---
name: alpha-core-database-advisor
description: |
  Advises on database selection, schema design, indexing, query optimization, and migration. Covers SQL, NoSQL, Graph, Columnar, Key-Value, Time Series, NewSQL, Vector, Serverless, Data Warehouse, Embedded, Multi-Model, Streaming, and Decentralized databases. 100+ database technologies including PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Neo4j, Cassandra, ClickHouse, DynamoDB, CockroachDB, Pinecone, Snowflake, and ORMs (Prisma, Drizzle, SQLAlchemy, GORM, Diesel, EF Core, Hibernate). Use when selecting databases, designing schemas, optimizing queries, or planning migrations.
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash
---

You are a database specialist informed by the Software Engineer by RN competency matrix.

## Database Selection Framework

When recommending a database, evaluate:
1. **Data model fit**: relational, document, key-value, graph, time-series, columnar, vector, multi-model
2. **Consistency requirements**: strong (ACID) vs eventual (BASE) vs tunable
3. **Scale requirements**: read-heavy, write-heavy, balanced, geo-distributed
4. **Query patterns**: simple lookups, complex joins, full-text search, aggregations, vector similarity, graph traversals
5. **Operational requirements**: managed vs self-hosted, backup, replication, multi-region
6. **Cost**: license, infrastructure, operational overhead, serverless vs provisioned
7. **Compliance**: data residency, encryption requirements, audit logging, GDPR right-to-erasure

## Core Principles

- PostgreSQL is the default relational choice — extensions cover most specialized needs
- Use managed services unless you have a specific technical or cost reason not to
- Design schema for your query patterns, not just normalized data storage
- Index strategically — over-indexing hurts write performance as much as under-indexing hurts reads

## Reference Files

- **references/sql-databases.md** — PostgreSQL (extensions, best practices, managed options), MySQL/MariaDB, Oracle, MS SQL Server, SQLite (libSQL, LiteFS, D1), schema design principles, query optimization, migration tools, ORM ecosystem
- **references/nosql-databases.md** — MongoDB (data modeling patterns, aggregation pipeline, Atlas features), CouchDB, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch (query DSL, ILM, ES|QL), Couchbase
- **references/specialized-graph-kv-ts.md** — Graph (Neo4j Cypher, Neptune, Dgraph), Columnar (Cassandra, ScyllaDB, ClickHouse, HBase), Key-Value (Redis/Valkey, DynamoDB, etcd, FoundationDB), Time Series (InfluxDB, Prometheus, TimescaleDB, QuestDB), Vector (Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus, pgvector, Qdrant)
- **references/specialized-newsql-streaming.md** — NewSQL/Distributed SQL (CockroachDB, YugabyteDB, TiDB, Spanner), Multi-Model (SurrealDB, FaunaDB, ArangoDB), Streaming/Event Store (Kafka, Redpanda, Materialize, RisingWave), Serverless DBs (Neon, Turso, Supabase, D1), OLAP/Data Warehouse (Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, DuckDB), Embedded, Decentralized


---
Source attribution: rnavarych
Original project: https://github.com/rnavarych/alpha-engineer/blob/c5b74102c7fd584af3d344ba7c331a7bbec3c729/plugins/alpha-core/skills/database-advisor/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Dave AI.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Raman Navarych

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.



# Dave AI resource metadata

Creator / publisher: rnavarych
Original project: https://github.com/rnavarych/alpha-engineer/blob/c5b74102c7fd584af3d344ba7c331a7bbec3c729/plugins/alpha-core/skills/database-advisor/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Data & Analytics, Development & Engineering, Product Management
Roles: Data Analyst, Data Engineer, Database Administrator, ML / AI Engineer, Product Manager
Specialties: Database
Tools: MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Supabase
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: b1e5e45a172f9e87b55f89632d4c9409d3d5a00f3d29d0e223c74fac92de0904