Use Flow files with Spring

Last updated: March 25, 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:

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.