database-ops

Use BEFORE the first read or write against any non-local database, however small: a SELECT against production, any SQL run by hand, a single-row lookup, a support investigation touching live rows, a data fix, a schema or migration check, an export, or writing up what was done afterwards. Covers reading the prior cases first, the host-and-credential step (secret store, read or write), the dry-run-and-approval gate on every INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, the dated case folder recording the exact query and its observed output, host identity verification, and what is kept or deleted when the work is finished. MANDATORY, never optional — "quick lookup", "obvious fix", "just a SELECT", or "it is read-only anyway" is the exact trap: those are the queries that reach production with no record and an unverified host. If the task touches live or production data at all, load this FIRST. Requires database-mapping before any operation that needs to know which table holds what.