All DB access lives in one place
One mistake I see in backend codebases: ORM queries scattered everywhere. Controllers query the DB. Services query the DB. Helpers query the DB. The little cron job queries the DB. Change one column and you're grep-ing the whole repo, praying you found every query that touches it. Soon your database logic is impossible to track — and nobody can tell you where a value actually gets read or…
Backend codebases often suffer from scattered ORM queries, making it challenging to track database logic and update schema changes. One solution is to adopt a repository layer pattern, where all database access resides in one place. Controllers interact with the repository, avoiding direct ORM manipulation. Schema knowledge, such as joins, filters, and transaction boundaries, is centralized within entity-specific modules.
This approach offers cleaner code, safer schema modifications, and a clear test seam for mocking. By adhering to the rule of no raw ORM calls outside the repository, developers can maintain a consistent and manageable database access pattern.
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