Postgres has long been touted as the sole source of durable execution, but a recent Hacker News post argues that SQLite can deliver the same reliability for many systems.

Durable state lives in an execution log; compute can stay cheap and disposable. Obelisk stores progress in a local SQLite file, replaying from history and retrying activities. The lack of a network hop cuts operational surface area and keeps state easy to inspect.

Litestream streams the SQLite database asynchronously to S3-compatible storage, giving a simple backup path. Though replication is not synchronous, the model suits bursty, experimental AI agents that benefit from isolated, lightweight state.

When higher availability or shared scaling is required, Obelisk supports Postgres. For most AI agents, a SQLite file plus Litestream backup and cheap workers already provide durable, low‑cost infrastructure.