Custom Policy Checks

Custom Policy Checks allow you to enforce compliance for a wide array of security, code standards, data quality, and other policies using Python scripts. In addition to Policy Checks built into Liquibase Pro, you can use Custom Policy Cheks to write Python scripts to create nearly any check tailored for your workflow.

Note: This is a Liquibase Pro feature, so you need a Liquibase Pro License Key to use it.

Uses

Liquibase provides a Library of Policy Checks, but you may find that they don't fully serve the nuanced conditions and contexts you need to evaluate all your policy enforcement goals. Custom policy checks add the flexibility and power of Python to greatly expand your ability to parse and inspect your changelogs and databases for compliance.

Prerequisites

Liquibase prerequisites

  • Install Liquibase 4.29.0+
  • Install the Liquibase Checks extension 
    • Download the liquibase-checks-<version>.jar and put it in the liquibase/lib directory.
    • If you use Maven, add this dependency to your pom.xml file:
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      <dependency>
          <groupId>org.liquibase.ext</groupId>
          <artifactId>liquibase-checks</artifactId>
          <version>1.0.0</version>
      </dependency>
  • Java Development Kit 17+ (available for Open JDK and Oracle JDK)
  • Linux, macOS, or Windows operating system
  • Familiarity with Liquibase concepts: Changelog, Changeset, Policy Checks Commands, checks-scope, and snapshot

Python prerequisites

Before creating a custom policy check with Python, we recommend being familiar with:

  • Python 3.10+
  • Optional: General coding and Python best practices which will improve your check performance:
    • Efficiently handling of structured data objects
    • Effective and targeted parsing of text, objects, and SQL
    • Using Regular Expressions and other pattern matching tools within Python
  • Optional: Import and use external utility and helper files
    • Using an IDE and pip install liquibase-checks-python to develop Python checks is optional, but will allow you to utilize auto-completion and auto-documentation of helper methods.
    • Checks Python API Helper Scripts

Tip: If you're new to Python, it is a best practice to read the official Python tutorials before making custom checks.

Downloading Python itself is not required to create custom checks in Liquibase, but it may be useful to test them. It is a best practice to test custom checks with Python 3.10.14+.

Compatible Versions
Tool Version
Python 3.10.14
GraalPy 24.0.0

Create a checks settings file

  1. Create a checks settings file if you don't already have one. In the CLI, run this command:
    2. liquibase checks show
  2. If you don't have a checks settings file, a prompt appears that allows you to create the configuration file. Confirm the file creation in the prompt. By default, the settings file is named liquibase.checks-settings.conf.

Create a new custom policy check

  1. Create a new file in your Liquibase working directory. This file will contain the Python script that is your custom policy check. In this example, we title our new file custom-check-no-tables.py.
  2. Open the new custom-check-no-tables.py file and add the following custom policy check to it:
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    # import Liquibase helper scripts containing useful functions
    import liquibase_utilities as lb
    import sys

    # define reusable variables
    obj = lb.get_database_object() # database object to examine
    status = lb.get_status() # Status object of the check

    # write check logic
    if lb.is_table(obj): # checks if the current object is a table
        status.fired = True # indicates that the custom check has been triggered
        status.message = "No tables allowed!" # message for Liquibase to return when check is triggered
        sys.exit(1) # halt execution of the script

    The purpose of this sample check is to ensure that there are no tables in the database.

    Note: Liquibase will run the check against every object in the database, so this script doesn't need a Python looping mechanism to iterate through database objects.

Configure and customize your new check in the CLI

  1. Initiate the customization process. In the CLI, run this command:
    2. liquibase checks customize --check-name=CustomCheckTemplate

    The CLI prompts you to finish configuring your file. A message displays:

    This check cannot be customized directly because one or more fields does not have a default value.

    Liquibase will then create a copy of this check and initiate the customization workflow.

  2. Give your check a short name for easier identification. In this example, we will name the check CustomCheckNoTables.
    Now you have successfully created the check CustomCheckNoTables from CustomCheckTemplate.

