How do I know if my database is missing indexes?

Run `SELECT * FROM pg_stat_user_indexes;` in PostgreSQL to see what indexes exist. Compare against your schema definition. Look for foreign key columns without corresponding indexes—those are your culprits. Tools like Tiger SQL automate this scan and flag problems visually.

Will my ORM automatically create indexes in the future?

Maybe, but don't bet on it. Prisma and Drizzle are improving, but index creation requires understanding your query patterns and access paths—things ORMs can't reliably infer. You need human judgment. At minimum, make index creation an explicit part of your migration process, not an afterthought.

Is Tiger SQL free to use in production?

Yes. It's open-source and runs locally or in your browser. There's no vendor dependency, no usage limits, no enterprise tier. Fork it from GitHub, run it yourself, and you're done.

Can I use this with databases other than PostgreSQL?

Tiger SQL currently focuses on Postgres, but the concept—visual schema inspection with AI-assisted optimization—is portable. MySQL, MariaDB, and other relational databases all suffer the same indexing blindness problem.

🛠️ Developer Tools

Your ORM Is Lying to You: How Missing Database Indexes Hide in Plain Sight

Your ORM abstracted away the database complexity you thought was gone. But it also abstracted away the performance problems. Here's what you're actually missing.

Open Source Beat Apr 03, 2026 5 min read 19 views

Side-by-side comparison of ORM schema definition and underlying PostgreSQL database showing missing indexes on foreign key columns

⚡ Key Takeaways

ORMs create foreign keys without automatically indexing them, causing silent performance degradation at scale 𝕏
Developer abstraction from raw SQL has made database visibility optional—until performance problems force you to look 𝕏
Tiger SQL solves this by visualizing Postgres schemas and flagging missing indexes before they hit production 𝕏
The deeper lesson: every abstraction needs a visibility tool to prevent systemic blind spots 𝕏

Published by

Open Source Beat

Community-driven. Code-first.

#ORM migrations #PostgreSQL performance #Tiger SQL #database optimization #database-indexing #schema visualization

Worth sharing?

Get the best Open Source stories of the week in your inbox — no noise, no spam.

Originally reported by Dev.to

⚡ Key Takeaways

The 60-Second TL;DR

Open Source Beat

Share this article

Worth sharing?

Related Stories

Why Your Database Screams in Production While Tests Sleep: The Hidden Cost of Scale Blindness

ckpt: Git's Secret Weapon for Taming Wild AI Coders

rs-trafilatura Supercharges Crawl4AI: 1.7% F1 Boost on Real-World Benchmarks

Token Refresh Stampedes Are Wrecking Apps Everywhere — 40 Lines to Stop the Madness

Stay in the loop