uuid-primary-keys
UUID Primary Keys for Rails
Implement UUID primary keys correctly in Rails — PostgreSQL native or SQLite binary storage, with UUIDv7 and optional base36 encoding.
Decision: UUIDv7 Over UUIDv4
Always recommend UUIDv7. It's time-ordered, sortable, and has better index performance than UUIDv4. Ruby 3.3+ ships SecureRandom.uuid_v7 — no gems needed.
| Feature | Auto-increment | UUIDv4 | UUIDv7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sortable by time | Yes | No | Yes |
| Index performance | Best | Poor (random) | Good (sequential) |
| Collision risk | Impossible | Very low | Very low |
| Externally guessable | Yes | No | No |
| Merge-safe | No | Yes | Yes |
Use UUIDs when: IDs appear in URLs, APIs, or multi-database sync. Use integers when: internal-only tables with no exposure.
Two Approaches
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