    3. Note: The new check short name CustomCheckNoTables and all of its associated information comes from the Python script you created. Your company may have their own coding standards that these scripts must adhere to.

  3. Set the severity to return a code of 0-4 when triggered. In this example, we will set the severity to 1. Options:
    • 'INFO' | 0
    • 'MINOR' | 1
    • 'MAJOR' | 2
    • 'CRITICAL' | 3
    • 'BLOCKER' | 4
  4. Set the script description for the custom check. In this example we will set the description to:
    5. This script looks to see if any tables exist and notifies you if one is detected.
  5. Set the script scope for the custom check to database. The Python sample provided in this tutorial requires it.

    6. In general, you should set the scope to changelog or database depending on what your custom script does:

    • changelog: for example, if your check looks for syntax patterns or attributes in your Liquibase changelog. With this value, the check runs once per changeset.
    • database: for example, if your check looks for the presence of keys, indexes, or table name patterns in your database schema. With this value, the check runs once for each database object.

    Tip: It is a best practice for your custom checks to have only one scope, not both scopes.

  6. Set the script message. This message will display when the check is triggered. In this example we will leave this blank, as we are handling the message in the script.

    Tip: Option for advanced users: You can create Status Message Variables for Custom Policy Checks which are identified in your Python script.

  7. Set the script type. In Liquibase Pro 4.29.0, Python is the only available script type.
  8. Set the script path. This is the relative path where your script is stored, whether it is stored locally or in a repository.

    9. In this example, we will set the path to Scripts/custom-check-no-tables.py.

  9. Set the script argument. This allows you to pass dynamic information into the custom policy check without modifying the Python code. The script arguments ensure that your Python scripts remain reusable with different variables.
  10. Set whether the check requires a snapshot:
    11. REQUIRES_SNAPSHOT (options: true, false) [false]:

    Note: If your check requires a snapshot, it may need to query the database, which can impact performance. The larger your database, the more performance impact this causes.

You have now successfully created and customized a policy check!

Run your new check

To run your custom check, you must use the checks run command. Liquibase provides additional security configuration parameters for this command to ensure you do not accidentally execute Python code on your database:

  • Custom policy checks are disabled by default. Using the checks run command, you must set --checks-scripts-enabled=true in the CLI or set LIQUIBASE_COMMAND_CHECKS_RUN_CHECKS_SCRIPTS_ENABLED=TRUE via environment variable.
  • Custom policy check Python scripts can filter to specific directory paths. Using the checks run command, you can set the --checks-scripts-path parameter, LIQUIBASE_COMMAND_CHECKS_RUN_CHECKS_SCRIPTS_PATH environment variable, and other standard methods.
    • When set, the check's Python script must be in the specified path(s) to execute successfully.
    • If you don't set a script path, Liquibase accepts any script path.

    Warning: Custom policy checks are not isolated and can interact with both local file systems and network utilities like the targeted database. We recommend reviewing these checks prior to execution to ensure they only affect the intended object(s).

For example, if you enable custom checks via the CLI and want to run all policy checks, including your new check:

liquibase checks run --checks-scripts-enabled=true

If you instead only want to run policy checks with the scope database (such as this check), you must set the --checks-scope parameter to database:

liquibase checks run --checks-scope=database --checks-scripts-enabled=true

If you instead only want to run this specific check, you must specify the check name with --check-name parameter:

liquibase checks run --check-name=CustomCheckNoTables --checks-scripts-enabled=true

Troubleshooting

If the scope you specify in the CLI while creating your check is mismatched with what your Python code actually does, you may receive an error like this:

Error while executing script 'custom-check-no-tables.py': AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'getObjectTypeName' line: 7

The Python code provided in this tutorial calls on database objects. This means you necessarily have to set the scope to database while you create the check. Conversely, if you are creating a check that calls on changelog objects, you necessarily have to set the scope to changelog.