📊 Built for data teams 🆓 Free forever 🔒 100% client-side

Schema diff for
data engineering teams

Catch the schema changes that break pipelines. Compare source and warehouse schemas, detect breaking changes before dbt runs fail, and keep your ETL, analytics, and ML workflows healthy.

✓ No signup ✓ Works with PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, SQLite ✓ CI-native reports

Why data engineering teams need schema diff

Data pipelines are only as stable as the schemas they depend on. A small upstream change can cascade into failed dbt tests, broken dashboards, and stale ML features.

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Upstream column drops break dbt models

A dropped or renamed column in a source database turns a nightly dbt run into a fire drill. SchemaLens catches the change before the pipeline starts.

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Type changes silently corrupt analytics

A VARCHAR widened to TEXT, a TIMESTAMP narrowed, or a precision change can alter aggregations and downstream reports.

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Schema drift makes reproducibility impossible

When staging, production, and warehouse schemas drift apart, notebooks and pipelines that worked yesterday fail today with no clear cause.

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Data contracts are hard to enforce

Teams promise stable schemas to downstream consumers, but without automated checks, those contracts rely on manual communication and hope.

What SchemaLens gives data engineers

A lightweight, no-install layer of schema visibility that plugs into the tools data teams already use.

🔍 Source-to-warehouse schema diff

Compare a production MySQL schema against a PostgreSQL warehouse schema. Spot missing tables, column drift, and incompatible types in seconds.

🛡️ Breaking-change detection

Automatically flag dropped columns, removed tables, NOT NULL additions, type narrowing, and other changes that break downstream pipelines.

🔌 CI/CD-native reporting

Post markdown diff reports to PRs, fail Check Runs on breaking changes, and archive HTML reports as pipeline artifacts for auditability.

📦 Export to Markdown, JSON, and SQL

Generate migration SQL, rollback scripts, and structured reports that fit into dbt docs, data catalogs, and incident post-mortems.

🚨 Schema drift alerts

Monitor production schemas over time and get notified when drift occurs — before a downstream consumer notices the mismatch.

🔒 Schema lockfile verification

Commit a schemalens.lock file and verify it in CI. Catch unauthorized or accidental schema drift automatically.

A schema-aware data pipeline in four steps

Add SchemaLens checks to the hand-off points where schema changes enter your data platform.

1

Extract

Pull CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE DDL from source databases or migration folders. Use the free schema export command generator for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, and more.

2

Validate

Diff source schemas against the previous baseline in CI. The SchemaLens GitHub Action, GitLab CI template, or CLI returns a breaking-change report and risk score.

npx schema-diff old-schema.sql new-schema.sql --format=json
3

Transform

Only promote changes that pass the schema check. Use the migration SQL and rollback output to update warehouse staging layers safely.

4

Monitor

Send schema drift alerts to Slack or Teams when production schemas change unexpectedly. Review the drift alert dashboard to track changes over time.

Data engineering toolkit

Free tools that fit into the modern data stack — from dbt CI to Airflow validation.

🔀 Schema Diff

Compare any two SQL schemas and get migration SQL, rollback scripts, and a breaking-change report.

Compare schemas →

🔗 Dependency Analyzer

Map foreign-key and view dependencies to find the safe migration order for warehouse tables.

Analyze dependencies →

📊 Complexity Scorer

Score schema complexity and spot risk factors like wide tables, high nullability, and dense foreign keys.

Score schema →

🔒 Lockfile Generator

Generate a schemalens.lock file from any schema and verify it in CI to catch drift.

Generate lockfile →

🧙 CI/CD Setup Wizard

Answer four questions and get a ready-to-use workflow for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, CircleCI, or Bitbucket.

Generate workflow →

🚨 Drift Alert Dashboard

Track schema changes across environments and get Slack or Teams alerts when drift is detected.

View dashboard →

📝 Change Checklist

A 32-point checklist for production schema changes — useful for data platform change review boards.

Open checklist →

📈 API Playground

Test the free SchemaLens diff API in your browser and generate client code in Python, JavaScript, Go, and more.

Try API →

Works with your CI/CD platform

SchemaLens runs wherever your data pipelines run. No new infrastructure required.

GitHub Actions GitLab CI Bitbucket Pipelines Jenkins CircleCI Azure DevOps dbt Cloud Airflow Prefect Dagster

Frequently asked questions

How can data engineers use schema diff?

Data engineers use schema diff to compare source database schemas against warehouse schemas, catch column drops or type changes that break dbt models, and validate that ETL pipelines will still work after a deployment.

Can SchemaLens diff schemas across different databases?

Yes. SchemaLens supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and Oracle. You can diff schemas even when the source is MySQL and the warehouse is PostgreSQL.

Will SchemaLens break my production pipeline?

No. SchemaLens is 100% client-side for the web diff and runs as a read-only check in CI/CD. It never executes SQL against your database; it only compares schema definitions and reports risks.

Can I integrate schema diff with dbt or Airflow?

Yes. Use the schema-diff CLI, GitHub Action, or free API in your dbt CI jobs or Airflow DAG validation steps to fail builds when a breaking schema change is detected.

Stop schema changes from breaking your pipelines

Add a free, automated schema diff check to your data engineering workflow and catch breaking changes before dbt, Airflow, or your warehouse jobs fail.