Calibration and thresholds

Every threshold pgdba ships — connection limits, cache-hit floors, bloat estimates, idle-transaction limits — is calibrated: the defaults were chosen against real workloads and are documented per finding with an ignore_if escape hatch. A calibrated default is the starting point, not a verdict on your hardware.

How findings carry their own context

• why — plain language, no jargon (jargon links to the glossary)
• cost_of_ignoring — what happens if you do nothing
• ignore_if — the legitimate reason this finding may not apply to you
• evidence — findings whose inputs were incomplete (missing pg_stat_statements, skipped heavy checks) say so (evidence_quality) rather than asserting

When to override

Only raise or lower thresholds when a finding repeatedly contradicts observed performance — and prefer ignore_if-style arguments (per-check --only runs, --exclude-tables) over editing thresholds, so the calibrated baseline stays intact for the next run.