LISTEN Carefully: How NOTIFY Can Trip Up Your Database | POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2026

Jimmy Angelakos explains how PostgreSQL's LISTEN/NOTIFY feature can cause unexpected statement and lock timeouts under high concurrency. Each NOTIFY call obtains a cluster-wide exclusive lock to serialize notifications, leading to performance bottlenecks that are difficult to replicate in development. The talk walks through a real-world scenario involving triggers on high-traffic tables and provides solutions for production systems. Ideal for database architects and PostgreSQL developers working with asynchronous notifications.