hasura/graphql-engine · warning

skipping applying migrations on database '%s', encountered:

Error message

skipping applying migrations on database '%s', encountered: 
%s

What it means

While reading the migrations directory for a source, the error matched a directory-not-found error (errors.As errNotFound), meaning migrations/<source_name>/ does not exist. The CLI skips that database, returning the wrapped message rather than aborting the multi-database run.

Source

Thrown at cli/commands/migrate_apply.go:315

			errPath     *os.PathError
			errNotFound *errDatabaseMigrationDirectoryNotFound
		)

		switch {
		case errors.Is(err, migrate.ErrNoChange):
			return "nothing to apply on database: " + o.Source.Name, nil
		case errors.As(err, &errPath):
			// If Op is first, then log No migrations to apply
			if errPath.Op == "first" {
				return "nothing to apply on database: " + o.Source.Name, nil
			}
		case errors.As(err, &errNotFound):
			// check if the returned error is a directory not found error
			// ie might be because  a migrations/<source_name> directory is not found
			// if so skip this
			return "", herrors.E(
				op,
				fmt.Errorf(
					"skipping applying migrations on database '%s', encountered: \n%s",
					o.Source.Name,
					errNotFound.Error(),
				),
			)
		}

		return "", herrors.E(
			op,
			fmt.Errorf(
				"skipping applying migrations on database '%s', encountered: \n%w",
				o.Source.Name,
				err,
			),
		)
	}

	if len(o.Source.Name) == 0 && !o.EC.AllDatabases {

View on GitHub (pinned to 724551b9ae)

Solutions

1. This is informational — the database is skipped; create migrations to include it: `hasura migrate create X --database-name <name>`
2. Or remove the extra directory check by creating migrations/<source_name>/.gitkeep style structure via init
3. If the database should not be tracked, untrack it from metadata

test -d "migrations/$DB" || echo "no migrations dir for $DB (will be skipped)"

if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "skipping applying migrations") { /* treat as non-fatal, continue */ }

When it happens

Trigger: `hasura migrate apply` (often with --all-databases) where one tracked source has no local migrations directory, e.g. a database added on the server but never initialized locally.

Common situations: Adding a second database via console then running migrate apply before `hasura init`/migrate create for it; cloning a repo missing a migrations folder.

Related errors

• skipping applying migrations on database '%s', encountered:
• determining database kind of '%s': %w
• error determining database kind for '%s', check if database
• applying migrations failed on database(s): %s
• error validating flags: %w

AI-assisted analysis of hasura/graphql-engine@724551b9ae (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/15f30a89833d24c6. Report an issue: GitHub.