diff --git a/db/db-core/src/lib.rs b/db/db-core/src/lib.rs
index 2d6ef51..0d02ba0 100644
--- a/db/db-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/db/db-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ pub struct AddRepository<'a> {
     /// html link to the repository
     pub html_link: &'a str,
     /// repository topic tags
-    pub tags: Option<Vec<&'a str>>,
+    pub tags: Option<Vec<String>>,
     /// hostname of the forge instance: with scheme but remove trailing slash
     /// hostname can be derived  from html_link also, but used to link to user's forge instance
     pub hostname: &'a str,
diff --git a/db/db-sqlx-sqlite/src/tests.rs b/db/db-sqlx-sqlite/src/tests.rs
index 454dadf..b9eccb6 100644
--- a/db/db-sqlx-sqlite/src/tests.rs
+++ b/db/db-sqlx-sqlite/src/tests.rs
@@ -63,10 +63,12 @@ async fn everything_works() {
     let connection_options = ConnectionOptions::Fresh(Fresh { pool_options, url });
     let db = connection_options.connect().await.unwrap();
 
+    let tags = TAGS.iter().map(|s| s.to_string()).collect();
+
     let add_repo_msg = AddRepository {
         html_link: HTML_REPO_URL,
         name: REPO_NAME,
-        tags: Some(TAGS.into()),
+        tags: Some(tags),
         owner: USERNAME,
         website: None,
         description: None,