# Document too large

Full text: `BSONObjectTooLarge` or `document too large`. MongoDB caps a single document at 16MB. There is no option to raise it.

## Confirm

Check which write path creates the giant: unbounded arrays (event logs, comments, history appended forever), embedded base64 blobs, or denormalized copies that grew.

## Fix, pick one

- Chunk the array into separate documents (one document per page of N items, or one document per array element with a parent reference).
- Store blobs in GridFS or object storage and keep only a pointer in the document.
- Reference instead of embed for unbounded one-to-many relationships.

## Verify

Insert the previously failing payload through the new shape. Also add a guard: validate array length or payload size in application code so the next growth spurt fails fast with your error, not the driver's.