Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/marcua/ayb

ayb makes it easy to create databases, share them with collaborators, and query them from a web application or the command line
https://github.com/marcua/ayb

duckdb sqlite

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

ayb makes it easy to create databases, share them with collaborators, and query them from a web application or the command line

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/marcua/ayb
Owner: marcua
License: apache-2.0
Created: 2022-06-25T19:43:06.000Z (about 2 years ago)
Default Branch: main
Last Pushed: 2024-07-28T17:03:03.000Z (about 2 months ago)
Last Synced: 2024-07-28T17:42:00.534Z (about 2 months ago)
Topics: duckdb, sqlite
Language: Rust
Homepage:
Size: 623 KB
Stars: 60
Watchers: 7
Forks: 4
Open Issues: 22
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

# `ayb`
`ayb` makes it easy to create databases, share them with collaborators, and query them from a web application or the command line.

With `ayb`, all your (data)base can finally belong to you. Move SQL for great justice.

[![Build status](https://github.com/marcua/ayb/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/marcua/ayb/actions/workflows/tests.yml)

## Introduction

`ayb` is a database management system with easy-to-host instances that enable users to quickly register an account, create databases, share them with collaborators, and query them from a web application or the command line. An `ayb` server allows users to create SQLite databases (other databases to come), and then exposes those databases through an HTTP API.

To learn more about why `ayb` matters, how it works, or who it's for, [read this introductory blog post](https://blog.marcua.net/2023/06/25/ayb-a-multi-tenant-database-that-helps-you-own-your-data.html).

*alpha warning*: `ayb` is neither feature complete nor production-ready. Functionality like authentication, permissions, collaboration, isolation, high availability, and transaction support are on the [Roadmap](#roadmap) but not available today. I work on `ayb` as a hobbyist side project.

## Getting started

### Installing
`ayb` is written in Rust, and is available as the `ayb` crate. Assuming you have [installed Rust on your machine](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install), installing `ayb` takes a single command:

```bash
cargo install ayb
```

### Running a server
An `ayb` server stores its metadata in [SQLite](https://www.sqlite.org/index.html) or [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/), and stores the databases it's hosting on a local disk. An `ayb.toml` file tells the server what host/port to listen for connections on, how to connect to the database, and the data path for the hosted databases. You can generate a starter file with `ayb default_server_config`.

```bash
$ ayb default_server_config > ayb.toml

$ cat ayb.toml

host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 5433
database_url = "sqlite://ayb_data/ayb.sqlite"
# Or, for Postgres:
# database_url = "postgresql://postgres_user:test@localhost:5432/test_db"
data_path = "./ayb_data"

[authentication]
# A secret (and unique to your server) key that is used for account registration.
fernet_key = "="
token_expiration_seconds = 3600

[email]
from = "Server Sender "
reply_to = "Server Reply "
smtp_host = "localhost"
smtp_port = 465
smtp_username = "[email protected]"
smtp_password = "the_password"
```

