The in-memory database is currently only used in tests. It was originally added to ensure tests that do not depend on complex db logic can pass quickly.

However, I've recently ran performance tests on the postgres and in-memory test suites (both on full suites and on individual tests) and it seems there's almost no timing difference between them. After talking to @kylecarbs we've decided to get rid of the in-memory database and see what happens. If we see there was a good reason for it to exist then we'll bring it back.

Currently, coder supports the --in-memory flag. It should be deprecated and replaced by the --ephemeral flag, which would initialize a new postgres db every time.