swapSchema

Last updated: January 27, 2026

Swaps two Snowflake schemas, exchanging all their contents and metadata. Useful for blue-green deployments or atomically switching between schema versions.

Note: Automatic rollback swaps the schemas back.

Known limitation: This change type does not support database inspection features (snapshot, diff, diff-changelog, and generate-changelog commands).

Available attributes

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
`catalogName`	String	Name of the database containing the source schema	No
`schemaName`	String	Name of the first schema to swap	Yes
`targetCatalogName`	String	Name of the database containing the target schema (cross-database)	No
`targetSchemaName`	String	Name of the second schema to swap	Yes
`ifExists`	Boolean	Don't error if the source schema doesn't exist	No

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
        xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
        xmlns:pro-snowflake="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake/liquibase-pro-snowflake-latest.xsd">

    <!-- Simple swap -->
    <changeSet id="swap-schemas" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapSchema
                schemaName="SCHEMA_BLUE"
                targetSchemaName="SCHEMA_GREEN"/>
    </changeSet>

    <!-- Swap with IF EXISTS -->
    <changeSet id="swap-schemas-if-exists" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapSchema
                schemaName="STAGING"
                targetSchemaName="PRODUCTION"
                ifExists="true"/>
    </changeSet>

    <!-- Cross-database swap -->
    <changeSet id="swap-schemas-cross-db" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapSchema
                catalogName="DEV_DB"
                schemaName="ANALYTICS"
                targetCatalogName="PROD_DB"
                targetSchemaName="ANALYTICS"/>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-schemas",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapSchema": {
              "schemaName": "SCHEMA_BLUE",
              "targetSchemaName": "SCHEMA_GREEN"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-schemas-if-exists",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapSchema": {
              "schemaName": "STAGING",
              "targetSchemaName": "PRODUCTION",
              "ifExists": true
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-schemas-cross-db",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapSchema": {
              "catalogName": "DEV_DB",
              "schemaName": "ANALYTICS",
              "targetCatalogName": "PROD_DB",
              "targetSchemaName": "ANALYTICS"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

databaseChangeLog:
  # Simple swap
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-schemas
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapSchema:
            schemaName: SCHEMA_BLUE
            targetSchemaName: SCHEMA_GREEN

  # Swap with IF EXISTS
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-schemas-if-exists
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapSchema:
            schemaName: STAGING
            targetSchemaName: PRODUCTION
            ifExists: true

  # Cross-database swap
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-schemas-cross-db
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapSchema:
            catalogName: DEV_DB
            schemaName: ANALYTICS
            targetCatalogName: PROD_DB
            targetSchemaName: ANALYTICS

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset examples:simple-swap
-- Simple swap
ALTER SCHEMA SCHEMA_BLUE SWAP WITH SCHEMA_GREEN;

--changeset examples:swap-with-if-exists
-- Swap with IF EXISTS
ALTER SCHEMA IF EXISTS STAGING SWAP WITH PRODUCTION;

--changeset examples:cross-database-swap
-- Cross-database swap
ALTER SCHEMA DEV_DB.ANALYTICS SWAP WITH PROD_DB.ANALYTICS;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
        xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
        xmlns:pro-snowflake="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake/liquibase-pro-snowflake-latest.xsd">

    <!-- Simple swap -->
    <changeSet id="swap-schemas" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapSchema
                schemaName="SCHEMA_BLUE"
                targetSchemaName="SCHEMA_GREEN"/>
    </changeSet>

    <!-- Swap with IF EXISTS -->
    <changeSet id="swap-schemas-if-exists" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapSchema
                schemaName="STAGING"
                targetSchemaName="PRODUCTION"
                ifExists="true"/>
    </changeSet>

    <!-- Cross-database swap -->
    <changeSet id="swap-schemas-cross-db" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapSchema
                catalogName="DEV_DB"
                schemaName="ANALYTICS"
                targetCatalogName="PROD_DB"
                targetSchemaName="ANALYTICS"/>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-schemas",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapSchema": {
              "schemaName": "SCHEMA_BLUE",
              "targetSchemaName": "SCHEMA_GREEN"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-schemas-if-exists",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapSchema": {
              "schemaName": "STAGING",
              "targetSchemaName": "PRODUCTION",
              "ifExists": true
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-schemas-cross-db",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapSchema": {
              "catalogName": "DEV_DB",
              "schemaName": "ANALYTICS",
              "targetCatalogName": "PROD_DB",
              "targetSchemaName": "ANALYTICS"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

databaseChangeLog:
  # Simple swap
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-schemas
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapSchema:
            schemaName: SCHEMA_BLUE
            targetSchemaName: SCHEMA_GREEN

  # Swap with IF EXISTS
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-schemas-if-exists
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapSchema:
            schemaName: STAGING
            targetSchemaName: PRODUCTION
            ifExists: true

  # Cross-database swap
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-schemas-cross-db
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapSchema:
            catalogName: DEV_DB
            schemaName: ANALYTICS
            targetCatalogName: PROD_DB
            targetSchemaName: ANALYTICS

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset examples:simple-swap
-- Simple swap
ALTER SCHEMA SCHEMA_BLUE SWAP WITH SCHEMA_GREEN;

--changeset examples:swap-with-if-exists
-- Swap with IF EXISTS
ALTER SCHEMA IF EXISTS STAGING SWAP WITH PRODUCTION;

--changeset examples:cross-database-swap
-- Cross-database swap
ALTER SCHEMA DEV_DB.ANALYTICS SWAP WITH PROD_DB.ANALYTICS;

swapSchema

Available attributes

XML example

JSON example

YAML example

SQL example

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