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Configure Author DB Change

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This guide explains how to enable an LLM-driven change authoring workflow in Harness Database DevOps that generates migration artifacts (e.g., Liquibase changesets or SQL migration scripts), commits them to a temporary branch, and opens a Pull Request (PR) against a target Git branch for review and CI validation. The workflow preserves GitOps principles (auditability, review gates, CI checks) while accelerating authoring through LLM assistance.

Prerequisites​

Before configuring LLM change authoring, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

  • An active Harness account with Database DevOps enabled.
  • Access to a Git repository where database migration artifacts will be stored.

Step 1: Enable Harness AI in Harness​

  1. Log in to your Harness account.
  2. Navigate to Account Settings > Default Settings > Harness AI.
  3. Toggle the Harness AI switch to enable it for your account.
  4. Then click on Database DevOps and in LLM Authoring Test and Commit Pipeline field point to the LLM pipeline identifier, e.g., dbops_llm_test_preview which we will create in the next step.

Step 2: Create a Pipeline with LLM Change Authoring​

  1. Go to the Pipelines section in Harness.
  2. Click on Create Pipeline, and click on Add Stage and select the Custom Stage
  3. Provide the desired name for your pipeline, and click on Add. (Make sure that the pipeline identifier is same as mentioned in LLM pipeline identifier in step 1)
  4. Create a New Step Group.
  5. Click on Add Step and select the DB Test and Preview step from the list of available steps.

Database DevOps Test and Preview

important

Leave schema and instance set as runtime input, i.e., <+input>, as these will be provided by the LLM change authoring.

  1. Click on Add Step again and select the Run Step from the list of available steps.
  2. Configure the Run step to run the following script to create a Pull Request in your Git repository with the generated migration artifacts. First, add a pipeline variable (or step input) named $REPO_TYPE with allowed values: "github", "bitbucket", "harness". Then use the following unified script, replacing the common placeholders with your actual values:
#!/bin/bash
set -e

# All configuration is read from step environment variables — no edits needed below.

cd dbops/DBTestAndPreview_1

git config --global user.email "$USER_EMAIL"
git config --global user.name  "$USER_NAME"

# ── Set remote URL based on repo type ────────────────────────────────────────
case "$REPO_TYPE" in
  github)
    ENCODED_EMAIL="${USER_EMAIL//@/%40}"
    REMOTE_URL="https://${ENCODED_EMAIL}:<+secrets.getValue("github")>@github.com/${USERNAME}/${REPO}.git"
    ;;
  bitbucket)
    REMOTE_URL="https://${USERNAME}:<+secrets.getValue("account.bitbucket")>@bitbucket.org/${WORKSPACE}/${REPO}.git"
    ;;
  harness)
    REMOTE_URL="https://git:<+secrets.getValue("harness_api_token")>@app.harness.io/git/${ORG_ID}/${PROJECT_ID}/${REPO}.git"
    ;;
  *)
    echo "ERROR: Unsupported REPO_TYPE '${REPO_TYPE}'. Must be github, bitbucket, or harness."
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

# ── Push to a new branch ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
git remote remove origin 2>/dev/null || true
git remote add origin "$REMOTE_URL"
git fetch origin

DEFAULT_BRANCH=$(git remote show origin | grep 'HEAD branch' | awk '{print $NF}')
DEFAULT_BRANCH="${DEFAULT_BRANCH:-main}"
echo "Default branch: $DEFAULT_BRANCH"

git add db/changelog.yml # Adjust path and filenameas needed
git commit -m "Updating changeset in changelog file"

NEW_BRANCH="changelog-update-$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S)"
git checkout -b "$NEW_BRANCH"
git push -u origin "$NEW_BRANCH"

