✅ Short Answer
Flyway lets you undo a migration using special undo scripts — but only if you’re using Flyway Teams Edition.
In open-source Flyway, undo must be done manually (e.g., with a rollback script or by reverting migrations in Git and resetting the DB).
🔍 Flyway Teams Edition: Undo Scripts
To enable automatic rollbacks, you write U__ undo scripts that correspond to versioned migrations.
🛠️ Example
If you have this migration:
V2__add_users_table.sql
You can write this undo file:
U2__drop_users_table.sql
Content:
DROP TABLE users;
Then you can call:
flyway undo
✅ Flyway looks up the most recently applied versioned migration (V2)
✅ Finds the corresponding U2 script
✅ Executes it and removes V2 from flyway_schema_history
⚠️ Notes on Undo Scripts
- Undo is not repeatable — it’s only for the latest applied migration
- Only one version can be undone per command
- Undo does not apply to repeatable migrations (
R__)
🧱 Open Source Workarounds
If you’re using Flyway Community Edition (open-source):
- Create a manual rollback script (e.g.,
rollback.sql) - Run it manually if something goes wrong
- Or, if you’re in dev: reset the DB + clean + re-migrate:
flyway clean
flyway migrate
⚠️ flyway clean deletes all schema objects — only use in dev/test environments.
📌 Key Takeaways
✅ In Flyway Teams, use U__ scripts + flyway undo to rollback versioned migrations
❌ In Community Edition, there is no automatic undo — handle rollbacks manually
✅ Best practice: write custom rollback scripts or ensure your migrations are idempotent and safe