fix: database should not overwrite

README.md

@@ -47,10 +47,31 @@ src/
 | `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY`    | ElevenLabs API key for voiceover        |
 | `ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID`   | Default ElevenLabs voice ID (optional)  |
 | `ELEVENLABS_MODEL`      | ElevenLabs model ID (default: `eleven_multilingual_v2`) |
+| `DATABASE_PATH`         | SQLite file path (default: `./data/db.sqlite3`) |
 | `WEB_PORT`              | Port for web dashboard (default: 3000)  |
 | `WEB_BASE_URL`          | Base URL for web dashboard              |
 | `SESSION_SECRET`        | Secret for session encryption           |
 
+## Data Persistence
+
+- Bot options and other runtime state are stored in SQLite.
+- Keep `DATABASE_PATH` on persistent storage so updates/redeploys do not reset settings.
+- Backward compatibility: if `DATABASE_PATH` is unset and `src/database/db.sqlite3` exists, it is used automatically.
+- Recommended one-time migration:
+
+```bash
+mkdir -p data && cp src/database/db.sqlite3 data/db.sqlite3
+```
+- Docker example:
+
+```bash
+docker run -d \
+	--name joel-discord \
+	-v joel_data:/data \
+	--env-file .env \
+	your-image:latest
+```
+
 ## Scripts
 
 | Script                | Description                 |