diff --git a/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml b/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
index 8c714945e..d21d0a681 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
@@ -96,6 +96,23 @@ jobs:
             exit 1
           fi
 
+  validate-migrations:
+    name: Validate DB migrations
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+      # Refresh the base branch so the check compares against its CURRENT tip,
+      # not the (possibly stale) commit the PR was opened against.
+      - name: Fetch latest base branch
+        run: git fetch --no-tags origin "+refs/heads/${{ github.event.pull_request.base.ref }}:refs/remotes/origin/${{ github.event.pull_request.base.ref }}"
+      - name: Validate migration ordering and naming
+        env:
+          BASE_REF: origin/${{ github.event.pull_request.base.ref }}
+        run: ./.github/workflows/validate-migrations.sh
+
   go:
     name: Test Go code
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -257,7 +274,11 @@ jobs:
 
   build:
     name: Build
-    needs: [js, go, go-windows, go-lint, i18n-lint, git-version, check-push-enabled]
+    needs: [js, go, go-windows, go-lint, i18n-lint, git-version, check-push-enabled, validate-migrations]
+    # validate-migrations only runs on pull_request, so it is "skipped" on push/tag
+    # builds. Run Build unless a dependency actually failed — a *skipped* dependency
+    # (the migration check on non-PR events) must not block release builds.
+    if: ${{ !cancelled() && !failure() }}
     strategy:
       matrix:
         platform: [ linux/amd64, linux/arm64, linux/arm/v5, linux/arm/v6, linux/arm/v7, linux/386, linux/riscv64, darwin/amd64, darwin/arm64, windows/amd64, windows/386 ]
diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate-migrations.sh b/.github/workflows/validate-migrations.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..07d05c3a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate-migrations.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Validates DB migrations added by a pull request:
+#   1. Ordering  - an added migration must be NEWER than the latest migration
+#                  already on the base branch. Goose applies migrations in
+#                  timestamp order, so an older-timestamped migration would be
+#                  silently skipped on databases already upgraded past it.
+#   2. Uniqueness - no two migration files may share a timestamp.
+#   3. Naming     - files must match YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_lower_snake_name.(sql|go).
+#
+# On failure it prints a human-readable message and, when running in GitHub
+# Actions, emits an error annotation bound to the offending file so the message
+# also renders inline in the PR "Files changed" tab.
+#
+# Compares HEAD against $BASE_REF (default origin/master). Requires full history
+# (fetch-depth: 0 in CI).
+# -e is intentionally omitted: the script accumulates violations into $status
+# and must not exit on the first non-zero command (grep no-match, a false [[ ]]
+# in an if, `is_migration || continue`).
+set -uo pipefail
+export LC_ALL=C
+
+MIGRATIONS_DIR="db/migrations"
+BASE_REF="${BASE_REF:-origin/master}"
+NAME_RE='^[0-9]{14}_[a-z0-9_]+\.(sql|go)$'
+
+status=0
+
+# Log a message to stderr and mark the run as failed.
+fail() {
+  printf '%s\n' "$1" >&2
+  status=1
+}
+
+# Emit a GitHub Actions error annotation bound to a file, so the message renders
+# inline on the offending migration in the PR "Files changed" tab. No-op outside
+# CI. `%`, newline and CR are encoded as required by the workflow-command syntax
+# (the `%` replacement must run first so the encodings we add aren't re-escaped).
+annotate() { # $1=file  $2=message
+  [ "${GITHUB_ACTIONS:-}" = "true" ] || return 0
+  local msg="$2"
+  msg="${msg//'%'/%25}"
+  msg="${msg//$'\n'/%0A}"
+  msg="${msg//$'\r'/%0D}"
+  printf '::error file=%s,line=1::%s\n' "$1" "$msg"
+}
+
+# Report a migration problem: log it, annotate the offending file, mark failed.
