Key Remapping

Replacing names and emails is not always enough. A production primary key can still identify a person if the same ID appears in logs, URLs, exports, support tickets, or external systems.

Key remapping replaces primary-key values before they reach the target and rewrites declared foreign keys to the new values.

Example

tables:
  users:
    rows:
      strategy: full
    columns:
      id:
        strategy: remapping
        arguments:
          - use: random_integer
          - foreign_keys:
              - table: orders
                column: user_id
              - table: employees
                column: manager_id
                self_referential: true
      email:
        strategy: fake
        faker_method: safeEmail
        faker_arguments: []

In this example, users.id receives new random values. orders.user_id and employees.manager_id are rewritten to point to the new IDs.

Why it matters

Key remapping helps keep the relational graph intact while reducing the risk of correlating target records back to production identifiers.

Large databases

For large mappings, use file-based mapping storage:

clonio cloning:run production.cloning.yaml --target staging --file-based

If memory is acceptable and PHP's memory limit is the blocker:

clonio cloning:run production.cloning.yaml --target staging --no-memory-limit