Michael Christofides
@michristofides.com
Half of the team behind @pgmustard.com and (a different) half of the team behind Postgres FM
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Our Read Efficiency tips are now more efficient to read!
π Better wording, mostly for clarity
π¬ More specific to the scan type, and therefore shorter in most cases
π Improved scoring, especially for Bitmap Heap Scans
More details: www.pgmustard.com/changelog
π Better wording, mostly for clarity
π¬ More specific to the scan type, and therefore shorter in most cases
π Improved scoring, especially for Bitmap Heap Scans
More details: www.pgmustard.com/changelog
January 20, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Our Read Efficiency tips are now more efficient to read!
π Better wording, mostly for clarity
π¬ More specific to the scan type, and therefore shorter in most cases
π Improved scoring, especially for Bitmap Heap Scans
More details: www.pgmustard.com/changelog
π Better wording, mostly for clarity
π¬ More specific to the scan type, and therefore shorter in most cases
π Improved scoring, especially for Bitmap Heap Scans
More details: www.pgmustard.com/changelog
If you have any Postgres performance issues, I'd love to hear about them and try to help: pgmustard.com/office-hours
Office hours - pgMustard
For January, Iβm offering a private free call (up to 1 hour) to discus anything Postgres performance related.
pgmustard.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:49 PM
If you have any Postgres performance issues, I'd love to hear about them and try to help: pgmustard.com/office-hours
Have you seen Tomas Vondraβs efforts in this area? m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Cn...
Tomas Vondra - Performance Archaeology (PGConf.EU 2024)
YouTube video by PostgreSQL Europe
m.youtube.com
December 24, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Have you seen Tomas Vondraβs efforts in this area? m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Cn...
Very cool! If you start a label, can I suggest Nusiic Records?
December 23, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Very cool! If you start a label, can I suggest Nusiic Records?
Is that a feature or a bug?
December 12, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Is that a feature or a bug?
Cool, would be great to hear how it goes! A couple of new options I hadnβt heard of til lately are Apache Cloudberry and pg_lake. Itβs cool to see such different implementation efforts, Iβm curious to see which of all the options prove popular longer term
December 4, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Cool, would be great to hear how it goes! A couple of new options I hadnβt heard of til lately are Apache Cloudberry and pg_lake. Itβs cool to see such different implementation efforts, Iβm curious to see which of all the options prove popular longer term
Hello! I don't always ask, but I the ones I've seen at that scale have mostly (all?) been sharded... does that count? There's a bunch of Postgres forks/extensions in this space at the moment (I know of them, but haven't tried most). Do you already have a shortlist of options?
December 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Hello! I don't always ask, but I the ones I've seen at that scale have mostly (all?) been sharded... does that count? There's a bunch of Postgres forks/extensions in this space at the moment (I know of them, but haven't tried most). Do you already have a shortlist of options?
Reposted by Michael Christofides
We've revamped our "Operation on Disk" tips β¨
* Made them clearer
* Made them more succinct (in most cases)
* Improved the scoring
* Mention hash_mem_multiplier (when relevant)
* Show "Operation in Memory" in more cases, with the memory used
* Updated the linked blog post
* Made them clearer
* Made them more succinct (in most cases)
* Improved the scoring
* Mention hash_mem_multiplier (when relevant)
* Show "Operation in Memory" in more cases, with the memory used
* Updated the linked blog post
November 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
We've revamped our "Operation on Disk" tips β¨
* Made them clearer
* Made them more succinct (in most cases)
* Improved the scoring
* Mention hash_mem_multiplier (when relevant)
* Show "Operation in Memory" in more cases, with the memory used
* Updated the linked blog post
* Made them clearer
* Made them more succinct (in most cases)
* Improved the scoring
* Mention hash_mem_multiplier (when relevant)
* Show "Operation in Memory" in more cases, with the memory used
* Updated the linked blog post
Iβm a heavy user of Things and a big fan of it! Recurring tasks have nice flexibility, you can choose either βevery Xβ, or βY after the last one was completedβ.
Their reminders work well for me, but are only time based (some apps have location based reminders too).
Also no shared lists in Things
Their reminders work well for me, but are only time based (some apps have location based reminders too).
Also no shared lists in Things
November 21, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Iβm a heavy user of Things and a big fan of it! Recurring tasks have nice flexibility, you can choose either βevery Xβ, or βY after the last one was completedβ.
Their reminders work well for me, but are only time based (some apps have location based reminders too).
Also no shared lists in Things
Their reminders work well for me, but are only time based (some apps have location based reminders too).
Also no shared lists in Things
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Big performance problems π€ tiny CS tricks
Our latest blog breaks down how bloom filters helped us take an API from 5s to 0.3s - even with millions of alerts in play.
