Postgres Tips Every Full Stack Developer Should Know

You don't need to be a DBA to get a lot out of Postgres.

Read the query plan

EXPLAIN ANALYZE tells you what actually happened, not what you hoped would happen.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM orders WHERE customer_id = 42;

Index what you filter and sort by

Composite indexes follow the left-most rule; order the columns accordingly.

Use partial indexes

Index only the rows you query, like WHERE deleted_at IS NULL.

Let the database enforce rules

Constraints and unique indexes beat application-level checks every time.

JSONB is a tool, not a schema

Great for flexible metadata; keep core relations in real columns.