Abstract: A system manages a log-structured file system (LFS) by: receiving an input/output (I/O) operation for the LFS, the I/O operation prompting a key to be added to a first node of a tree metadata structure, the tree mapping addresses in a first address space to addresses in a second address space; determining that addition of the key to the first node would exceed a maximum number of keys allowed in the first node; adding a second node to the tree based on the determining, the second node containing the key; moving a quantity of keys from the first node to the second node such that a total number of keys resulting in the second node is less than half of the maximum number of keys, minus one, configured to be stored in nodes of the LFS; and writing updates to the tree metadata structure within the LFS.