sqlc vet/generate fails on `alter type` migrations with the `relation does not exist` error

[Aeron]

Version

1.29.0

What happened?

Hey there. I’m working on a project that relies on Postgres and Atlas, so sqlc is configured to get the schema from the migrations directory. Recently, I was implementing a feature that requires a new field for a composite type, so — naturally — I’ve created a new migration with a simple statement, like so:

alter type something.my_type
add attribute name text;

It’s perfectly valid code for Postgres. Yet the first sqlc vet command gave me the relation "my_type" does not exist error. So I started digging and — after all the troubleshooting and searches on the topic — it’s clear that sqlc doesn’t know how to handle alter type statements properly. At least, the alter type … add attribute ones. Thus, it’s a bug.

The playground link has a reproducible example with a single schema.sql that mimics migrations. It doesn’t matter if the type’s name is something.my_type or just my_type.

All the provided code is simplified, shortened, and redacted, of course.

There are workarounds, but they are sub-optimal. The two off the top of my head:

• Start generating schema.sql, so sqlc faces only the final form of all the migrations. Which is a bit challenging when Atlas historically lives in a container and the team has a single workflow around migrations;
• Drop and re-create the composite type completely. Which means everything relying on the type must be migrated as well.

Relevant log output

# package
migrations/20250620000000_my_type_name.sql:1:1: relation "my_type" does not exist
# package
migrations/20250620000000_my_type_name.sql:1:1: relation "my_type" does not exist
# package
migrations/20250620000000_my_type_name.sql:1:1: relation "my_type" does not exist

Database schema

create type my_type as (
    name text
);

create table example (
    data my_type not null
);

SQL queries

Do not matter here.

Configuration

version: "2"
sql:
  - engine: "postgresql"
    queries: "sqlc/queries"
    schema: "migrations"
    gen:
      go:
        sql_package: "pgx/v5"
        out: "sqlc/repos"
        emit_pointers_for_null_types: true
        emit_interface: true
        emit_enum_valid_method: true
        emit_result_struct_pointers: true
        emit_params_struct_pointers: true
        emit_json_tags: true
        omit_unused_structs: true

Playground URL

https://play.sqlc.dev/p/58d7ab358bfa99770835ca29c4a20546ec7ccbed0414e66f129d85db4bbb90b8

What operating system are you using?

macOS

What database engines are you using?

PostgreSQL

What type of code are you generating?

Go