Couple, Too, Tree
During Boise Code Camp this past weekend, pgFirstAid hit 500 stars on Github! Honestly, I really did not think it would gain the attention it has. Not to mention, in the thick of the AI craze. Especially, when everything I start to build triggers the typical impostor syndrome responses as the barrier of entry shrinks when a kid is armed with their parent’s credit card and access to any frontier model. Yet, I feel like I have learned so much more putting this together. I am now hitting barriers that take more than a few carefully crafted prompts to your favorite agent. In fact, I am now at a point where many Postgres veterans have been before pg_stat_statements. Which, thanks to the karma of answering the question from an audience member as I gave my talk on pgFirstAid at SCALE 23x, “have you had a hard time working around the constraints of not having pg_stat_statements installed.” Which, I answered with a so-so “not yet!” Nice job past Justin; you set yourself up you sucker.
What is to come
Thank you to all that attended my talk(s) at SCALE 23 and those who came to Boise Code Camp this year. From your feedback, I have a few things to start putting together to really make pgFirstAid an even more powerful tool for the community. Here are some things that I will be exploring:
- Suggested indexes based on query plans
- Ways to integrate pgFirstAid in CI/CD
- Dare I say, a “pgFirstAid-MCP?”
- A more powerful testing harness
- MariaDB variant?
- A pgBackRest adjacent tool?
Call for feedback/contributors…maybe even trolls?
While I love making something that is all mine, pgFirstAid is a tool for everyone. If you want to get into Open Source but are discouraged by the wall of AI slop that plagues some of the larger tools in the community, pgFirstAid is waiting with open arms. We had some traffic at the start, but most of the commits are from me. It would make this tool better if it had input from people who have varying degrees of experience with Postgres. Lets use that experience and turn it into functionality. This is how Open Source works; you are empowered to make the change you want. All you have to do is make the jump.
Coder Radio 647
Recently, I joined Michael Dominick on Coder Radio episode 647 to talk about pgFirstAid. It was certainly one of those “pinch me” moments as I have listened to a fair amount of Coder Radio in the past. If you want to take a listen, you should be able to find Coder Radio through any podcast player. Additionally, you can listen directly on the site Coder Radio 647.
Overall, I am really excited for the future of pgFirstAid. Make sure to star the project to follow the progress or check back here where I should (less frequently) post about how things are doing.