Serdes Workflow

Serdes Workflow Skill

End-to-end workflow for exporting Metabase content as YAML, validating it, editing it, and importing it back.

Prerequisites

All commands require the :ee alias since export, import, and checkers live in enterprise code.

You need MB_DB_CONNECTION_URI set to point at the target Metabase Postgres database when importing. The running dev instance's connection string is in the worktree environment (check the nREPL or startup output).

Export

clojure -M:run:ee export /path/to/export-dir

Flags:

• -c 123,456 - export only specific collection IDs
• -f - include field values
• -e - continue on error

This writes YAML files in the serdes directory layout:

databases/<db-name>/<db-name>.yaml
databases/<db-name>/schemas/<schema>/tables/<table>/<table>.yaml
databases/<db-name>/schemas/<schema>/tables/<table>/fields/<field>.yaml
collections/<eid>_<slug>/cards/<eid>_<slug>.yaml

Validate

Always run both checkers after any modification. They skip full Metabase startup (~8s each).

Structural checker (fast, schema-based)

clojure -M:run:ee --mode checker --checker structural --export /path/to/export-dir

Validates YAML shapes against Malli schemas. Catches typos, missing required fields, wrong types.

Cards checker (query validation)

clojure -M:run:ee --mode checker --checker cards --export /path/to/export-dir

Validates that card queries resolve correctly against exported metadata (tables, fields, FKs). Uses Lib under the hood.

Additional cards checker flags:

• --lenient - fabricate metadata on demand (when no database schema files exist)
• --manifest /path/to/manifest.yaml - write manifest of all referenced entities (lenient mode only)
• --output /path/to/results.edn - write detailed results to file

Edit YAML

See the serdes-yaml-edit skill for guidance on editing YAML files. The critical rule: run both checkers after every edit before proceeding.

Import

MB_DB_CONNECTION_URI="postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/metabase_dbname" \
  clojure -M:run:ee import /path/to/export-dir -e

The -e flag continues on error. The MB_DB_CONNECTION_URI must point at the same Postgres database the running Metabase instance uses - without it, import defaults to H2 which is wrong.

Full Demo Sequence

1. Export: clojure -M:run:ee export /tmp/metabase-export
2. Validate baseline: run both checkers
3. Edit YAML files (see serdes-yaml-edit skill)
4. Re-validate: run both checkers again
5. Import: MB_DB_CONNECTION_URI=... clojure -M:run:ee import /tmp/metabase-export -e
6. Verify in browser