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+# Table Partitioning Runbook
+
+The indexer's three append-heavy tables — `transactions`, `logs`,
+`token_transfers` — grow unbounded with chain height. At ~50M+ rows
+each, query plans degrade in ways the existing single-column indexes
+can't fully mitigate (sequential scans on selective filters, autovacuum
+falling behind, page cache misses on cold partitions).
+
+This doc captures the partitioning strategy + the migration recipe.
+**Nothing here is auto-applied** — partitioning is a one-shot data
+migration with a brief read-only window, so the operator runs it
+deliberately when row counts cross the threshold.
+
+## When to migrate
+
+Trigger when ANY of:
+
+- `transactions` row count > 50M (current mainnet ~1.7M blocks ≈ ?
+  `SELECT count(*) FROM transactions`)
+- p95 query latency on `/address/:addr/txs` > 200ms
+- Autovacuum can't keep up — visible as growing `n_dead_tup` in
+  `pg_stat_user_tables`
+
+## Strategy: range partition by `block_height`
+
+`block_height` is the natural partition key for all three tables —
+chain history is append-only and queries are overwhelmingly
+height-bounded (recent N blocks, address activity within a range,
+tx by hash which still resolves to a height via the WHERE).
+
+**Partition size:** 1M blocks per partition. Sentrix at 1s blocks =
+~11.5 days per partition. Manageable index sizes (~5GB / partition at
+current write rates), reasonable PG planner constant-folding cost,
+and aligns roughly with monthly ops review cadence.
+
+## Tables to partition
+
+| Table | Partition key | Approx threshold |
+|---|---|---|
+| `transactions` | `block_height` | 50M rows |
+| `logs` | `block_height` | 100M rows |
+| `token_transfers` | `block_height` | 50M rows |
+
+`addresses` and `blocks` stay non-partitioned — `addresses` is bounded
+by unique address count (millions, not billions), and `blocks` is one
+row per height (small).
+
+## Migration recipe (per table)
+
+This is the recipe for `transactions`. Repeat for `logs` and
+`token_transfers` with the obvious substitutions.
+
+```sql
+-- 1. Brief read-only window. Block writes via revoke + reload
+--    indexer worker so it backs off cleanly.
+BEGIN;
+LOCK TABLE transactions IN ACCESS EXCLUSIVE MODE;
+
+-- 2. Rename existing table out of the way.
+ALTER TABLE transactions RENAME TO transactions_legacy;
+
+-- 3. Create the new partitioned root with the same schema.
+CREATE TABLE transactions (
+  hash             VARCHAR(66) NOT NULL,
+  block_height     BIGINT      NOT NULL REFERENCES blocks(height) ON DELETE CASCADE,
+  tx_index         INTEGER     NOT NULL,
+  from_addr        VARCHAR(42) NOT NULL,
+  to_addr          VARCHAR(42),
+  value            NUMERIC(78, 0) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
+  gas_limit        BIGINT      NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  gas_used         BIGINT      DEFAULT 0,
+  gas_price        NUMERIC(78, 0),
+  fee              NUMERIC(78, 0) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
+  nonce            BIGINT      NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  data             TEXT,
+  status           SMALLINT    NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
+  contract_address VARCHAR(42),
+  tx_type          VARCHAR(24) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'native',
+  PRIMARY KEY (hash, block_height)  -- partition key must be in PK
+) PARTITION BY RANGE (block_height);
+
+-- 4. Pre-create partitions for all of history + the next 10M blocks.
+--    Adjust BACKFILL_END to current chain tip + slack.
+DO $$
+DECLARE
+  start_height BIGINT := 0;
+  end_height   BIGINT := 10000000;  -- adjust per current tip
+  p_start      BIGINT;
+  p_end        BIGINT;
+  p_name       TEXT;
+BEGIN
+  FOR p_start IN SELECT generate_series(start_height, end_height - 1, 1000000) LOOP
+    p_end := p_start + 1000000;
+    p_name := format('transactions_p%s_%s', p_start, p_end);
+    EXECUTE format(
+      'CREATE TABLE %I PARTITION OF transactions FOR VALUES FROM (%s) TO (%s)',
+      p_name, p_start, p_end
+    );
+  END LOOP;
+END $$;
+
+-- 5. Copy data from legacy. INSERT routes each row to the right
+--    partition automatically.
