Given that pragma_table_info(...) and pragma_index_list(...) are generally for more advanced users, and that the column names are descriptive, and even good first choices among alternatives for those unfamiliar with the docs, I would have to say that no loss of genius status should hinge upon those choices. As for your bug report: I was unable to repro OOM failures for unquoted use of those column names in the SQLite shell. (Only syntax error messages ensued.) And I could not guess what might be different in your "C code" from the shell's C code that was run during my repro attempts. Hence, I find it more than hard to proceed upon a fix, assuming such is possible. What version of the library were you using? Regarding documentation of how to build queries for those eponymous virtual table pragmas: The keywords are well documented already, as are the identifier quoting rules. I am disinclined to expand the docs to provide helpful little hints wherever more than one SQL language rule might apply. Such hints might help individually for those who come across them. But they would collectively detract from the utility of the docs by increasing the effort needed to read them and inducing "skip mode", where repetitious matter must be recognized and skimmed over. Can you please post an excerpt of your code suffering an OOM failure, or a short function which evinces that failure? I'll be happy to reproduce the failure, or attempt it again, given a more specific inducing sequence.