Repair/Prune a base¶

SeaTable provides a repair function that fixes typical structural problems with a base and prunes unused data.

What does it do?¶

The repair function performs the following operations:

• Ensures structural integrity: every table must have a column with the ID 0000 (the first column)
• Removes orphaned data: rows and views without a valid ID are deleted
• Prunes deleted columns: removes the values of deleted columns from the JSON object

The pruning step can free up significant space. When you delete a column in SeaTable, only the column definition is removed immediately — the actual column values remain in the JSON object. Over time, this can cause the base to approach the 200MB size limit. The repair function cleans up this leftover data.

When to use it¶

• A base is approaching the 200MB size limit
• A base shows unexpected behavior (missing first column, phantom rows)
• After deleting many columns with large datasets
• As a maintenance step for long-lived bases with frequent schema changes

Usage¶

There are two ways to trigger the repair function.

Option 1: System Admin Web UI¶

System administrators can repair a base directly from the web interface:

1. Log in as system administrator
2. Navigate to the System Admin area
3. Open Bases and find the affected base
4. Click the three-dot menu of the base and select Repair

Option 2: Command line¶

For the command line execution you need the base_uuid, which you can find in the URL when opening the base in the browser.

docker exec -it seatable-server bash
cd /templates
seatable.sh python-env /opt/seatable/seatable-server-latest/dtable-web/manage.py repair_base <base_uuid>