What default Policy checks does Liquibase offer?

Last updated: July 14, 2025

__Note__: This is a Liquibase Pro feature, so you need a Liquibase Pro License Key to use it.

Liquibase provides a default set of checks with default settings defined in the checks settings file. Liquibase Pro users can run unlimited enabled checks.

For more information about how policy checks work and how to use them, see Policy Checks.

Configuration

Policy checks are either static or dynamic.

A check is static if the attributes of the check cannot be customized. You cannot run the checks copy, checks customize, or checks delete commands on static checks.
A check is dynamic if there are settings you can customize.
You can copy, customize, and reset dynamic checks.
You cannot delete dynamic checks.
You can copy, customize, or delete the copy of a dynamic check.
You can also reset a copy to the parent check’s default settings.

You can run the checks enable and checks disable commands on all checks: Most (but not all) static checks are enabled by default.

For example, the static check SqlGrantWarn is enabled by default because it has widely applicable use-cases and has no customization options that would require manual input.
However, a static check like RequireChangesetIDisUUID is disabled by default because it may have more niche applicability.

Most (but not all) dynamic checks are disabled by default.

For example, the dynamic check SqlUserDefinedPatternCheck is disabled by default because it has some customization options that require manual input.
However, the dynamic check PrimaryKeyOnCreateTable is enabled by default because its customization options all have default values that are non-null.
To see whether a check is currently enabled, run the checks show command.

Policy Check Scope

The scope of each check can be changelogs, databases, or both. This means that individual checks can deliver more insight into your changelogs and/or databases depending on the check. This is specified on each check listed below and on their corresponding page. Learn more at the following links:

Scope	Definition
changelog	These checks examine the working changelog where it looks for specific patterns (e.g. presence of undesirable changes such as GRANT).
database, changelog	These checks examine both the database and the changelog (e.g. maximum number of columns in a table which could be in a new change or an existing table).
database	These checks examine the target database for specific structures or patterns (e.g. presence of constraints on a table).

List of changelog scope checks

Short Name	Scope (--checks-scope value)	Description	Enabled by Default	Liquibase version required
ChangeDropColumnWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a column is being dropped so that they can ensure that such a schema change won't lead to unintentional loss of data and unrecoverable data loss.	true	4.5.0+
ChangeDropTableWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a table is being dropped so that they can ensure that dropping the table won't lead to unintentional data loss.	true	4.5.0+
ChangesetAttributesAndValue	changelog	This check triggers when specified attributes do not match the user-supplied string or regex pattern.	false	4.29.0+
ChangesetAttributesSetTrueOrFalse	changelog	This check triggers when specified attributes do not match TRUE or FALSE, as configured by the user.	false	4.29.0+
ChangesetCommentCheck	changelog	This check enforces the Liquibase best-practice recommendation to assign comments to every changeset to document the purpose of a changeset for other/future consumers of this changelog.	true	4.5.0+
ChangesetContextCheck	changelog	This check enforces the Liquibase best-practice recommendation to assign a context to every changeset to provide better deployment control and to enhance traceability and granularity of deployments across changesets.	true	4.5.0+
ChangesetLabelCheck	changelog	This check enforces the Liquibase best-practice recommendation to assign labels to every changeset to provide better deployment control and to enhance traceability and granularity of deployments across changesets.	true	4.5.0+
ChangeTruncateTableWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a table is being truncated so that they can ensure this change will not lead to unintentional data loss.	true	4.6.0+
CheckRunInTransactionValue	changelog	This check triggers when a changeset contains the user-specified runInTransaction value of true or false.	true	4.27.0+
CustomCheckTemplate	changelog			4.29.0+
DetectChangeType	changelog	This changelog check warns a user when a changeset includes a Change Type listed by the user as forbidden. Note: This check applies only to model-based changelogs such as XML, YAML, and JSON. It does not apply to SQL changelogs.	true	4.19.0+
EndDelimiterExistsWhenPatternExists	changelog		false	4.27.0+
MaxAffectedRowsAllowedDelete	changelog		true	4.28.0+
MaxAffectedRowsAllowedInsert	changelog		true	4.28.0+
MaxAffectedRowsAllowedUpdate	changelog		true	4.28.0+
ModifyDataTypeWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a change will result in modification of a data type so they can ensure this change will not lead to unintentional data loss.	true	4.5.0+
OneChangePerChangeset	changelog	This check enforces the Liquibase Best Practice of keeping individual changesets small by limiting them to one statement or change.	true	4.19.1+
PatternAFollowedByPatternB	changelog	This check allows you to check for specific patterns in your changelog and then produce a logged record of changeset structure when certain conditions are met.	false	4.26.0+
PatternANotFollowedByPatternB	changelog	This check allows you to check for specific patterns in your changelog and then produce a logged record of changeset structure when certain conditions are met.	false	4.26.0+
PatternANotPrecededByPatternB	changelog	This check allows you to check for specific patterns in your changelog and then produce a logged record of changeset structure when certain conditions are met.	false	4.26.0+
PatternAPrecededByPatternB	changelog	This check allows you to check for specific patterns in your changelog and then produce a logged record of changeset structure when certain conditions are met.	false	4.26.0+
PrimaryKeyOnCreateTable	changelog	This check warns when a create table action does not also include a primary key.	true	4.12.0+
RequireChangesetIDisUUID	changelog	This check alerts you when a changeset ID does not follow the 8-4-4-4-12 pattern of UUID or GUID.	false	4.12.0+
RollbackRequired	changelog	This check enforces the Liquibase best-practice recommendation to include rollbacks to every changeset.	true	4.7.0+
SQLGrantAdminWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a SQL contains 'GRANT' statements that include the 'WITH ADMIN OPTION' clause so that they can ensure that the privilege being granted won't lead to security issues or violate compliance regulations.	true	4.6.0+
SqlGrantOptionWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when SQL contains 'GRANT' statements that include the 'WITH GRANT OPTION' clause so that they can ensure that the privilege being granted won't lead to security issues or violate compliance regulations.	true	4.6.0+
SqlGrantSpecificPrivsWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a changeset includes or generates SQL that grants specific privileges to a user or role.	false	4.6.0+
SqlGrantWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a SQL contains 'GRANT' statements so that they can ensure that the privilege being granted won't lead to security issues.	true	4.5.0+
SqlRevokeWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when a SQL contains 'REVOKE' statements so that they can ensure that the privilege being revoked won't lead to data access and dependency issues.	true	4.5.0+
SqlSelectStarWarn	changelog	This check warns a user when generated or raw SQL contains 'SELECT *' statements so that they can ensure selecting all fields from a table in a query is safe and necessary.	true	4.19.0+
SqlUserDefinedPatternCheck	changelog	This check scans SQL for the presence of specific patterns and warns the user when they are found.	false	4.5.0+
UserDefinedContextCheck	changelog		false	4.25.0+
UserDefinedLabelCheck	changelog		false	4.25.0+
WarnOnUseDatabase	changelog	This check warns a user when generated or raw SQL contains 'USE DATABASE' directive.	true	4.19.0+

