SchemaSmith Documentation

Platform Support

SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL — platform-specific conventions, naming rules, and connection setup.

Platform Comparison Naming Conventions Platform Detection Connection Setup
Ask Forge Platform Support

Platform Comparison

Ask Forge supports three database platforms. Each platform has its own provider that generates platform-specific SQL, applies naming conventions, and handles platform capabilities.

Feature SQL Server PostgreSQL MySQL
Platform ID MSSQL PostgreSQL MySQL
Default Schema dbo public None (database-level)
Max Identifier Length 128 63 64
Identifier Wrapping [Name] "name" (auto-lowercased) `Name`
Naming Convention PascalCase snake_case (lowercase preferred) PascalCase
Identity Syntax IDENTITY(1,1) GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY AUTO_INCREMENT
Schemas
Temporal Tables
Enum Types
Domain Types
Array Types
JSON Columns
Computed Columns
Partitioning
Full-Text Search
XML Indexes

Naming Conventions

Each platform uses its own set of naming prefixes for database objects. Ask Forge applies these automatically when generating SQL.

SQL Server (MSSQL) — PascalCase
Object Prefix
Table(none)
Viewvw_
Stored Procedureusp_
Functionfn_
IndexIX_
Foreign KeyFK_
Primary KeyPK_
Unique ConstraintUQ_
Check ConstraintCK_
Default ConstraintDF_
PostgreSQL — snake_case (lowercase)
Object Prefix
Table(none)
Viewv_
Stored Procedure(none)
Functionfn_
Indexix_
Foreign Keyfk_
Primary Keypk_
Unique Constraintuq_
Check Constraintck_
Default Constraintdf_
Ask Forge will warn you if a table name contains uppercase characters. PostgreSQL requires double-quoting to reference identifiers that are not all-lowercase. Prefer snake_case naming to avoid this issue.
MySQL — PascalCase
Object Prefix
Table(none)
Viewvw_
Stored Procedureusp_
Functionfn_
IndexIX_
Foreign KeyFK_
Primary KeyPK_
Unique ConstraintUQ_
Check ConstraintCK_
Default ConstraintDF_
Ask Forge will warn you if a table name uses mixed case. Mixed-case identifiers can cause issues on case-sensitive file systems (Linux with lower_case_table_names=0), making schemas non-portable across operating systems.

Platform Detection

Ask Forge determines the active platform using this precedence order:

  1. --platform flag — Explicit parameter on a CLI command (mssql, postgresql, mysql)
  2. Product context — Auto-detected from Product.json when you load a SchemaSmith product directory
  3. Previous session — Restored from ~/.forge/session.json on startup
  4. Default — Falls back to MSSQL if nothing else is set

To inspect a specific platform's features, naming rules, and identifier limits:

ask-forge show-platform-capabilities --platform postgresql

You can also set the FORGE_PLATFORM environment variable to override the default platform for all commands:

set FORGE_PLATFORM=PostgreSQL
export FORGE_PLATFORM=PostgreSQL

Connection Setup

Configure database connections using the set-connection command. Each platform has its own default port and connection parameters.

SQL Server

ask-forge set-connection --platform mssql --server localhost --port 1433 \
  --database MyDB --user sa --password "..."

PostgreSQL

ask-forge set-connection --platform postgresql --server localhost --port 5432 \
  --database mydb --user postgres --password "..."

MySQL

ask-forge set-connection --platform mysql --server localhost --port 3306 \
  --database mydb --user root --password "..."
See Configuration for the full connection reference, including environment variable substitution for passwords.