🛠️ Getting Started
This guide walks you through installing Iko and creating your first migration.
📁 It's recommended to start in a new directory or fresh Git repository:
mkdir myapp && cd myapp
git init
This keeps your migration files organized and version-controlled.
1. Install Iko
⚠️ Iko runs inside a container, so you'll need Docker installed.
Install the Iko CLI (for development use):
curl -fsSL https://explodinglabs.com/iko/install.sh | sh
Verify it's working:
iko version
2. Create a .env file
If Postgres is running inside Docker:
SQITCH_TARGET=db:pg://postgres:postgres@postgres/app
DOCKER_NETWORK=your_docker_network
If Postgres is installed on your system (e.g. Linux):
SQITCH_TARGET=db:pg://postgres:postgres@localhost/app
On Mac or WSL2, use host.docker.internal instead of localhost.
Verify your connection:
iko check
You should get:
No registry found in db:pg://postgres@postgres/app. Have you ever deployed?
This means your connection is working.
3. Initialise a project
iko init myapp
This creates a new Sqitch project in a migrations/ directory.
3. Create a migration
iko create_schema api
Created deploy/create_schema_api.sql
Created revert/create_schema_api.sql
Created verify/create_schema_api.sql
Added "create_schema_api" to sqitch.plan
create schema api;
What happened:
- Scripts were created to deploy, revert, and verify the change.
- The change was added to sqitch.plan.
- The deploy script was output for your review.
4. Deploy it
iko deploy