Database Management Operations

Database Management Operations

All persistence is Azure Cosmos DB with MongoDB API via pymongo. There is no SQLAlchemy, no SQLite, no relational layer. Three Python classes wrap it; nothing instantiates MongoClient directly.

Layout

Connection resolution order

db_factory.get_cosmos_client() tries, in order:

1. COSMOS_MONGO_CONNECTION_STRING — direct MongoDB connection string. Preferred in production. (Older docs reference COSMOS_DB_CONNECTION_STRING; that name is not read.)
2. Managed Identity if USE_MANAGED_IDENTITY=true + COSMOS_ACCOUNT_NAME are set (db_factory.py).
3. COSMOS_DB_URI + COSMOS_DB_KEY — builds the connection string locally with URL-encoded key.
4. Local MongoDB at mongodb://localhost:27017/ as fallback.

Environment variables actually consulted:

retryWrites=False and appName=@<account>@ are required by Cosmos's MongoDB API and are baked into the generated connection string.

Database & collection names

From get_database_config():

{
  "database_name":     "chuuk_dictionary",
  "container_name":    "dictionary_entries",   # → DictionaryDB.dictionary_collection
  "pages_container":   "dictionary_pages",     # → pages_collection
  "words_container":   "words",                # → words_collection
  "phrases_container": "phrases",              # → phrases_collection
  "paragraphs_container": "paragraphs",        # → paragraphs_collection
  "users_container":   "users",                # → UserDB.users_collection
}

DictionaryDB — actual API

The methods that actually exist (see dictionary_db.py):

• search_word(word: str) -> dict | None
• search_words(query: str, limit: int = 50) -> list[dict]
• add_word(word: str, translation: str, **meta) -> str
• search_phrases(query: str, limit: int = 50) -> list[dict]
• add_phrase(chuukese: str, english: str, **meta) -> str
• Plus direct collection access (dict_db.dictionary_collection.find(...)) for ad-hoc queries.

There is no search_entries, bulk_insert_entries, get_all_entries, etc. Older skill docs invented those.

UserDB

UserDB handles auth-adjacent state:

• get_user(email), upsert_user(email, role)
• start_session(email) — issues a session_id, invalidates prior active session for that email
• is_session_valid(email, session_id) — single-active-session enforcement
• track_page(email, page) — appends to pages_accessed, updates last_activity_at (user_db.py)
• Schema fields: email, role, session_id, session_start_at, last_activity_at, pages_accessed, accepted_terms_at

PublicationManager

PublicationManager coordinates DB metadata + the filesystem under uploads/:

• create_publication(title, author, ...) — writes Cosmos doc + creates uploads/<id>/ dir
• add_page(pub_id, file) — saves file, adds page metadata
• get_publication(pub_id), list_publications()
• Page metadata is persisted both in Cosmos and in a per-publication JSON sidecar (publication_manager.py) — keep them in sync if you mutate either directly.

Common patterns

from src.database.dictionary_db import DictionaryDB
from src.database.user_db import UserDB

dict_db = DictionaryDB()  # Singleton-ish — instantiate once per worker
user_db = UserDB()

# Search (escape user input!)
results = dict_db.search_words(user_query, limit=50)

# Direct collection query when method doesn't fit
import re
pattern = re.escape(user_input)
rows = dict_db.dictionary_collection.find(
    {"chuukese_word": {"$regex": pattern, "$options": "i"}},
    limit=50,
)

# Insert with audit fields
from datetime import datetime, timezone
dict_db.dictionary_collection.insert_one({
    "chuukese_word": word,
    "english_translation": meaning,
    "grammar_type": pos,
    "confidence_score": 0.9,
    "edited_by": user_email,
    "created_at": datetime.now(timezone.utc),
})

Cosmos DB constraints

• pymongo version is pinned in requirements.txt for Cosmos wire-protocol compatibility — don't bump unilaterally.
• retryWrites=False is mandatory (already in connection string).
• RU budget matters: avoid full collection scans; prefer indexed chuukese_word / english_translation queries.
• Cosmos's MongoDB API ignores some $regex flags silently — case-insensitive search via $options: "i" is fine; lookahead/lookbehind are not.
• The factory's local-MongoDB fallback is for tests/dev only — production must have Cosmos credentials.

Pitfalls

• The 2-worker gunicorn setup means DictionaryDB() is instantiated twice. Don't add per-instance caches and expect them to be coherent across requests.
• When adding a new collection, plumb it into get_database_config() AND the DictionaryDB.__init__ block so _collection attributes stay consistent.
• Managed-identity path requires the workload identity to have a Cosmos RBAC role assigned — see docs/AZURE_DEPLOYMENT.md.
• Renaming a collection in get_database_config() does not rename the underlying Cosmos container — you must run an Azure-side migration.