openreader/docs-site/docs/configure/migrations.md

title
Migrations

import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs'; import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';

This page covers migration behavior for both database schema and storage data in OpenReader WebUI.

Startup migration behavior

By default, the shared entrypoint runs migrations automatically before app startup in:

• Docker container startup
• pnpm dev
• pnpm start

Startup migration phases:

• DB schema migrations (pnpm migrate)
• Storage/data migration (pnpm migrate-fs) for legacy filesystem content into S3 + DB rows

:::info In most setups, you do not need to run migration commands manually because startup handles this automatically. :::

To skip automatic startup migrations:

• Set RUN_DRIZZLE_MIGRATIONS=false
• Set RUN_FS_MIGRATIONS=false

:::warning If you disable startup migrations, ensure your deployment process runs migrations before serving traffic. :::

Apply migrations

In most cases, you do not need manual migration commands because startup runs migrations automatically.

pnpm migrate applies migrations for one database target:

• Postgres when POSTGRES_URL is set
• SQLite when POSTGRES_URL is unset

You can always override the target explicitly with --config.

# Run pending migrations for one target:
# - Postgres if POSTGRES_URL is set
# - SQLite if POSTGRES_URL is unset
pnpm migrate

# Run storage migration (filesystem -> S3 + DB)
pnpm migrate-fs

# Dry-run storage migration without uploading/deleting
pnpm migrate-fs:dry-run

# Migrate SQLite
pnpm exec drizzle-kit migrate --config drizzle.config.sqlite.ts

# Migrate Postgres
pnpm exec drizzle-kit migrate --config drizzle.config.pg.ts

Generate migrations

pnpm generate is a two-phase script for contributors and schema changes:

1. Better Auth schema generation — runs the Better Auth CLI twice (once for SQLite, once for Postgres) to produce auto-generated Drizzle schema files for auth tables (user, session, account, verification).
2. Drizzle migration generation — runs drizzle-kit generate for both drizzle.config.sqlite.ts and drizzle.config.pg.ts, producing SQL migration files from all schema files (app + auth).

:::note Most users do not need to run pnpm generate. Use it when contributing or when you have changed Drizzle schema files and need new migration files. :::

Schema ownership

Auth tables are owned by Better Auth. Their Drizzle schema definitions are auto-generated and should not be hand-edited:

• src/db/schema_auth_sqlite.ts
• src/db/schema_auth_postgres.ts

App-specific tables are manually maintained in the standard Drizzle schema files:

• src/db/schema_sqlite.ts
• src/db/schema_postgres.ts

Both sets of schema files are included in the Drizzle configs, so drizzle-kit generate and drizzle-kit migrate handle all tables together.

# Full pipeline: Better Auth CLI + Drizzle generate (both dialects)
pnpm generate

# Generate SQLite migrations only (skips Better Auth CLI)
pnpm exec drizzle-kit generate --config drizzle.config.sqlite.ts

# Generate Postgres migrations only (skips Better Auth CLI)
pnpm exec drizzle-kit generate --config drizzle.config.pg.ts

:::warning Running drizzle-kit generate directly skips the Better Auth CLI step. If auth schema has changed upstream (e.g. after a Better Auth version bump), run pnpm generate instead to regenerate the auth schema files first. :::

Related docs

• Database
• Object / Blob Storage
• Migration Environment Variables