+report() { # $1=file  $2=message
+  fail "$2"
+  printf '\n' >&2
+  annotate "$1" "$2"
+}
+
+human_ts() {
+  local t="$1"
+  printf '%s-%s-%s %s:%s:%s' "${t:0:4}" "${t:4:2}" "${t:6:2}" "${t:8:2}" "${t:10:2}" "${t:12:2}"
+}
+
+is_migration() { # $1=basename -> 0 if a .sql/.go file with a 14-digit prefix
+  local b="$1"
+  case "$b" in
+    *.sql | *.go) ;;
+    *) return 1 ;;
+  esac
+  [[ "${b%%_*}" =~ ^[0-9]{14}$ ]]
+}
+
+if ! git rev-parse --verify --quiet "$BASE_REF" >/dev/null; then
+  printf '❌ Cannot resolve base ref "%s". In CI, check out with fetch-depth: 0.\n' "$BASE_REF" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# --- Newest timestamp already on the base branch ---
+base_max=""
+base_max_file=""
+while IFS= read -r f; do
+  [ -z "$f" ] && continue
+  b="$(basename "$f")"
+  is_migration "$b" || continue
+  ts="${b%%_*}"
+  if [[ "$ts" > "$base_max" ]]; then
+    base_max="$ts"
+    base_max_file="$f"
+  fi
+done < <(git ls-tree -r --name-only "$BASE_REF" -- "$MIGRATIONS_DIR" 2>/dev/null)
+
+# --- Ordering + naming on files added by this PR ---
+while IFS= read -r f; do
+  [ -z "$f" ] && continue
+  b="$(basename "$f")"
+  case "$b" in
+    *.sql) ;;                                  # any .sql in this dir must be a migration
+    *.go) [[ "$b" == [0-9]* ]] || continue ;;  # non-timestamped .go = helper (e.g. migration.go), skip
+    *) continue ;;
+  esac
+  if [ "${f%/*}" != "$MIGRATIONS_DIR" ]; then
+    report "$f" "❌ Migration file in a subdirectory: $f
+   Migrations must live directly in $MIGRATIONS_DIR/ — only $MIGRATIONS_DIR/*.sql (and
+   top-level .go migrations) are embedded, so a nested file would be SILENTLY SKIPPED.
+   Move it to $MIGRATIONS_DIR/$b."
+    continue
+  fi
+  if ! [[ "$b" =~ $NAME_RE ]]; then
+    report "$f" "❌ Malformed migration filename: $f
+   Expected YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_lower_snake_name.(sql|go); the name segment must be lowercase.
+   Regenerate with: make migration-sql name=<description>  (or make migration-go name=<description>)"
+    continue
+  fi
+  ts="${b%%_*}"
+  if [[ -n "$base_max" ]] && ! [[ "$ts" > "$base_max" ]]; then
+    report "$f" "❌ Migration ordering error: $f ($(human_ts "$ts"))
+   is older than (or equal to) the newest migration already on ${BASE_REF#origin/}:
+   $base_max_file ($(human_ts "$base_max"))
+
+   Goose applies migrations in timestamp order, so databases already upgraded
+   past that point would SILENTLY SKIP your migration.
+
+   Fix: regenerate it with a current timestamp:
+     make migration-sql name=<description>   (or make migration-go name=<description>)
+   then move your SQL/Go body into the new file and delete the old one."
+  fi
+done < <(git diff --diff-filter=A --name-only "$BASE_REF"...HEAD -- "$MIGRATIONS_DIR" 2>/dev/null)
+
+# --- Duplicate timestamps across the merged set (HEAD) ---
+all_migs="$(git ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD -- "$MIGRATIONS_DIR" 2>/dev/null)"
+dups="$(printf '%s\n' "$all_migs" | while IFS= read -r f; do
+  b="$(basename "$f")"
+  is_migration "$b" || continue
+  printf '%s\n' "${b%%_*}"
+done | sort | uniq -d)"
+if [ -n "$dups" ]; then
+  while IFS= read -r ts; do
+    [ -z "$ts" ] && continue
+    colliding="$(printf '%s\n' "$all_migs" | grep "/${ts}_" || true)"
+    printf '❌ Duplicate migration timestamp %s used by multiple files:\n' "$ts" >&2
+    while IFS= read -r cf; do
+      [ -z "$cf" ] && continue
+      printf '   %s\n' "$cf" >&2
+      annotate "$cf" "Duplicate migration timestamp $ts — shared by another migration. Timestamps must be unique; regenerate one with make migration-*."
+    done <<< "$colliding"
+    printf '   Every migration needs a unique timestamp. Regenerate one with make migration-*.\n' >&2
+    status=1
+  done <<< "$dups"
+fi
+
+if [ "$status" -eq 0 ]; then
+  echo "✅ DB migrations OK (ordering, uniqueness, naming)."
+fi
+exit "$status"