From ce368dd8e0a519c85b3ed398ff235e10f53e4a47 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Allam <eric@trigger.dev>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:54:18 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] perf(database): index
 EnvironmentVariableValue.valueReferenceId so secret deletes stop seq-scanning
 (#4555)

## Why this change

`EnvironmentVariableValue.valueReference` is an `onDelete: SetNull`
foreign key. Deleting a `SecretReference` (the env var edit/delete path
for secret values) fires the cascade `UPDATE ONLY
"EnvironmentVariableValue" SET "valueReferenceId" = NULL WHERE $1 =
"valueReferenceId"`. That cascade is scan-shaped: with no index on
`valueReferenceId`, it reads the entire table to find the rows
referencing the deleted secret. The parent `SecretReference` delete does
almost no work itself; its latency is dominated by this cascade.

## Diagnosis

`EnvironmentVariableValue` was indexed on `environmentId` and
`(variableId, environmentId)`, but not on `valueReferenceId`. The SET
NULL cascade therefore did a full sequential scan of the whole table.
Two sibling SET NULL cascades on the same delete
(`OrganizationIntegration.tokenReferenceId`,
`User.mfaSecretReferenceId`) are index-backed and stay fast, which
isolates the missing index as the cause.

## Change

Add `@@index([valueReferenceId])` on `EnvironmentVariableValue`, created
with `CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY IF NOT EXISTS` so `prisma migrate
deploy` stays safe on a live table.

## Benchmark (local, seeded)

Local Postgres seeded with 1,000,000 `EnvironmentVariableValue` rows,
`EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS)` on the SET NULL cascade with zero matching
rows (the worst case: reads the whole table, affects nothing):

| | before | after |
|---|---|---|
| plan | Seq Scan (1M rows) | Bitmap Index Scan |
| execution | 183 ms | 2.8 ms |

In a variant where the secret matched several thousand rows, the parent
`SecretReference` delete's
`EnvironmentVariableValue_valueReferenceId_fkey` trigger dropped from
216 ms to 88 ms (the residual is the heap work of nulling those rows).

## Expected impact

The cascade drops from a full-table sequential scan to a targeted index
lookup. The win grows with the table, so the benefit is larger than the
seeded numbers above.

## Risks

- One extra btree to maintain on `EnvironmentVariableValue` writes;
small, single-column, and it should be pre-created before the migration
deploys (per the repo index rules).
- No behavior change: same rows nulled, no ordering or result-set
change, read paths untouched.

Companion to the same fix on `ProjectAlert.channelId`.
---
 .../environment-variable-value-reference-id-index.md        | 6 ++++++
 .../migration.sql                                           | 2 ++
 internal-packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma             | 1 +
 3 files changed, 9 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .server-changes/environment-variable-value-reference-id-index.md
 create mode 100644 internal-packages/database/prisma/migrations/20260810130000_add_environment_variable_value_reference_id_index/migration.sql

diff --git a/.server-changes/environment-variable-value-reference-id-index.md b/.server-changes/environment-variable-value-reference-id-index.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..32fee03f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.server-changes/environment-variable-value-reference-id-index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+area: webapp
+type: improvement
+---
+
+Deleting or editing a secret environment variable is now fast and no longer slows down as a project accumulates variables.
diff --git a/internal-packages/database/prisma/migrations/20260810130000_add_environment_variable_value_reference_id_index/migration.sql b/internal-packages/database/prisma/migrations/20260810130000_add_environment_variable_value_reference_id_index/migration.sql
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c69882cbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal-packages/database/prisma/migrations/20260810130000_add_environment_variable_value_reference_id_index/migration.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+-- CreateIndex
+CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY IF NOT EXISTS "EnvironmentVariableValue_valueReferenceId_idx" ON "public"."EnvironmentVariableValue"("valueReferenceId");
diff --git a/internal-packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma b/internal-packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma
index 5ce51d0db..3cf141fe0 100644
--- a/internal-packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma
+++ b/internal-packages/database/prisma/schema.prisma
@@ -2067,6 +2067,7 @@ model EnvironmentVariableValue {
 
   @@unique([variableId, environmentId])
   @@index([environmentId])
+  @@index([valueReferenceId])
 }
 
 model Checkpoint {