# ── Open a Pull Request ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
case "$REPO_TYPE" in
  github)
    PR_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST \
      -H "Authorization: token '<+secrets.getValue("github")>'" \
      -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
      "https://api.github.com/repos/${USERNAME}/${REPO}/pulls" \
      -d "{\"title\":\"Automated changelog update\",\"head\":\"${NEW_BRANCH}\",\"base\":\"${DEFAULT_BRANCH}\"}")
    PR_URL=$(echo "$PR_RESPONSE" | grep '"html_url"' | head -1 | sed -E 's/.*"html_url": *"([^"]+)".*/\1/')
    ;;
  bitbucket)
    PR_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST \
      -u "${USERNAME}:<+secrets.getValue("account.bitbucket")>" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      "https://api.bitbucket.org/2.0/repositories/${WORKSPACE}/${REPO}/pullrequests" \
      -d "{\"title\":\"Automated changelog update\",\"source\":{\"branch\":{\"name\":\"${NEW_BRANCH}\"}},\"destination\":{\"branch\":{\"name\":\"${DEFAULT_BRANCH}\"}},\"close_source_branch\":true}")
    PR_URL=$(echo "$PR_RESPONSE" | grep -o '"html":{"href":"[^"]*"' | sed 's/"html":{"href":"//;s/"$//')
    ;;
  harness)
    PR_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST \
      "https://app.harness.io/code/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/pullreq?accountIdentifier=${ACCOUNT_ID}&orgIdentifier=${ORG_ID}&projectIdentifier=${PROJECT_ID}" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -H "x-api-key: <+secrets.getValue("harness_api_token")>" \
      -d "{\"title\":\"Automated changelog update\",\"source_branch\":\"${NEW_BRANCH}\",\"target_branch\":\"${DEFAULT_BRANCH}\",\"is_draft\":false}")
    PR_NUMBER=$(echo "$PR_RESPONSE" | grep -o '"number":[0-9]*' | head -1 | sed 's/"number"://')
    PR_URL="https://app.harness.io/ng/account/${ACCOUNT_ID}/module/code/orgs/${ORG_ID}/projects/${PROJECT_ID}/repos/${REPO}/pull-requests/${PR_NUMBER}"
    ;;
esac

echo "Pull request created: $PR_URL"
export CHANGESET_PR_LINK="$PR_URL"

Setup the following environment variables in the Run step configuration, ensuring that sensitive values like github, bitbucket, and harness_api_token are stored securely in Harness secrets and referenced appropriately:

Variable NameTypeDescriptionExample
REPO_TYPEStringTarget Git providergithub, bitbucket, harness
USER_EMAILStringGit commit author emailjane.doe@example.com
USER_NAMEStringGit commit author nameJane Doe
USERNAMEStringGit provider username (GitHub/Bitbucket only)janedoe
REPOStringRepository name (GitHub/Bitbucket only)my-database-repo
WORKSPACEStringWorkspace slug (Bitbucket only)mycompany
ORG_IDStringOrganization identifier (Harness Code only)default
PROJECT_IDStringProject identifier (Harness Code only)my_project
ACCOUNT_IDStringAccount identifier (Harness Code only)abc123

Database DevOps LLM Authoring Environment Variables

note

If the target Git provider is Harness Code, ensure that the REPO_TYPE is set to harness.

Step 3: Author your first DB Change​

  1. Select your Database DevOps project from the Harness dashboard.

  2. Navigate to your desired Database Schema.

  3. Click on Edit Schema to open the schema details page and select the Primary DB Instance (Optional) from the dropdown.

  4. Click on the Author DB Change tab.

  5. In the Author DB Change chat window, mention the changes you want to make to the database schema. For example, you can type:

    Add a new column named Quantity under the tableName Items which is a non-null, with integer datatype.

    Database DevOps LLM Authoring

  6. Once satisfied with the changes, Click on the Test and Preview button. The LLM will process your request and generate the appropriate migration artifacts (e.g., changesets or SQL scripts).

  7. You can monitor the pipeline execution status via the Chat Window. Once the pipeline completes successfully, a Pull Request will be created in your Git repository with the generated migration artifacts since the pipeline is configured to create a Pull Request.

Open PR with the changes