diff --git a/server/src/crate_server.gleam b/server/src/crate_server.gleam
index ff1e698..f0498d5 100644
--- a/server/src/crate_server.gleam
+++ b/server/src/crate_server.gleam
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import atproto/xrpc.{type Client}
 import crate_server/atproto_client
 import crate_server/catalog_index
+import crate_server/clock
 import crate_server/config_env
 import crate_server/follow_index
 import crate_server/identity_cache
@@ -124,6 +125,9 @@ fn backfill_catalog_index(
   shelf_index: shelf_index.Store,
   follow_index: follow_index.Store,
 ) -> Nil {
+  // The HTTP listener waits on this, so the duration is the deploy's
+  // startup budget: probe timeouts are derived from what gets logged here.
+  let started = clock.now_seconds()
   let users = known_users.list()
   users
   |> list.each(user_backfill.backfill_user(
@@ -136,6 +140,8 @@ fn backfill_catalog_index(
   wisp.log_info(
     "catalog_index: backfilled from "
     <> int.to_string(list.length(users))
-    <> " known users",
+    <> " known users in "
+    <> int.to_string(clock.now_seconds() - started)
+    <> "s",
   )
 }
diff --git a/server/src/crate_server/config_env.gleam b/server/src/crate_server/config_env.gleam
index ca4bdda..4d1c1bc 100644
--- a/server/src/crate_server/config_env.gleam
+++ b/server/src/crate_server/config_env.gleam
@@ -167,12 +167,13 @@ fn raw_stores() -> #(
     Ok(url) ->
       case postgres_stores(url) {
         Ok(stores) -> stores
-        Error(e) -> {
-          wisp.log_error(
-            "Postgres stores unavailable (" <> e <> "); using in-memory",
-          )
-          memory_stores()
-        }
+        // A set-but-unusable DATABASE_URL is a deploy bug, not a degraded
+        // mode: the in-memory fallback boots healthy and serves an empty
+        // appview with non-persistent sessions, invisible to k8s probes.
+        Error(e) ->
+          panic as {
+            "DATABASE_URL set but Postgres stores are unavailable: " <> e
+          }
       }
     Error(Nil) -> {
       wisp.log_warning(
diff --git a/server/src/crate_server/oauth/sessions_postgres.gleam b/server/src/crate_server/oauth/sessions_postgres.gleam
index 0b7c9f1..3e433f4 100644
--- a/server/src/crate_server/oauth/sessions_postgres.gleam
+++ b/server/src/crate_server/oauth/sessions_postgres.gleam
@@ -16,8 +16,10 @@ pub fn connect_pool(database_url: String) -> Result(pog.Connection, String) {
     pog.url_config(name, database_url)
     |> result.replace_error("invalid DATABASE_URL"),
   )
+  // pog defaults to 10; the shared managed cluster has ~25 backends across
+  // five tenants plus monitoring, so stay a small neighbour.
   use started <- result.map(
-    pog.start(pog.rows_as_map(config, True))
+    pog.start(pog.rows_as_map(pog.pool_size(config, 4), True))
     |> result.replace_error("could not start the Postgres pool"),
   )
   started.data