Table Design Standard

Purpose

The Table Design Standard defines common rules for future PostgreSQL table specifications.

Table Types

Type	Purpose
Source table	Canonical operational facts owned by a Domain.
Workflow table	Domain-owned lifecycle or process state.
Audit table	Traceability records or audit references.
Outbox table	Transactional event publication records.
Read model table	Query projection, rebuildable where practical.
Configuration table	Administration-owned operational configuration.

Required Design Considerations

Concern	Requirement
Ownership	Owning module and Domain are explicit.
Tenant context	TenantId and OrganizationId included where applicable.
Identity	Primary key and natural uniqueness rules are explicit.
Lifecycle	Status, effective dates, archive, or soft delete behavior is defined where needed.
Audit	Created/updated actor and timestamps are included for mutable records.
Optimistic locking	Mutable source tables include a version strategy.
Classification	Sensitive or restricted data is identified.
Retention	Retention and deletion expectations are documented.

Rules

• Tables must be designed around business concepts, not UI screens.
• Tables must not expose source ownership to other modules through direct access.
• Nullable columns require business reason.
• JSON columns require documented structure, validation, and ownership.
• Soft delete must use explicit status or deletion columns and retention policy.
• Timestamps should preserve timezone-safe instants.

Non-Goals

This document does not define final table names, SQL types, partitioning, storage parameters, or entity mappings.