Running the server then requires one command
```bash
$ ayb server
```

### Running a client
Once the server is running, you can register a user (in this case, `marcua`), create a database `marcua/test.sqlite`, and issue SQL as you like. Here's how to do that at the command line:

```bash
$ ayb client --url http://127.0.0.1:5433 register marcua [email protected]
Check your email to finish registering marcua

# You will receive an email at [email protected] instructing you to type the next command
$ ayb client confirm
Successfully authenticated and saved token

$ ayb client create_database marcua/test.sqlite
Successfully created marcua/test.sqlite

$ ayb client list marcua
Database slug | Type
---------------+--------
test.sqlite | sqlite

$ ayb client query marcua/test.sqlite "CREATE TABLE favorite_databases(name varchar, score integer);"

Rows: 0

# If you don't pass a query to the query command, ayb launches an interactive query session
$ ayb client query marcua/test.sqlite
Launching an interactive session for marcua/test.sqlite
marcua/test.sqlite> INSERT INTO favorite_databases (name, score) VALUES ("PostgreSQL", 10);

Rows: 0
marcua/test.sqlite> INSERT INTO favorite_databases (name, score) VALUES ("SQLite", 9);

Rows: 0
marcua/test.sqlite> INSERT INTO favorite_databases (name, score) VALUES ("DuckDB", 9);

Rows: 0
marcua/test.sqlite> SELECT * FROM favorite_databases;
name | score
------------+-------
PostgreSQL | 10
SQLite | 9
DuckDB | 9

Rows: 3
marcua/test.sqlite>

$ ayb client update_profile marcua --display_name 'Adam Marcus' --links 'http://marcua.net'

Successfully updated profile

Note that the command line also saved a configuration file for your
convenience so you don't have to keep entering a server URL or API
token. If you ever want to set these explicitly, the `--url`/`--token`
command-line flags and `AYB_SERVER_URL`/`AYB_API_TOKEN` environment
variables will override whatever is in the saved configuration. By
default, the configuration file can be found in:
* Linux: `/home/alice/.config/ayb/ayb.json`
* MacOS (untested): `/Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/org.ayb.ayb/ayb.json`
* Windows (untested): `C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming\ayb\ayb\config\ayb.json`

The command line invocations above are a thin wrapper around `ayb`'s HTTP API. Here are the same commands as above, but with `curl`:
```bash
$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/register -H "entity-type: user" -H "entity: marcua" -H "email-address: [email protected]"

{}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/confirm -H "authentication-token: TOKEN_FROM_EMAIL"

{"entity":"marcua","token":""}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/marcua/test.sqlite/create -H "db-type: sqlite" -H "authorization: Bearer "

{"entity":"marcua","database":"test.sqlite","database_type":"sqlite"}

$ curl -w "\n" -X PATCH http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/entity/marcua -H "authorization: Bearer " -d "{\"display_name\": \"Adam Marcus\"}"

{}

$ curl -w "\n" -X GET http://localhost:5433/v1/entity/marcua -H "authorization: Bearer "

{"slug":"marcua","databases":[{"slug":"test.sqlite","database_type":"sqlite"}],"profile":{"display_name":"Adam Marcus"}}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/marcua/test.sqlite/query -H "authorization: Bearer " -d 'CREATE TABLE favorite_databases(name varchar, score integer);'

{"fields":[],"rows":[]}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/marcua/test.sqlite/query -H "authorization: Bearer " -d "INSERT INTO favorite_databases (name, score) VALUES (\"PostgreSQL\", 10);"

{"fields":[],"rows":[]}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/marcua/test.sqlite/query -H "authorization: Bearer " -d "INSERT INTO favorite_databases (name, score) VALUES (\"SQLite\", 9);"

{"fields":[],"rows":[]}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/marcua/test.sqlite/query -H "authorization: Bearer " -d "INSERT INTO favorite_databases (name, score) VALUES (\"DuckDB\", 9);"

{"fields":[],"rows":[]}

$ curl -w "\n" -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5433/v1/marcua/test.sqlite/query -H "authorization: Bearer " -d "SELECT * FROM favorite_databases;"

{"fields":["name","score"],"rows":[["PostgreSQL","10"],["SQLite","9"],["DuckDB","9"]]}
```

### Isolation
`ayb` allows multiple users to run queries against databases that are
stored on the same machine. Isolation enables you to prevent one user
from accessing another user's data, and allows you to restrict the
resources any one user is able to utilize.

By default, `ayb` uses
[SQLITE_DBCONFIG_DEFENSIVE](https://www.sqlite.org/c3ref/c_dbconfig_defensive.html)
flag and sets
[SQLITE_LIMIT_ATTACHED](https://www.sqlite.org/c3ref/c_limit_attached.html#sqlitelimitattached)
to `0` in order to prevent users from corrupting the database or
attaching to other databases on the filesystem.

For further isolation, `ayb` uses [nsjail](https://nsjail.dev/) to
isolate each query's filesystem access and resources. When this form
of isolation is enabled, `ayb` starts a new `nsjail`-managed process
to execute the query against the database. We have not yet benchmarked
the performance overhead of this approach.

To enable isolation, you must first build `nsjail`, which you can do
through [scripts/build_nsjail.sh](scripts/build_nsjail.sh). Note that
`nsjail` depends on a few other packages. If you run into issues
building it, it might be helpful to see its
[Dockerfile](https://github.com/google/nsjail/blob/master/Dockerfile)
to get a sense of those requirements.

Once you have a path to the
`nsjail` binary, add the following to your `ayb.toml`:

