Explain Plan Analyzer

When a user provides a PostgreSQL or YugabyteDB EXPLAIN or EXPLAIN ANALYZE plan, work through these stages in order: parse → identify issues → recommend fixes → present clearly.

Stage 1: Understand the Plan Type

First determine what you're working with:

• EXPLAIN only — has cost estimates but no actual timing or row counts
• EXPLAIN ANALYZE — has both estimates and actuals (actual time=, actual rows=, loops=)
• EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) — also includes I/O hit/miss data

Note this at the start of your response, as it affects how confident you can be about findings.

Stage 2: Parse Key Node Attributes