django-migration-linter/DECISIONS.md

Architecture Decisions

Required columns on newly created tables

Decision. The NOT_NULL SQL check accepts ALTER TABLE ... ADD COLUMN ... NOT NULL only when the same migration unconditionally created that exact table. CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS does not prove an empty table. The migration remains fully linted, so RunSQL, RunPython, and operations on existing tables retain their checks.

Rejected. Ignoring all initial migrations or naming them as exemptions. Either option skips unsafe operations that the linter must inspect.