Field Notes
Practical notes on database refactoring, query plans, and migration discipline from Web Maple Core consulting work.
Articles below come from patterns we see repeatedly in production systems. They are not a substitute for a scoped engagement, but they show how we think before we send a proposal.
When to Expand–Contract Instead of Renaming a Table Overnight
A practical decision guide for teams tempted to rename or split a hot table in a single maintenance window.
Reading a Slow Query Log Without Chasing Ghosts
How we triage PostgreSQL and MySQL slow logs so the first fixes address real user pain rather than noisy one-off statements.
Nullable Foreign Keys That Quietly Break Reporting
Why optional relationships accumulate in busy schemas, and which ones deserve constraints before the next analytics project.
Indexes After a Refactor: What to Rebuild and What to Drop
Post-migration index hygiene so you do not carry every historical covering index into the new schema shape.