LSM Compaction

Compaction is the background process that merges an LSM-tree's immutable on-disk runs to reclaim space, drop tombstones, and bound read amplification, trading write amplification for query performance.

grounded in: HN 'Database & backend performance engineering' theme (2026-07-12); a distinct process underlying the already-present lsm-tree/write-amplification/storage-engine concepts