Database diagrams always become outdated. I stopped trying to "maintain" them and started generating them.
Most teams start with beautiful and well-thought-out diagrams.
A few months later, they become historical references (when they aren't completely ignored).
The problem isn't a lack of tools or a lack of goodwill.
It's that manually maintained diagrams don't scale with migrations, hotfixes, and constant changes.
After going through this a few times, I changed my approach:
Instead of "maintaining" diagrams, I started generating them directly from the schema, treating the database as the single source of truth.
This ended up becoming a project called ForgeSQL.
The idea is simple: if the schema changes, the diagram changes along with it—in a reproducible way, without depending on a specific IDE, screenshots, or heroic team discipline.
I'm still validating with those who work with databases daily, so I wanted to hear from you guys here:
Do you still use database diagrams?
At what point do they cease to be reliable?
What would make a diagram useful again in your project?
If anyone wants to look at the project: https://forgesql.com
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