Worked on the ethersphere/bee repository to address a critical issue in manifest node lifecycle management, focusing on backend development and data structures using Go. Refactored the unmarshalling process to correctly handle zero reference bytes, ensuring that nodes removed from a manifest are also deleted from the forks map and do not persist erroneously. Developed and integrated the TestPersistRemove test to validate the non-existence of removed nodes, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of manifest-driven routing and storage. This work enhanced data integrity and reduced the risk of stale nodes affecting system operations, with a strong emphasis on robust testing practices.