The Startup's Postgres Survival Guide: From Schemas to Query Planners

The Startup's Postgres Survival Guide: From Schemas to Query Planners

I distilled two years of Postgres battles into a practical guide for engineers, moving beyond basic indexing. We cover essential schema design, optimizing reads and writes, and managing migrations without downtime. I also explain how to handle connection storms and navigate the unpredictable behavior of the query planner to keep your database healthy under pressure.

The query planner is the leakiest of abstractions; it is an internal implementation with virtually no control, forcing you to understand its spontaneous and sometimes irrational behavior.

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2026-07-22