If youβre fighting slow queries or Postgres under pressure, this oneβs worth a look: go.incident.io/r9jgcI9
Our latest blog breaks down how bloom filters helped us take an API from 5s to 0.3s - even with millions of alerts in play.
If youβre fighting slow queries or Postgres under pressure, this oneβs worth a look: go.incident.io/r9jgcI9
November 17, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Big performance problems π€ tiny CS tricks
Our latest blog breaks down how bloom filters helped us take an API from 5s to 0.3s - even with millions of alerts in play.
If youβre fighting slow queries or Postgres under pressure, this oneβs worth a look: go.incident.io/r9jgcI9
Our latest blog breaks down how bloom filters helped us take an API from 5s to 0.3s - even with millions of alerts in play.
If youβre fighting slow queries or Postgres under pressure, this oneβs worth a look: go.incident.io/r9jgcI9
Reposted by Michael Christofides
November 14, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Explain is a powerful tool in Postgres.
If you care about performance, get comfortable running `explain` and `explain analyze` commands regularly, and learn how to interpret its output.
This blog is a great intro.
www.depesz.com/2013/04/16/e...
If you care about performance, get comfortable running `explain` and `explain analyze` commands regularly, and learn how to interpret its output.
This blog is a great intro.
www.depesz.com/2013/04/16/e...
November 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Explain is a powerful tool in Postgres.
If you care about performance, get comfortable running `explain` and `explain analyze` commands regularly, and learn how to interpret its output.
This blog is a great intro.
www.depesz.com/2013/04/16/e...
If you care about performance, get comfortable running `explain` and `explain analyze` commands regularly, and learn how to interpret its output.
This blog is a great intro.
www.depesz.com/2013/04/16/e...
Reposted by Michael Christofides
I'm not sure @ankane.bsky.social is human - maybe some kind of open source being from the future π
I said to a colleague - "we'll see, but it's ankane, so it's entirely possible it'll get done soon". Less than an hour later, it was updated π€―
I said to a colleague - "we'll see, but it's ankane, so it's entirely possible it'll get done soon". Less than an hour later, it was updated π€―
November 12, 2025 at 1:18 AM
I'm not sure @ankane.bsky.social is human - maybe some kind of open source being from the future π
I said to a colleague - "we'll see, but it's ankane, so it's entirely possible it'll get done soon". Less than an hour later, it was updated π€―
I said to a colleague - "we'll see, but it's ankane, so it's entirely possible it'll get done soon". Less than an hour later, it was updated π€―
Reposted by Michael Christofides
New blog post: "What do the new Index Searches lines in EXPLAIN mean?"
In Postgres 18 you'll start seeing things like "Index Searches: 1" on each of your index scans. We looked into what they mean, and how that information can be helpful.
www.pgmustard.com/blog/what-do...
In Postgres 18 you'll start seeing things like "Index Searches: 1" on each of your index scans. We looked into what they mean, and how that information can be helpful.
www.pgmustard.com/blog/what-do...
What do the new Index Searches lines in EXPLAIN mean? - pgMustard
In Postgres 18 youβll now see βIndex Searchesβ lines in EXPLAIN ANALYZE output. If like me you were wondering what those mean exactly, youβre in the right place.
www.pgmustard.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
New blog post: "What do the new Index Searches lines in EXPLAIN mean?"
In Postgres 18 you'll start seeing things like "Index Searches: 1" on each of your index scans. We looked into what they mean, and how that information can be helpful.
www.pgmustard.com/blog/what-do...
In Postgres 18 you'll start seeing things like "Index Searches: 1" on each of your index scans. We looked into what they mean, and how that information can be helpful.
www.pgmustard.com/blog/what-do...
Reposted by Michael Christofides
2 million indexes! Youβve gotta listen to this in context of this Gadget episode with Harry β but thatβs a wild figure! π³
postgres.fm/episodes/gad...
postgres.fm/episodes/gad...
Postgres FM | Gadget's use of Postgres
Nik and Michael are joined by Harry Brundage from Gadget to talk about their recent zero-downtime major version upgrade, how they use Postgres more generally, their dream database, and some challen...
postgres.fm
September 28, 2025 at 7:18 PM
2 million indexes! Youβve gotta listen to this in context of this Gadget episode with Harry β but thatβs a wild figure! π³
postgres.fm/episodes/gad...
postgres.fm/episodes/gad...
Hello! I really like pg_stat_statements, then you can look into your queries by all sorts of metrics (eg for read heavy workloads, ordering by total_exec_time is a good starting point). Then I like to run EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, etc) on the worst offender(s) to look for optimizations
September 24, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Hello! I really like pg_stat_statements, then you can look into your queries by all sorts of metrics (eg for read heavy workloads, ordering by total_exec_time is a good starting point). Then I like to run EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, etc) on the worst offender(s) to look for optimizations
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Sometimes the trick to optimizing database queries is simple: Don't do stupid stuff.
