Database Migrations

Vikunja runs all database migrations automatically on each start if needed. Additionally, they can also be run directly by using the migrate command.

We use xormigrate to handle migrations, which is based on gormigrate.

Add a new migration

All migrations are stored in pkg/migrations and files should have the same name as their id.

Each migration should have a function to apply and roll it back, as well as a numeric id (the datetime) and a more in-depth description of what the migration actually does.

To easily get a new id, run the following on any unix system:


New migrations should be added via the init() function to the migrations variable. All migrations are sorted before being executed, since init() does not guarantee the order.

When you’re adding a new struct, you also need to add it to the models.GetTables() function to ensure it will be created on new installations.


package migration

import (

// Used for rollback
type teamMembersMigration20190328074430 struct {
	Updated int64 `xorm:"updated"`

func (teamMembersMigration20190328074430) TableName() string {
	return "team_members"

func init() {
	migrations = append(migrations, &xormigrate.Migration{
		ID:          "20190328074430",
		Description: "Remove updated from team_members",
		Migrate: func(tx *xorm.Engine) error {
			return dropTableColum(tx, "team_members", "updated")
		Rollback: func(tx *xorm.Engine) error {
			return tx.Sync2(teamMembersMigration20190328074430{})

You should always copy the changed parts of the struct you’re changing when adding migraitons.