Design Postgres Tables
Use this skill for general PostgreSQL table design.
Install
npx skills add timescale/pg-aiguide --skill design-postgres-tables -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- timescale/pg-aiguide1.9k
- Category
- Design
- Updated
- 8d ago
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Context cost
- Mediumabout 3,000 tokens
- Runs scripts
- No, instructions only
What it does
Use this skill for general PostgreSQL table design. **Trigger when user asks to:** - Design PostgreSQL tables, schemas, or data models when creating new tables and when modifying existing ones. - Choose data types, constraints, or indexes for PostgreSQL - Create user tables, order tables, reference tables, or JSONB schemas - Understand PostgreSQL best practices for normalization, constraints, or indexing - Design update-heavy, upsert-heavy, or OLTP-style tables **Keywords:** PostgreSQL schema, table design, data types, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, indexes, B-tree, GIN, JSONB, constraints, normalization, identity columns, partitioning, row-level security Comprehensive reference covering data types, indexing strategies, constraints, JSONB patterns, partitioning, and PostgreSQL-specific best practices.
PostgreSQL Table Design
Core Rules
- Define a PRIMARY KEY for reference tables (users, orders, etc.). Not always needed for time-series/event/log data. When used, prefer
BIGINT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY; useUUIDonly when global uniqueness/opacity is needed. - Normalize first (to 3NF) to eliminate data redundancy and update anomalies; denormalize only for measured, high-ROI reads where join performance is proven problematic. Premature denormalization creates maintenance burden.
- Add NOT NULL everywhere it’s semantically required; use DEFAULTs for common values.
- Create indexes for access paths you actually query: PK/unique (auto), FK columns (manual!), frequent filters/sorts, and join keys.
- Prefer TIMESTAMPTZ for event time; NUMERIC for money; TEXT for strings; BIGINT for integer values, DOUBLE PRECISION for floats (or
NUMERICfor exact decimal arithmetic).
