSchemaBuilder        # Reflection attributes → Schema builder
│   ├── ClassScanner                  # Directory PHP class scanner
│   └── NamingStrategy                # class/property -> table/column naming
├── Introspector\
│   ├── IntrospectorInterface         # Introspector contract
│   ├── IntrospectorFactory           # PDO driver → introspector
│   ├── MysqlIntrospector             # MySQL introspection
│   ├── PostgresIntrospector          # PostgreSQL introspection
│   └── SqliteIntrospector            # SQLite introspection
├── Diff\
│   ├── SchemaDiffer                  # Schema comparison engine
│   └── Operation\
│       ├── OperationInterface        # Operation contract
│       ├── CreateTable, DropTable    # Table-level operations
│       ├── AddColumn, AlterColumn, DropColumn
│       ├── AddIndex, DropIndex
│       └── AddForeignKey, DropForeignKey
├── Platform\
│   ├── PlatformInterface             # SQL generation contract
│   ├── PlatformFactory               # PDO driver → platform
│   ├── AbstractPlatform              # Shared SQL logic
│   ├── MysqlPlatform                 # MySQL DDL
│   ├── PostgresPlatform              # PostgreSQL DDL
│   └── SqlitePlatform                # SQLite DDL (with rebuild)
├── Migration\
│   ├── MigrationInterface            # Migration contract
│   ├── AbstractMigration             # Base migration class
│   ├── MigrationGenerator            # PHP migration file generator
│   ├── MigrationLoader               # Loads migration files from disk
│   ├── MigrationRunner               # Applies/rollbacks migrations
│   ├── MigrationRepositoryInterface  # Repository contract
│   ├── DatabaseMigrationRepository   # Tracks applied migrations in DB
│   └── SqliteTableRebuilder          # SQLite rebuild pipeline
├── SchemaBuilder\
│   ├── SchemaBuilder                 # Fluent API for migration operations
│   ├── TableBuilder                  # Fluent table/column definition
│   └── ColumnBuilder                 # Fluent column properties
├── TypeMapper\
│   ├── TypeMapperInterface           # Type mapper contract
│   ├── MysqlTypeMapper               # MySQL type mapping
│   ├── PostgresTypeMapper            # PostgreSQL type mapping
│   └── SqliteTypeMapper              # SQLite type mapping
├── Pdo\
│   └── PdoDriverResolver            # Centralized PDO driver detection
└── Cli\
    ├── Application                   # CLI entry point
    ├── Config                        # Configuration loader
    └── Command\
        ├── CommandInterface          # Command contract
        ├── DiffCommand               # diff command
        ├── MakeCommand               # make command
        ├── MigrateCommand            # migrate command
        ├── RollbackCommand           # rollback command
        └── StatusCommand             # status command

Testing

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit

Static analysis:

vendor/bin/phpstan analyse

License

MIT