A production e-commerce store running entirely on SQLite encountered critical data loss during rapid, overlapping deployments. The store uses four SQLite databases within a single Docker volume, leveraging WAL mode for concurrent reads and writes. However, during a period of 11 deployments in two hours, overlapping container instances caused two orders (16 and 17) to be created but never persisted to the database, despite successful Stripe charges.

This highlights a fundamental limitation of SQLite's filesystem-level locking on a shared volume under concurrent write scenarios. The solution involved implementing stricter deployment pacing rules to prevent overlapping instances. The incident underscores that while SQLite simplifies infrastructure for single-server deployments, careful attention to deployment pipelines is crucial when using it in production environments with rapid, frequent updates.