Database Design Patterns

A catalog of database design patterns in the spirit of the "Gang of Four" (GoF): relational schemas for application databases, with PostgreSQL as the reference engine. Document, key-value and analytics modeling are separate books. It is a book built from markdown with Honkit (a GitBook fork), with print (PDF/EPUB) in mind.

📖 Online: https://mokevnin.github.io/database-design-patterns/

Languages: Русский · English · Español

Repository layout

book/                 — the book root (Honkit)
  book.json           — Honkit config
  LANGS.md            — list of languages (Honkit multilingual)
  <locale>/
    SUMMARY.md        — table of contents: groups = headings, patterns = links
    README.md         — locale landing page
    <slug>.md         — a chapter (flat list, no group folders)
  assets/<slug>/      — files (images, SQL samples) shared across languages
templates/<locale>/   — localized pattern.md and anti-pattern.md skeletons

Patterns are grouped by area; anti-patterns have individual chapters grouped in a separate section. There are no group folders in the tree: patterns are flat files, convenient to read right on GitHub. Grouping and order come from each locale's SUMMARY.md. Assets are shared in book/assets/ and referenced via ../assets/<slug>/....

One pattern = a file book/<locale>/<slug>.md. The file name (<slug>) is the same across all locales.

Development

mise run setup    # locked toolchain, workspace dependencies and git hooks
mise run serve    # local preview (honkit serve)
mise run check    # the same quality gates as CI
mise run build    # static build into ./dist
mise run pdf      # PDFs for all locales (requires Calibre/ebook-convert)
mise run update   # update project tools and all workspace dependencies

Use mise 2026.11.3 or newer; CI pins 2026.11.4. Node is pinned in mise.toml; mise reads pnpm from package.json. mise.lock records tool downloads and checksums for Linux x64 and macOS arm64. Both setup and CI install from the committed lockfiles. After updating hk, update the two versioned Pkl imports in hk.pkl as well.

The Dev Quality Gates checks run through hk.pkl: code lint and formatting, workspace dependency consistency, Markdown, spelling, agent configuration, workflow security, secrets, local documentation links, conflict markers, filename case collisions and broken symlinks. Local links are checked offline so commits do not depend on external websites. Known dependency vulnerabilities are checked by the scheduled audit workflow.

• How to add a pattern and how translations work — see CONTRIBUTING.md.
• The canonical locale is en; ru is translated from it. The es translation is deferred.

License

Text and diagrams — CC BY-SA 4.0; code samples — CC0.