List of changelog and database scope checks

Short Name	Scope (--checks-scope value)	Description	Enabled by Default	Liquibase version required
ChainedChecksTemplate	changelog or database			4.27.0+
ObjectNameMustMatch	changelog or database	The ObjectNameMustMatch check allows you to confirm the listed object names conform to the supplied pattern.	false	4.6.2+
ObjectNameMustNotMatch	changelog or database	The ObjectNameMustNotMatch check allows you to confirm the listed object names conform to the supplied pattern and locate the object names that do not match so they can be corrected.	false	4.6.2+
OracleReservedKeywords	changelog or database	This check can be used to prevent Oracle's reserved keywords from being used in database object names.	false	4.12.0+
PostgresNonReservedKeywords	changelog or database	This check disallows Postgres non-reserved keywords from being used in database object names. See the SQL Key Words Appendix for complete list of keywords.	false	4.12.0+
PostgresReservedKeywords	changelog or database	This check disallows Postgres reserved keywords from being used in database object names. See the SQL Key Words Appendix for complete list of keywords.	false	4.12.0+
SQLServerFutureReservedKeywords	changelog or database	This check disallows SQL Server's future reserved keywords from being used in database object names. See Reserved Keywords (Transact-SQL) for complete list of keywords.	false	4.12.0+
SQLServerODBCReservedKeywords	changelog or database	This check disallows SQL Server's ODBC reserved keywords from being used in database object names. See Reserved Keywords (Transact-SQL) for complete list of keywords.	false	4.12.0+
SQLServerReservedKeywords	changelog or database	This check disallows SQL Server reserved keywords from being used in database object names. See Reserved Keywords (Transact-SQL) for complete list of keywords.	false	4.12.0+
TableColumnLimit	changelog or database	The TableColumnLimit check allows you to ensure that no table described in a changelog or existing in a database target has more than a threshold number of columns.	true	4.5.0+
TableCommentCheck	changelog or database	The TableCommentCheck check allows you to flag any table that does not have a comment. Note that this is not a check for a Liquibase changelog comment.	false	4.12.0+
TableCommentPatternCheck	changelog or database	The TableCommentPatternCheck check triggers when specific user-supplied patterns are present in table comments.	false	4.12.0+

List of database scope checks

Short Name

Scope (

--checks-scope

value)

Description

Enabled by Default

Liquibase version required

CheckTablesForIndex

database

This check scans your target URL database tables to find tables which do not have an associated index.

true

4.19.0+

ConstraintMustExist

database

The ConstraintMustExist check allows you to specify an individual table or column by name to check that it has one or more specific constraints.