diff --git a/src/migrations/00_encoding_contract.lua b/src/migrations/00_encoding_contract.lua
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d02023
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/migrations/00_encoding_contract.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+-- The engine stores text; a Postgres database that is not UTF8 rejects every
+-- non-ASCII byte at write time, poisoning whole commit batches long after
+-- install. The contract is asserted first and loudly: a misprovisioned
+-- database refuses to migrate. SQLite stores byte sequences verbatim.
+
+return require("migration").define(function()
+    migration("database encoding is UTF8", function()
+        database("postgres", function()
+            up(function(db)
+                local rows = db:query(
+                    "SELECT pg_encoding_to_char(encoding) AS enc FROM pg_database WHERE datname = current_database()")
+                local enc = type(rows) == "table" and rows[1] and tostring(rows[1].enc) or "unknown"
+                if enc ~= "UTF8" then
+                    error("database encoding is " .. enc .. "; dataflow requires UTF8 — " ..
+                        "recreate the database with ENCODING 'UTF8' (TEMPLATE template0) before installing")
+                end
+            end)
+            down(function(_db) end)
+        end)
+
+        database("sqlite", function()
+            up(function(_db) end)
+            down(function(_db) end)
+        end)
+    end)
+end)
diff --git a/src/migrations/_index.yaml b/src/migrations/_index.yaml
index 4bc19d4..1fc6aed 100644
--- a/src/migrations/_index.yaml
+++ b/src/migrations/_index.yaml
@@ -2,6 +2,21 @@ version: "1.0"
 namespace: userspace.dataflow.migrations
 
 entries:
+  # userspace.dataflow.migrations:00_encoding_contract
+  - name: 00_encoding_contract
+    kind: function.lua
+    meta:
+      type: migration
+      tags: [dataflows, encoding, contract]
+      description: The database encoding contract — Postgres must be UTF8
+      depends_on: [ns:wippy.migration]
+      target_db: app:db
+      timestamp: "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
+    source: file://00_encoding_contract.lua
+    imports:
+      migration: wippy.migration:migration
+    method: migrate
+
   # userspace.dataflow.migrations:01_create_dataflows_table
   - name: 01_create_dataflows_table
     kind: function.lua