Install golang-migrate with Homebrew, dnf, Nix, scoop, apt

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• migrate

Project history

The project traces back to `mattes/migrate`, a database migration repository created in 2014. The maintained `golang-migrate/migrate` repository was created in January 2018 and states that it was forked from `mattes/migrate`.

The fork preserved the core CLI/library model while continuing the driver architecture. Its README documents a broad matrix of database drivers, including PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite, SQL Server, Cassandra/ScyllaDB, ClickHouse, MongoDB, CockroachDB, and cloud-oriented sources such as GitHub, GitLab, S3, and Google Cloud Storage.

The project standardized on Go module import paths for v4 and explicitly marks v3 as unsupported in its README. That version boundary matters because many Go projects embed migration support directly in their own binaries rather than only shelling out to the CLI.

Adoption history

golang-migrate became a common Go ecosystem migration tool because it works both as a standalone `migrate` binary and as an importable library. The README points to packagecloud deb packages, Docker images, GitHub releases, and Go documentation, while the batch input records Homebrew, Fedora, Nix, Scoop, and other package-manager entries.

The maintained fork's GitHub repository had over 18,000 stars and more than 1,500 forks in the 2026 GitHub API snapshot used for this batch, making it one of the better-known Go-native database migration tools.

How it is used

The standard workflow is to create paired up/down SQL files with `migrate create`, then run them with a source such as `file://path/to/migrations` and a database URL. The getting-started guide emphasizes running migrations up, down, and up again before committing them.

Operationally, golang-migrate is intentionally explicit: the README says the CLI has no config search paths, no config files, and no magic environment-variable injection. Users pass source and database URLs directly, and database credentials normally live in those URLs or in caller-managed secret handling rather than in a tool-owned credentials file.

The getting-started guide highlights dirty database states, force operations, idempotent migrations, transaction wrapping, and database locking when multiple app instances may run migrations. Those warnings are why package users often treat `migrate` as deployment infrastructure rather than a casual development helper.

Why package nerds care

For package nerds, golang-migrate is the archetypal Go single-binary infrastructure tool: it can be installed from Homebrew, run from Docker, vendored as a library, or baked into a release artifact. The driver split also makes downstream builds interesting, because packagers and application authors decide which database/source drivers to include.

Its significance is also cultural: it represents the Go preference for explicit URLs, small binaries, and predictable failure over framework-managed migration magic. That makes it popular in CI pipelines and container entrypoints where reproducibility beats convenience.

Timeline

• 2014: `mattes/migrate` repository created for database migrations in Go.
• 2017: `mattes/migrate` v3 preview releases published.
• 2018: `golang-migrate/migrate` repository created as a fork of `mattes/migrate`.
• 2018: `golang-migrate/migrate` v3.1.0 and later v3 releases published.
• 2019-2026: v4 import path and driver ecosystem documented as the supported line; v3 documented as unsupported.

Related projects

• `mattes/migrate` is the direct upstream ancestor named by the maintained repository.
• The README points users coming from other migration systems to `migradaptor`, and it links broader database-tool alternatives through Awesome Go.
• Database and source drivers connect golang-migrate to PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite, MongoDB, ClickHouse, SQL Server, GitHub, GitLab, S3, and Google Cloud Storage workflows.

Sources

• https://github.com/golang-migrate/migrate
• https://github.com/golang-migrate/migrate/blob/master/GETTING_STARTED.md
• https://github.com/golang-migrate/migrate/releases
• https://github.com/mattes/migrate
• https://github.com/mattes/migrate/releases
• https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-migrate/migrate/v4