Postgres Best Practices

Postgres Best Practices

Comprehensive performance optimization guide for Postgres. 31 rules across 8 categories, prioritized by impact — from critical (query performance, connection management) to incremental (advanced features).

Rule Categories by Priority

Quick Reference

1. Query Performance (CRITICAL)

• query-missing-indexes - Add indexes on WHERE and JOIN columns
• query-composite-indexes - Create composite indexes for multi-column queries
• query-covering-indexes - Use covering indexes to avoid table lookups
• query-partial-indexes - Use partial indexes for filtered queries
• query-index-types - Choose the right index type for your data

2. Connection Management (CRITICAL)

• conn-pooling - Use connection pooling for all applications
• conn-limits - Set appropriate connection limits
• conn-idle-timeout - Configure idle connection timeouts
• conn-prepared-statements - Use prepared statements correctly with pooling

3. Security & RLS (CRITICAL)

• security-rls-basics - Enable Row Level Security for multi-tenant data
• security-rls-performance - Optimize RLS policies for performance
• security-privileges - Apply principle of least privilege

4. Schema Design (HIGH)

• schema-data-types - Choose appropriate data types
• schema-constraints - Add constraints safely in migrations
• schema-primary-keys - Select optimal primary key strategy
• schema-foreign-key-indexes - Index foreign key columns
• schema-partitioning - Partition large tables for better performance
• schema-lowercase-identifiers - Use lowercase identifiers for compatibility

5. Concurrency & Locking (MEDIUM-HIGH)

• lock-short-transactions - Keep transactions short to reduce lock contention
• lock-deadlock-prevention - Prevent deadlocks with consistent lock ordering
• lock-advisory - Use advisory locks for application-level locking
• lock-skip-locked - Use SKIP LOCKED for non-blocking queue processing

6. Data Access Patterns (MEDIUM)

• data-n-plus-one - Eliminate N+1 queries with batch loading
• data-pagination - Use cursor-based pagination instead of OFFSET
• data-batch-inserts - Batch INSERT statements for bulk data
• data-upsert - Use UPSERT for insert-or-update operations

7. Monitoring & Diagnostics (LOW-MEDIUM)

• monitor-explain-analyze - Use EXPLAIN ANALYZE to diagnose slow queries
• monitor-pg-stat-statements - Enable pg_stat_statements for query analysis
• monitor-vacuum-analyze - Maintain table statistics with VACUUM and ANALYZE

8. Advanced Features (LOW)

• advanced-full-text-search - Use tsvector for full-text search
• advanced-jsonb-indexing - Index JSONB columns for efficient querying

How to Use

Each rule file in references/ contains: explanation, incorrect/correct SQL examples, EXPLAIN output, and context. Read individual files as needed.