Reference
Version · 6.0
Change Automation Reference

addAutoIncrement

Last updated: August 12, 2026

Converts an existing column to be an auto-increment (a.k.a 'identity') column.

Run addAutoIncrement

To run this Change Type, follow these steps:

Add the Change Type to your changeset, as shown in the examples on this page.
Specify any required attributes. Use the table on this page to see which ones your database requires.
Deploy your changeset by running the updatecommand: liquibase update

Available attributes

Attribute	Description	Required for	Supports
`catalogName`	Name of the catalog	--	all
`columnDataType`	Data type of the column. To help make scripts database-independent, Liquibase automatically converts the following generic data types to the correct database implementation: `BIGINT`, `BLOB`, `BOOLEAN`, `CHAR`, `CLOB`, `CURRENCY`, `DATE`, `DATETIME`, `DECIMAL`, `DOUBLE`, `FLOAT`, `INT`, `MEDIUMINT`, `NCHAR`, `NUMBER`, `NVARCHAR`, `SMALLINT`, `TIME`, `TIMESTAMP`, `TINYINT`, `UUID`, `VARCHAR`, `XML`. Also, specifying a `java.sql.Types.` type is converted to the correct type as well. For example: `java.sql.Types.TIMESTAMP` `java.sql.Types.VARCHAR(255)` For Snowflake, Liquibase also implements `BINARY`, `TIME`, and `TIMESTAMP_NTZ`. For Databricks, Liquibase also implements `ARRAY<INT>` and `ARRAY<STRING>`, `MAP`, and `STRUCT` variable types. Note:* To specify a complex Databricks type like `ARRAY<STRING>` in an XML changelog, you must specify the escape sequences `<` and `>` rather than `<` and `>`. See `createTable`. For more information, see How does Liquibase handle data types?.	asany, h2, hsqldb, informix, ingres, mariadb, mysql, sybase, unsupported	all
`columnName`	Name of the column	all	all
`defaultOnNull`	When using `generationType` of `BY DEFAULT` then `defaultOnNull=true` allows the identity to be used if the identity column is referenced, but a value of `NULL` is specified.	--	oracle
`generationType`	Type of generation in `GENERATED %s AS IDENTITY`. Default: "`\|`".	--	all
`incrementBy`	Integer amount to increment by at each call	--	all
`schemaName`	Name of the schema	--	all
`startWith`	Initial integer value of the increment	--	all
`tableName`	Name of the table	all	all

Database support

Database	Notes	Auto Rollback
DB2/LUW	Supported	No
DB2/z	Not Supported	No
Derby	Not Supported	No
Firebird	Not Supported	No
Google BigQuery	Supported	No
H2	Supported	No
HyperSQL	Supported	No
INGRES	Supported	No
Informix	Supported	No
MariaDB	Supported	No
MySQL	Supported	No
Oracle	Not Supported	No
PostgreSQL	Supported	No
Snowflake	Not Supported	No
SQL Server	Not Supported	No
SQLite	Supported: If the column type is not INTEGER it is converted to INTEGER	No
Sybase	Supported	No
Sybase Anywhere	Supported	No

addAutoIncrement examples

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset liquibase-docs:addAutoIncrement-example
ALTER TABLE cat.person MODIFY id INT AUTO_INCREMENT;  
ALTER TABLE cat.person AUTO_INCREMENT=100;

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
    id: addAutoIncrement-example
    author: liquibase-docs
    changes:
    - addAutoIncrement:
        catalogName: cat
        columnDataType: int
        columnName: id
        defaultOnNull: false
        generationType: ALWAYS
        incrementBy: 1
        schemaName: public
        startWith: 100
        tableName: person

{
    "databaseChangeLog": [
        {
            "changeSet": {
                "id": "addAutoIncrement-example",
                "author": "liquibase-docs",
                "changes": [
                    {
                        "addAutoIncrement": {
                            "catalogName": "cat",
                            "columnDataType": "int",
                            "columnName": "id",
                            "defaultOnNull": false,
                            "generationType": "ALWAYS",
                            "incrementBy": 1,
                            "schemaName": "public",
                            "startWith": 100,
                            "tableName": "person"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    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/dbchangelog-ext
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">

    <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="addAutoIncrement-example">
        <addAutoIncrement catalogName="cat"
            columnDataType="int"
            columnName="id"
            defaultOnNull="false"
            generationType="ALWAYS"
            incrementBy="1"
            schemaName="public"
            startWith="100"
            tableName="person"/>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset liquibase-docs:addAutoIncrement-example
ALTER TABLE cat.person MODIFY id INT AUTO_INCREMENT;  
ALTER TABLE cat.person AUTO_INCREMENT=100;

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
    id: addAutoIncrement-example
    author: liquibase-docs
    changes:
    - addAutoIncrement:
        catalogName: cat
        columnDataType: int
        columnName: id
        defaultOnNull: false
        generationType: ALWAYS
        incrementBy: 1
        schemaName: public
        startWith: 100
        tableName: person

{
    "databaseChangeLog": [
        {
            "changeSet": {
                "id": "addAutoIncrement-example",
                "author": "liquibase-docs",
                "changes": [
                    {
                        "addAutoIncrement": {
                            "catalogName": "cat",
                            "columnDataType": "int",
                            "columnName": "id",
                            "defaultOnNull": false,
                            "generationType": "ALWAYS",
                            "incrementBy": 1,
                            "schemaName": "public",
                            "startWith": 100,
                            "tableName": "person"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

<databaseChangeLog
    xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
    xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    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/dbchangelog-ext
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">

    <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="addAutoIncrement-example">
        <addAutoIncrement catalogName="cat"
            columnDataType="int"
            columnName="id"
            defaultOnNull="false"
            generationType="ALWAYS"
            incrementBy="1"
            schemaName="public"
            startWith="100"
            tableName="person"/>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

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addAutoIncrement

Run addAutoIncrement

Available attributes

Database support

addAutoIncrement examples

SQL example

YAML example

JSON example

XML example