A retained named volume spans stop/start and container replacement. The writable layer survives only the same container; tmpfs contents disappear at stop.

Give durable state and scratch space different lifecycles

Durable application state and disposable scratch files need different retention, capacity, and recovery policies. Separating their paths makes those policies easier to express, but directories alone do not create persistence or isolate disk capacity. The storage backing each path determines what survives process restart, container replacement, host failure, or cleanup. A reliable layout connects each class of data to an explicit lifecycle. ...

December 3, 2026 · 5 min · XB Field Notes