Add note about large workflows

README.md

@@ -153,6 +153,50 @@ workflow = Workflow(
 In this example, Task 2 will run roughly 1 second after Task 1 finishes, and
 Task 3 and will run 2 seconds after Task 2 finishes.
 
+### Large Workflows
+
+Because of how `dramatiq-workflow` is implemented, each task in a workflow has
+to know about the remaining tasks in the workflow that could potentially run
+after it. When a workflow has a large number of tasks, this can lead to an
+increase of memory usage in the broker and increased network traffic between
+the broker and the workers, especially when using `Group` tasks: Each task in a
+`Group` can potentially be the last one to finish, so each task has to retain a
+copy of the remaining tasks that run after the `Group`.
+
+There are a few things you can do to alleviate this issue:
+
+- Minimize the usage of parameters in the `message` method. Instead, consider
+  using a database to store data that is required by your tasks.
+- Limit the size of groups to a reasonable number of tasks. Instead of
+  scheduling one task with 1000 tasks in a group, consider scheduling 10 groups
+  with 100 tasks each and chaining them together.
+- Consider breaking down large workflows into smaller partial workflows that
+  then schedule a subsequent workflow at the very end of the outermost `Chain`.
+
+Lastly, you can use compression to reduce the size of the messages in your
+queue. While dramatiq does not provide a compression implementation by default,
+one can be added with just a few lines of code. For example:
+
+```python
+import dramatiq
+from dramatiq.encoder import JSONEncoder, MessageData
+import lz4.frame
+
+class DramatiqLz4JSONEncoder(JSONEncoder):
+    def encode(self, data: MessageData) -> bytes:
+        return lz4.frame.compress(super().encode(data))
+
+    def decode(self, data: bytes) -> MessageData:
+        try:
+            decompressed = lz4.frame.decompress(data)
+        except RuntimeError:
+            # Uncompressed data from before the switch to lz4
+            decompressed = data
+        return super().decode(decompressed)
+
+dramatiq.set_encoder(DramatiqLz4JSONEncoder())
+```
+
 ## License
 
 This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file