+INSERT INTO transactions SELECT * FROM transactions_legacy;
+
+-- 6. Recreate indexes on the partitioned root. Postgres propagates
+--    these to every partition automatically.
+CREATE INDEX txs_block_height_idx  ON transactions (block_height);
+CREATE INDEX txs_from_idx          ON transactions (from_addr);
+CREATE INDEX txs_to_idx            ON transactions (to_addr);
+CREATE INDEX txs_contract_idx      ON transactions (contract_address);
+CREATE INDEX txs_value_desc_idx    ON transactions (value);
+CREATE INDEX txs_from_block_idx    ON transactions (from_addr, block_height);
+CREATE INDEX txs_to_block_idx      ON transactions (to_addr, block_height);
+
+-- 7. Verify the row count matches.
+DO $$
+DECLARE
+  legacy_count BIGINT;
+  new_count    BIGINT;
+BEGIN
+  SELECT count(*) INTO legacy_count FROM transactions_legacy;
+  SELECT count(*) INTO new_count FROM transactions;
+  IF legacy_count != new_count THEN
+    RAISE EXCEPTION 'row count mismatch: legacy=% new=%', legacy_count, new_count;
+  END IF;
+END $$;
+
+-- 8. Drop the legacy table.
+DROP TABLE transactions_legacy;
+
+COMMIT;
+```
+
+## Adding new partitions over time
+
+Each partition holds 1M blocks ≈ 11.5 days. A weekly ops job creates
+the next 4 partitions ahead of time so writes never block on a
+missing partition:
+
+```sql
+-- Run weekly via cron in the indexer worker. Auto-creates the next
+-- four 1M-block partitions if they don't already exist.
+DO $$
+DECLARE
+  current_max BIGINT;
+  next_p_start BIGINT;
+  p_end BIGINT;
+  p_name TEXT;
+BEGIN
+  SELECT COALESCE(max(end_value), 0) INTO current_max
+  FROM (
+    SELECT (regexp_match(relname, 'transactions_p\d+_(\d+)$'))[1]::BIGINT AS end_value
+    FROM pg_class WHERE relname LIKE 'transactions_p%'
+  ) t;
+
+  FOR i IN 0..3 LOOP
+    next_p_start := current_max + (i * 1000000);
+    p_end := next_p_start + 1000000;
+    p_name := format('transactions_p%s_%s', next_p_start, p_end);
+    BEGIN
+      EXECUTE format(
+        'CREATE TABLE %I PARTITION OF transactions FOR VALUES FROM (%s) TO (%s)',
+        p_name, next_p_start, p_end
+      );
+    EXCEPTION WHEN duplicate_table THEN
+      -- Already exists, skip.
+      NULL;
+    END;
+  END LOOP;
+END $$;
+```
+
+## Drizzle compatibility
+
+Drizzle's schema reflection reads the partitioned root as a normal
+table — queries work unchanged because the planner handles partition
+pruning via the `WHERE block_height = …` clauses every read endpoint
+already produces. No Drizzle code changes needed.
+
+The migration above uses raw SQL because Drizzle doesn't model
+`PARTITION BY` declaratively. Mark it applied to
+`drizzle.__drizzle_migrations` after running, or add a no-op Drizzle
+migration that records the partition state in `_meta`.
+
+## Rollback
+
+If something breaks mid-migration, the legacy table is still there
+(steps 5–8 are inside the same transaction). Roll back by:
+
+```sql
+ROLLBACK;
+ALTER TABLE transactions_legacy RENAME TO transactions;
+```
+
+Outside the transaction (steps 8+ committed): `transactions_legacy`
+is gone and the partitioned table is canonical. To revert from a
+clean snapshot, restore from the most recent PG dump (operator
+should run `pg_dump` before step 1 — adds ~10 min on a 50M-row table).
+
+## What this PR does NOT do
+
+- **No auto-migration** — the SQL above runs manually when the
+  operator decides the threshold is hit. Auto-running on container
+  boot would lock production for an unbounded window.
+- **No Drizzle schema change** — the existing schema.ts continues to
+  describe a non-partitioned table. Drizzle reads it as such; the
+  planner does the partition routing at the SQL layer.
+- **No pg_partman dependency** — the recipe uses vanilla Postgres
+  declarative partitioning. pg_partman would automate the weekly
+  partition-create job but adds an extension to the deploy. Worth
+  evaluating if multiple operators need self-serve growth.