Schema management in nself is handled through two complementary tools: migrations (via nself db migrate) and the Hasura Console (via nself hasura). There is no standalone nself db schema subcommand — schema operations are surfaced through the appropriate tool depending on the operation.

Migrations are SQL files that evolve your database schema over time. They live in the migrations/ directory of your nself project.

nself db migrate

nself db migrate status

Shows which migrations have been applied and which are pending.

nself db migrate create add_user_preferences

Creates a new timestamped SQL file in migrations/. Edit the file to add your schema changes, then run nself db migrate to apply it.

nself db migrate rollback
nself db migrate rollback --steps 3   # Roll back 3 migrations

See Database Workflow Guide for the complete migration workflow, including environments, conflict resolution, and CI/CD integration.

The Hasura Console provides a GUI for creating tables, columns, relationships, and permissions without writing SQL directly. Changes made in the Console are tracked as migrations automatically.

nself hasura console

Opens the Hasura Console at http://localhost:9695 with migration tracking enabled. All GUI changes automatically create migration files in your migrations/ directory.

nself hasura metadata apply

Applies relationship, permission, and event trigger configuration from metadata/ to your running Hasura instance.

nself hasura metadata export

Exports the current Hasura configuration (tables, relationships, permissions) to the metadata/ directory so it can be version-controlled.

For ad-hoc schema inspection or one-off queries:

nself db shell

Opens a psql session connected to your project database. Use this for inspection only — prefer migrations for any schema changes you want to track.

-- List all tables
\dt

-- Describe a specific table
\d users

-- Show table columns
SELECT column_name, data_type, is_nullable
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = 'users'
ORDER BY ordinal_position;

1. Open Hasura Console: nself hasura console
2. Create/modify tables and relationships using the GUI
3. Console auto-generates migration files in migrations/
4. Commit migration files to version control
5. Apply to staging: nself deploy staging (runs migrations automatically)
6. Apply to production: nself deploy production

1. Create migration file: nself db migrate create <description>
2. Edit the generated .sql file with your DDL
3. Apply locally: nself db migrate
4. Update Hasura metadata if new tables/relationships were added: nself hasura metadata apply
5. Commit both migration + metadata files
6. Deploy to environments

• Database Workflow Guide — Full migration workflow
• Hasura Command Reference — All nself hasura subcommands
• Database Command Reference — All nself db subcommands
• Backup & Restore — Schema backups and point-in-time recovery