August 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Sometimes the trick to optimizing database queries is simple: Don't do stupid stuff.
I'm a bit out of date on the SQL Server side of things, but with Postgres have you already tried turning on track_io_timing and using more of the EXPLAIN parameters?
For example:
set track_io_timing = on;
explain (analyze, buffers, verbose, settings, wal) ...
For example:
set track_io_timing = on;
explain (analyze, buffers, verbose, settings, wal) ...
September 3, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I'm a bit out of date on the SQL Server side of things, but with Postgres have you already tried turning on track_io_timing and using more of the EXPLAIN parameters?
For example:
set track_io_timing = on;
explain (analyze, buffers, verbose, settings, wal) ...
For example:
set track_io_timing = on;
explain (analyze, buffers, verbose, settings, wal) ...
Reposted by Michael Christofides
The upcoming Postgres 18 is set to include some nice improvements to EXPLAIN:
* BUFFERS on by default with ANALYZE π
* Fractional "actual rows" (huge in some cases)
* Quite a few new fields (including the very cool Index Searches)
We've now added support for all of them. π
* BUFFERS on by default with ANALYZE π
* Fractional "actual rows" (huge in some cases)
* Quite a few new fields (including the very cool Index Searches)
We've now added support for all of them. π
August 20, 2025 at 2:40 PM
The upcoming Postgres 18 is set to include some nice improvements to EXPLAIN:
* BUFFERS on by default with ANALYZE π
* Fractional "actual rows" (huge in some cases)
* Quite a few new fields (including the very cool Index Searches)
We've now added support for all of them. π
* BUFFERS on by default with ANALYZE π
* Fractional "actual rows" (huge in some cases)
* Quite a few new fields (including the very cool Index Searches)
We've now added support for all of them. π
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Amazing post on making Postgres slower (yes, slower!) on purpose. byteofdev.com/posts/making... #postgres #postgresql Favorite bit: "random_page_cost = 1e300" LOL! Well done
Making Postgres 42,000x slower because I am unemployed
As an respectable unemployed person must do, I tried to make Postgres as slow as possible
byteofdev.com
July 28, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Amazing post on making Postgres slower (yes, slower!) on purpose. byteofdev.com/posts/making... #postgres #postgresql Favorite bit: "random_page_cost = 1e300" LOL! Well done
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Really non-trivial case with MultiXacts and brilliant RCA and level of transparency from the Metronome team β great example of what to do with new types of #PostgreSQL incidents!
enjoyed discussion a lot! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KoP...
enjoyed discussion a lot! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KoP...
MultiXact member space exhaustion | Postgres.FM 151 | #PostgreSQL #Postgres podcast
YouTube video by PostgresTV
www.youtube.com
July 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Really non-trivial case with MultiXacts and brilliant RCA and level of transparency from the Metronome team β great example of what to do with new types of #PostgreSQL incidents!
enjoyed discussion a lot! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KoP...
enjoyed discussion a lot! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KoP...
Reposted by Michael Christofides
PostgresFM with Sugu, co-creator of Vitess, originally created to shard MySQL in YouTube, and then used by GitHub, Pinterest, Slack, Shopify, etc. Discussed his work at Supabase on Multigres, sharding for PostgreSQL. Enjoyed a lot!! Take it to a long hike or drive: youtu.be/KOepJivmWTg?...
Multigres | Postgres.FM 150 | #PostgreSQL #Postgres podcast
YouTube video by PostgresTV
youtu.be
July 11, 2025 at 4:13 PM
PostgresFM with Sugu, co-creator of Vitess, originally created to shard MySQL in YouTube, and then used by GitHub, Pinterest, Slack, Shopify, etc. Discussed his work at Supabase on Multigres, sharding for PostgreSQL. Enjoyed a lot!! Take it to a long hike or drive: youtu.be/KOepJivmWTg?...
Reposted by Michael Christofides
3 years of PostgresFM π₯³
And now, @michristofides.com being back from 2-week break, and we've recorded our 150th episode
A very interesting one, don't miss -- this Friday
And now, @michristofides.com being back from 2-week break, and we've recorded our 150th episode
A very interesting one, don't miss -- this Friday
July 9, 2025 at 1:32 AM
3 years of PostgresFM π₯³
And now, @michristofides.com being back from 2-week break, and we've recorded our 150th episode
A very interesting one, don't miss -- this Friday
And now, @michristofides.com being back from 2-week break, and we've recorded our 150th episode
A very interesting one, don't miss -- this Friday
Reposted by Michael Christofides
Postgres Meetup for All tomorrow www.meetup.com/postgres-mee...
July 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Postgres Meetup for All tomorrow www.meetup.com/postgres-mee...