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+Document: WM-097                                                 P. Webb
+Category: Tutorial                                            2026-06-22
+
+                    How to migrate from Gel to Disc
+
+Abstract
+
+   The hardest part is getting your data out of Gel in a useable format,
+   the rest is easy.
+
+Body
+
+   Dumping your Gel database to a format other databases can read
+   requires arcane knowledge but don't fret, I've uncovered the
+   incantations to free your data!
+
+   ```sh
+   gel dump --all --format=dir gel-export
+   ```
+
+   You should see something like:
+
+   ```
+   Connecting to Gel instance 'INSTANCE' at localhost:PORT...
+   Starting dump for database `'DATABASE'`...
+     Finished dump for `'DATABASE'`. Total size: 181.67 KiB
+   ```
+
+   This will create `gel-export` in your current directory. Take note of
+   the instance and database names and the port as you'll need these
+   later. Next, grab the password to your database:
+
+   ```sh
+   gel instance credentials --insecure-dsn -I INSTANCE
+   ```
+
+   You should see something like:
+
+   ```
+   gel:///DATABASE?port=PORT&password=PASSWORD&tls_ca_file=%3C...%3E&tls_security=no_host_verification
+   ```
+
+   Now we can set some variables to make the last bits pseudo-legible.
+
+   ```sh
+   DSN="postgresql://edgedb@localhost:PORT/DATABASE?sslmode=require"
+   ```
+
+   ```sh
+   export PGPASSWORD="PASSWORD"
+   ```
+
+   Perform a raw SQL dump to `gel-export/data.sql`:
+
+   ```sh
+   pg_dump \
+     "$DSN" --data-only --no-owner --no-privileges \
+     > gel-export/data.sql
+   ```
+
+   We create a `.tsv` file first, without any escaping that could mangle
+   the data.
+
+   ```sh
+   psql "$DSN" -At -F $'\t' -c "
+     SELECT table_schema, table_name
+     FROM information_schema.tables
+     WHERE table_schema NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog')
+   " > gel-export/tables.tsv
+   ```
+
+   Create our final export directory:
+
+   ```sh
+   mkdir gel-export/data
+   ```
+
+   Finally, we render our `.csv`s:
+
+   ```sh
+   while IFS=$'\t' read -r schema table; do
+     out="${schema}_${table}"
+     psql "$DSN" --csv -c "SELECT * FROM \"$schema\".\"$table\"" > "gel-export/data/$out.csv"
+   done < gel-export/tables.tsv
+   ```
+
+   I'll assume you installed Disc[1] already. Great! You'll need to get
+   it setup with your schema. Run that migration!
+
+   ```sh
+   disc migrate
+   ```
+
+   Next, we'll point Disc at your fresh collection of `.csv`s:
+
+   ```sh
+   disc db import ./gel-export/data
+   ```
+
+   This SHOULD work; it didn't for me because…
+
+   ```
+   ✗ Import failed (transaction rolled back): duplicate key value violates unique constraint "log_pkey"
+   ```
+
+   …and that's irrelevant to me. Ignoring conflicts like this is okay.
+
+   ```sh
+   disc db import ./gel-export/data --on-conflict skip
+   ```
+
+   You'll get an import manifest of what was processed and skipped. For
+   me, it was abstract types and (empty) computed links.
+
+   Run `disc serve` and navigate to your database's `/ui` and you should
+   see populated objects in the Data tab.
+
+   Voila! Now all you gotta do is update your codebase…unfortunately,
+   you've gotta handle that yourself. 🕸️
+
+References
+
+   [1] <https://disc.sh>