roblox data persistence

When to Load

Load for player saves, migrations, retries, shutdowns, or session ownership. Leaderboards/messaging/world data: roblox-server-data; Open Cloud: roblox-cloud.

Quick Reference

• Define a serializable template and a version field before storing player state. Deep-copy templates so nested defaults are not shared; migrate, then reconcile missing fields against the template. Scope store names by environment (PlayerData_Studio) so Studio writes stay out of production.
• Use UpdateAsync for read-modify-write; handle throttling and transient errors.
• Prevent concurrent profile mutation with a session-ownership protocol.
• With ProfileStore: StartSessionAsync, Profile.OnSessionEnd, EndSession as documented; no Steal for normal loads; ProfileStore.Mock for ephemeral Studio writes.
• Save on meaningful changes and lifecycle boundaries; PlayerRemoving alone is not sufficient; BindToClose finishes pending work.
• Store primitives/arrays/dictionaries; convert Instances/userdata/functions/cyclic tables first. Validate numbers (no NaN/inf), strings (utf8.len), nested tables: one bad value fails the write.
• RTBF: keep the user ID as a static substring in keys (player_<UserId>) so {UserId} deletion templates match; hashed/random keys make erasure manual.
• GetAsync serves a 4-second local cache (DataStoreGetOptions.UseCache, default true); verify writes with UseCache = false.
• Poll DataStoreService:GetRequestBudgetForRequestType for live headroom; quotas scale with concurrent users (experience reads: 300 + CCU x 40/min).
• New code identifies users with player.User (User.Id, DomainType, DomainId); UserId remains valid, but never mix the two IDs in one key scheme.
• First-session traces: roblox-analytics §8.

Persistence workflows: references/full.md