When changing the identity schema in Ory, you need to ensure that existing identities are updated to match the new schema. The migration process involves updating each identity’s schema ID and traits to conform to the new schema. Here’s how you can run such a migration: 1. Update the Project’s Active Schema Change the active schema for your project using the Ory Console or CLI. This will only affect new identities; existing identities will still use the old schema until migrated. 2. List Existing Identities Retrieve all identities in your project:

ory list identities --format json-pretty

3. Patch Each Identity to the New Schema For each identity, update the

schema_id

and adjust the

traits

as needed to match the new schema. This can be done using the [patchIdentity API](https://www.ory.sh/docs/reference/api#tag/identity/operation/patchIdentity). Here’s an example using cURL:

curl --location --request PATCH "https://$<http://ORY_SLUG.projects.oryapis.com/admin/identities/$IDENTITY_ID|ORY_SLUG.projects.oryapis.com/admin/identities/$IDENTITY_ID>" \    --header "Authorization: Bearer $ORY_API_KEY" \    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \    --data-raw '[      {        "op": "replace",        "path": "/schema_id",        "value": "{new-schema-id}"      },      {        "op": "remove",        "path": "/traits/foo"      },      {        "op": "add",        "path": "/traits/bar",        "value": "barfoo"      }    ]'

Repeat this for each identity that needs to be migrated. 4. (Optional) Bulk Update with SDK You can automate this process using the Ory SDKs. Here’s a Go example that checks and updates the schema for a single identity:

go    // ... (see full code in the knowledge source)    _, _, err = ory.IdentityApi.PatchIdentity(ctx, identityID).JsonPatch(jsonPatch).Execute()

This approach can be extended to process all identities in a loop. 5. Verify Migration After patching, verify that each identity’s

schema_id

matches the new schema and that their traits conform to the new requirements. Note: - Identity schemas are immutable; you cannot update an existing schema, but you can create a new one and migrate identities to it. - Always assess and transform traits as needed to avoid inconsistencies. - For large migrations, consider scripting the process or using the batch API. For more details and code examples, see the official documentation on [updating identities to use a new schema](https://www.ory.sh/docs/identities/model/manage-identity-schema#update-identities-to-use-a-new-schema) and [identity schema best practices](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/manage-identities/best-practices)