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0008. PostgreSQL as the primary database (MySQL/MariaDB no longer tested)

Generated from api/docs/adr/0008-postgresql-as-primary-database.md

  • Status: Accepted (retroactive)
  • Date: 2025-01-08

Context and Problem Statement

Section titled “Context and Problem Statement”

The API is a Laravel app and could run on MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL. Supporting both doubles the CI matrix and constrains SQL used by packages.

Considered Options

Section titled “Considered Options”
  • Support both MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL (state 2021–2024).
  • Standardise on PostgreSQL.

Decision Outcome

Section titled “Decision Outcome”

PostgreSQL became the de-facto and then only tested engine.

  • From the first commit CI ran both MySQL and Postgres suites (f13ad63e “mysql & postgres rtests”); MySQL was replaced with MariaDB 10.5 in CI (7ddeb79c, 2021-12-23).
  • .env.example and docker-compose.yml default to DB_CONNECTION=pgsql / postgres:12; the multi-domain tooling creates per-tenant Postgres databases (DB_ROOT_HOST=postgres).
  • 2025-01-08 3dc533be commented out the phpunit-mysql-php81 job; active CI jobs are only phpunit-postgres-php82/83/84.

Remaining MySQL traces: phpunit-cc.yml and swagger.yml still start MariaDB/MySQL services.

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”
  • Good: one engine to support and a smaller CI matrix.
  • Bad: MySQL users get no CI guarantee; compatibility may silently break.
  • Bad: CI is inconsistent until coverage/swagger jobs also move to Postgres.

Evidence

Section titled “Evidence”
  • 05ceebba 2021-03-03 “initical commit”; f13ad63e 2021-03-03 “mysql & postgres rtests”; a657ee49 2021-03-03 “mysql/posgres docker update” — api/docker/envs/.env.ci.{mysql,postgres}.
  • 7ddeb79c 2021-12-23 “replacing mysql with mariadb” — api/.github/workflows/*.yml.
  • 3dc533be 2025-01-08 “8.3 alpine” — api/.github/workflows/phpunit-tests.yml.
  • api/.env.example (DB_CONNECTION=pgsql), api/docker-compose.yml (postgres:12).