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Use Flow files with Spring

Last updated: August 11, 2026

Liquibase Flow Files let you create portable, platform-independent Liquibase workflows that can run anywhere without modification. This includes Jenkins, GitHub actions, a developers desktop, or any other CI/CD support tool. Flow Files with full Spring Boot integration support for version 3+ added are available in Liquibase 5.1 and later.

Before you begin

Install Liquibase Secure 5.1
Install Spring or Spring Boot
Configure your liquibase.properties file
Create a Flow file

Procedure

Ensure your pom file is configured.

The example POM uses liquibase-secure-starter, which includes the core commercial features including Flow file support. If you also need policy checks, add liquibase-checks as a separate dependency. To include all available extensions (BigQuery, MongoDB, Databricks, Snowflake, Couchbase, AWS, Azure, and HashiCorp Vault), use liquibase-secure-starter-all instead.

Be sure to replace these items within your POM file so it works with your specific environment.

POM file item	Replacement
`<groupId>com.example</groupId>`	Replace with your organization
`<artifactId>demo-commercial</artifactId>`	Replace with your project name
`<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>`	Replace with your version
`<name>demo-commercial</name>`	Replace with your project name
`<description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>`	Replace with your description
`<java.version>25</java.version>`	Replace with your Java version
`<groupId>com.h2database</groupId>`	Replace with your database
`<artifactId>h2</artifactId>`	Replace with your driver
`<version>3.5.7</version>`	You may need to match your existing Spring Boot version

Example POM file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
       <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
       <version>3.5.7</version>
       <relativePath/>
    </parent>
    <groupId>com.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>demo-commercial</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>demo-commercial</name>
    <description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
    <properties>
       <java.version>25</java.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
       <dependency>
          <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
          <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
          <groupId>com.liquibase</groupId>
          <artifactId>liquibase-secure-starter</artifactId>
          <version>5.1.0</version>
       </dependency>

       <dependency>
          <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
          <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
          <scope>runtime</scope>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
          <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
          <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
          <scope>test</scope>
       </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
       <plugins>
          <plugin>
             <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
             <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
          </plugin>
       </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

Save your flow file in your Spring project

We recommend storing the file in the same location you would store your changelog.

Example:

Displays the database, changelog, flow, and database migration save logic locations.

Add this code to your Spring application.properties file.

Configure your application.properties file within Spring to recognize the Liquibase Flow file.

spring.liquibase.defaults-file=classpath:/path/to/liquibase.properties
spring.liquibase.command.flow-file=classpath:/path/to/flowfile.yaml 

spring.liquibase.license-key=<liquibase-license-key>

Configure your database connection

Ensure your liquibase.properties file contains your connection credentials that the Flow file will use.

liquibase.command.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/mydb
liquibase.command.username=myuser
liquibase.command.password=mypassword
liquibase.command.driver=org.postgresql.Driver

Now that your project is configured, start the Spring Boot application using Maven

The application will compile and launch, making the Liquibase integration available.

mvn spring-boot:run

Results

Spring can now use all Liquibase Flow file functionality.

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