> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.pgschema.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rollback

<Warning>
  Rolling back schema changes is inherently risky and may result in data loss. Always test rollback procedures in non-production environments and ensure you have complete database backups before proceeding.
</Warning>

The pgschema approach to rollback is to revert your schema file to a previous version and apply the changes using the standard plan/apply workflow. This ensures rollbacks follow the same safety mechanisms as forward migrations.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Revert Schema File">
    Use git to revert your schema file to the previous working version.

    ```bash theme={null}
    # Revert to previous commit (most common case)
    git checkout HEAD~1 schema.sql

    # Or find and revert to a specific commit
    git log --oneline schema.sql
    git checkout <commit-hash> schema.sql
    ```

    This restores your schema file to the state before the problematic migration was applied.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Generate Rollback Plan">
    Create and review a migration plan that will rollback the database to match the reverted schema file.

    ```bash theme={null}
    # Generate rollback plan
    pgschema plan --host localhost --db myapp --user postgres --file schema.sql \
      --output-json rollback_plan.json \
      --output-human rollback_plan.txt

    # Review the rollback plan carefully
    cat rollback_plan.txt
    ```

    The plan will show exactly what changes pgschema will make to rollback the database to the previous schema state.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Execute Rollback">
    Apply the rollback plan with appropriate safety measures for production environments.

    ```bash theme={null}
    # Execute the rollback
    pgschema apply --host localhost --db myapp --user postgres \
      --plan rollback_plan.json \
      --lock-timeout 30s

    # Verify rollback success
    pgschema dump --host localhost --db myapp --user postgres > post_rollback_state.sql
    diff schema.sql post_rollback_state.sql
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>