Notebook discipline for EF Core migrations

Migrations are organizational communication. We ask learners to attach a short narrative to each migration PR: intent, rollback sketch, and data volume assumptions. The prose is for humans; the SQL is for machines.

We walk through a split query regression where the fix was boring but the explanation prevented a Friday deploy argument. The emotional payoff is calmer releases, not a viral thread.

We also document when we intentionally avoid clever defaults—nullable columns staged across two releases, for example—because auditors appreciate staged honesty more than magic.

Closing paragraph: we link to our limitation disclosure—this article is not legal advice for your own retention policies.