diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/dconfig/envvars.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/dconfig/envvars.go
index 9c7d11f8e4..47552ba274 100755
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/dconfig/envvars.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/dconfig/envvars.go
@@ -49,4 +49,7 @@ const (
 	// If set, must be "kill_connections" or "session_aware"
 	// Will go away after session_aware is made default-and-only.
 	EnvGCSafepointControllerChoice = "DOLT_GC_SAFEPOINT_CONTROLLER_CHOICE"
+
+	// Used for tests. If set, Dolt will error if it would rewrite a table hash.
+	EnvAssertNoTableRewrite = "DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE"
 )
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/tables.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/tables.go
index c6ef4bba28..537f62fd5b 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/tables.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/tables.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"github.com/dolthub/dolt/go/libraries/doltcore/dconfig"
 	"io"
 	"math"
 	"os"
@@ -1725,6 +1726,9 @@ func (t *AlterableDoltTable) RewriteInserter(
 	newColumn *sql.Column,
 	idxCols []sql.IndexColumn,
 ) (sql.RowInserter, error) {
+	if _, isSet := os.LookupEnv(dconfig.EnvAssertNoTableRewrite); isSet {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("attempted to rewrite table but %s was set", dconfig.EnvAssertNoTableRewrite)
+	}
 	if err := dsess.CheckAccessForDb(ctx, t.db, branch_control.Permissions_Write); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/integration-tests/bats/schema-changes.bats b/integration-tests/bats/schema-changes.bats
index dcb41d71f7..1e35f6d793 100755
--- a/integration-tests/bats/schema-changes.bats
+++ b/integration-tests/bats/schema-changes.bats
@@ -395,3 +395,60 @@ EOF
     [ $status -eq 0 ]
     [[ $output =~ "CHECK ((\`col1\` = 'valid'))" ]] || false
 }
+
+@test "schema-changes: assert that schema changes don't rewrite the table when they don't need to" {
+  dolt sql -q "create table t (pk int primary key, e enum('a', 'b', 'c'), s set('a', 'b', 'c'), c char(10), vc varchar(10), b binary(10), vb varbinary(10));"
+  dolt sql -q "insert into t values (1, 'a', 'a,b', 'c', 'vc', 'b', 'vb');"
+  dolt commit -Am "initial"
+
+  # First check that DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE does prevent schema changes that *do* require a table rewrite.
+  # Although some of these operations don't change any rows, determining this requires an attempted rewrite that scans the table.
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column e enum('a', 'b');"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column s set('a', 'b');"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column c char(5);"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vc varchar(5);"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  # Unlike the other string types, binary requires a rewrite even when making the length longer.
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column b binary(15);"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vb varbinary(5);"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  # Changing the character set requires a rewrite.
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vc varbinary(10);"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  # Changing the character set requires a rewrite.
+  run env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vc varchar(10) collate latin1_german1_ci;"
+  [ $status -ne 0 ]
+  [[ $output =~ "attempted to rewrite table but DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE was set" ]] || false
+
+  env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column e enum('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e');"
+  env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column s set('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e');"
+  env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column c char(15);"
+  env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vc varchar(15);"
+  env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vb varbinary(15);"
+
+  # Changing the collation doesn't require a table rewrite, but it does invalidate the secondary indexes.
+  # The GMS API doesn't currently less us separate the two, so currently this causes a table rewrite, but it doesn't have to.
+  # env DOLT_REST_ASSERT_NO_TABLE_REWRITE=1 dolt sql -q "alter table t modify column vc varchar(15) collate utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci;"
+
+  # After all these schema changes, the table hash remains the same.
+  run dolt sql -r csv -q "select DOLT_HASHOF_TABLE('t') = (select DOLT_HASHOF_TABLE('t') from t as of HEAD);"
+  [[ "$output" =~ "true" ]] || false
+}
\ No newline at end of file