Django database migrations best practices

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Migrations track database schema changes. I use makemigrations after model changes and review generated migrations. For data migrations, I create empty migrations with makemigrations --empty and write RunPython operations. I test migrations on dev data before production. For reversibility, I implement reverse() functions. I squash old migrations periodically to reduce count. In team environments, I coordinate migrations to avoid conflicts. For zero-downtime deployments, I split destructive changes across releases. This keeps database schema in sync with code safely.