Data Model Selector

When to Use

You are designing a new system or evaluating an existing one and need to decide how to structure your data: relational tables with joins, self-contained documents with nested structure, or a graph of vertices and edges.

This skill applies when:

• You are choosing a data model before picking a specific database product
• Your application code has become complex managing joins or object-relational translation
• You have data with heterogeneous structure or schema requirements that vary per record
• You are seeing many-to-many relationships proliferating and are unsure whether relational or graph is the right solution
• You want to document the trade-off rationale for an architecture decision record

This skill selects the model, not the product. Once you have a recommendation, proceed to product selection based on operational requirements (replication, consistency guarantees, operational complexity). For storage engine decisions within your chosen model, see storage-engine-selector. For partitioning strategy once you have a model and product, see partitioning-strategy-advisor.

Context & Input Gathering