design-postgres-tables

Use this skill for general PostgreSQL table design. **Trigger when user asks to:** - Design PostgreSQL tables, schemas, or data models when creating new tables and when modifying existing ones. - Choose data types, constraints, or indexes for PostgreSQL - Create user tables, order tables, reference tables, or JSONB schemas - Understand PostgreSQL best practices for normalization, constraints, or indexing - Design update-heavy, upsert-heavy, or OLTP-style tables **Keywords:** PostgreSQL schema, table design, data types, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, indexes, B-tree, GIN, JSONB, constraints, normalization, identity columns, partitioning, row-level security Comprehensive reference covering data types, indexing strategies, constraints, JSONB patterns, partitioning, and PostgreSQL-specific best practices.

Quality

82%

Does it follow best practices?

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Securityby

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Quality

Content

65%Weight 40%Scale 1-3

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A thorough, technically accurate PostgreSQL reference with excellent actionable SQL examples, but it is a long monolithic single-file document with redundant guidance between the Data Types and 'Do not use' sections and no progressive disclosure into bundle files. Consolidating the duplicate type guidance and splitting the larger reference blocks into files under references/ would lift the weaker dimensions.

Suggestions

Remove the redundant 'Do not use the following data types' section — fold any unique advice into the existing Data Types entries to eliminate the duplication of char/varchar, timestamp, money, timetz, serial, and POINT/LINE/POLYGON guidance.

Introduce progressive disclosure by moving large reference blocks (JSONB Guidance, Extensions, Partitioning) into files under references/ and linking to them from short overview sections in SKILL.md.

Tighten the 'PostgreSQL Gotchas' prose to directive bullet form (drop comparative explanations) to improve token efficiency while keeping the actionable rule.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	Per-topic guidance is dense and assumes Claude's competence, but the ~200-line body is verbose overall and the 'Do not use the following data types' section largely restates the Data Types section (char/varchar, timestamp, money, timetz, serial, POINT/LINE/POLYGON all covered twice), and several Gotchas carry explanatory prose that could be tightened.	2 / 3
Actionability	Provides fully executable, copy-paste-ready SQL throughout, including a dedicated Examples section (users, orders, JSONB profiles) with complete CREATE TABLE statements and concrete index/constraint syntax for each topic.	3 / 3
Workflow Clarity	This is a reference compendium rather than a sequenced multi-step workflow; the 'Safe Schema Evolution' section does offer validation guidance (transactional DDL, CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY, volatile-default rewrites), but there is no overall ordered process or validation checkpoint sequence for the design task itself.	2 / 3
Progressive Disclosure	Sections are well-organized with clear headers, but the entire reference is inline in a single monolithic SKILL.md with no bundle files in references/scripts/assets, so large reference blocks (e.g. JSONB Guidance, Extensions) are not split out and there are no one-level-deep external references to navigate to.	2 / 3
	Total	9 / 12 Passed

Description

100%Weight 40%Scale 1-3

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A strong description with explicit 'what' and 'when' guidance, a comprehensive keyword list, and a well-scoped niche that minimizes conflict risk. The trigger structure and concrete action list make it easy for Claude to know when to invoke it.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Lists multiple concrete actions ('Design PostgreSQL tables, schemas, or data models', 'Choose data types, constraints, or indexes', 'Create user tables, order tables, reference tables, or JSONB schemas', 'Design update-heavy, upsert-heavy, or OLTP-style tables') rather than vague language.	3 / 3
Completeness	Explicitly answers both what ('Use this skill for general PostgreSQL table design' plus 'Comprehensive reference covering data types, indexing strategies, constraints, JSONB patterns, partitioning...') and when ('Trigger when user asks to:' with a bulleted trigger list).	3 / 3
Trigger Term Quality	The Keywords line gives broad, natural coverage users would actually say: 'PostgreSQL schema, table design, data types, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, indexes, B-tree, GIN, JSONB, constraints, normalization, identity columns, partitioning, row-level security'.	3 / 3
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Scoped narrowly to PostgreSQL table design with PG-specific triggers (JSONB, B-tree/GIN, identity columns, row-level security), making it clearly distinguishable and unlikely to fire for the wrong skill.	3 / 3
	Total	12 / 12 Passed

Validation

93%

Warnings & errors only

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

Criteria	Description	Result
metadata_version	'metadata.version' is missing	Warning

	Total	15 / 16 Passed

Repository: timescale/pg-aiguide
Path: skills/design-postgres-tables/SKILL.md
Commit: b4f11a4

Reviewed: 11 days ago

Table of Contents

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