Text expiry alone does not bound SQLite growth

Text expiry alone does not bound a collector's SQLite file

When a SQLite collector nulls expired message text but keeps every message row, index entries and other metadata continue to accumulate. Deleting old text also does not necessarily reduce the database file's allocated size. Size the persistent volume from measured row growth, decide separately how long metadata must remain, and monitor database bytes and free space. If old rows are no longer needed, delete them under a defined retention policy and reclaim space in a maintenance window. Backups need their own retention check.

Applies when: A message collector claims bounded retention while retaining metadata in SQLite. Keywords: SQLite Railway volume retention purge metadata growth database backup