Database strategy

Status: Accepted (2026-09-14) · Amended by: ADR-0032 (hand-written SQL replaces sqlc), ADR-0033 (River's tables use River's migrator)

Context: Modules need persistence and migrations; apps need productive data access.

Options: Multi-DB abstraction + ORM (GORM/Ent); Postgres-only with sqlc; declarative schema (Atlas).

Decision: PostgreSQL only; pgx with hand-written SQL in repositories (ADR-0032; originally sqlc); goose; module migrations copied into the app's single history; table prefixes per module.

Why: Enables transactional jobs and audit, reviewable schema changes, no ORM lock-in for apps, no commercial-tier dependency.

Tradeoffs: No MySQL/SQLite users in v1; dynamic queries need hand-written SQL.

Consequences: Released migrations are immutable forever; module schema changes are forward-only.