```toml
[isolation]
nsjail_path = "path/to/nsjail"
```

## Testing
`ayb` is largely tested through [end-to-end
tests](tests/e2e.rs) that mimic as realistic an environment as
possible. Individual modules may also provide more specific unit
tests. To set up your environment for running end-to-end tests, type:

```bash
tests/set_up_e2e_env.sh
```

After your environment is set up, you can run the tests with:

```bash
cargo test --verbose
```

In order to mimic as close to a realistic environment as possible, the end-to-end tests mock out very little functionality. The `tests/set_up_e2e_env.sh` script, which has been used extensively in Ubuntu, does the following:
* Sets up a Python virtual environment and installs requirements for various helpers.
* Installs requirements for a Python-based stub SMTP server to help test email-based registration.
* Installs the requirements for a [LocalStack](https://docs.localstack.cloud/getting-started/quickstart/) server and then runs that server in the background (requires Docker) in order to test database snapshotting functionality that stores snapshots in S3-compatible storage.
* Installs an `nsjail` binary to test `ayb`'s [isolation](#isolation) functionality.

## FAQ

### Who is `ayb` for?
The introductory blog post has [a section describing each group that stands to benefit](https://blog.marcua.net/2023/06/25/ayb-a-multi-tenant-database-that-helps-you-own-your-data.html#students-sharers-and-sovereigns) from `ayb`'s aim to make it easier to create a database, interact with it, and share it with relevant people/organizations. Students would benefit from encountering less operational impediments to writing their first SQL query or sharing their in-progress database with a mentor or teacher for help. Sharers like scientists and journalists would benefit from an easy way to post a dataset and share it with collaborators. Finally, anyone concerned about the sovereignty of their data would benefit from a world where it's so easy to spin up a database that more of their data can live in databases they control.

### What's with the name?
Thank you for asking. [I hope the answer elicits some nostalgia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg)! Shout out to Meelap Shah and Eugene Wu for convincing me to not call this project `stacks`, to Andrew Lange-Abramowitz for making the connection to the storied meme, and to Meredith Blumenstock for listening to me fret over it all.

## Roadmap
Here's a rough roadmap for the project, with items near the top of the list more likely to be completed first. The nitty-gritty list of prioritized issues can be found on [this project board](https://github.com/marcua/ayb/projects/1), with the most-likely-to-be-completed issues near the top of the to-do list.

* Make the single-user `ayb` experience excellent
* [x] Reduce reliance on PostgreSQL (SQLite metadata storage). Given that the goal of `ayb` is to make it easier to create, share, and query databases, it's frustrating that running `ayb` requires you to pay the nontrivial cost of operationalizing PostgreSQL. While Postgres will be helpful for eventually coordinating between multiple `ayb` nodes, a single-node version should be able to store its metadata in SQLite with little setup costs.
* [x] Authentication and permissions. Add authentication/the ability to log in, and add permissions to endpoints so that you can't just issue queries against any database.
* [x] Isolation. Since an `ayb` instance can have multiple tenants/databases, we want to use one of the many container/isolate/microVM projects to ensure that one tenant isn't able to access another tenant's data.
* [ ] Clustering. Support for multiple `ayb` nodes to serve databases and requests. Whereas a single database will not span multiple machines, parallelism/distribution will happen across users and databases.
* [ ] Persistence beyond the node. Using projects like [LiteFS](https://github.com/superfly/litefs), stream updates to databases to persistent storage, and allow failover if an `ayb` node disappears.
* [ ] Sessions/transactions. `ayb`'s query API is a stateless request/response API, making it impossible to start a database transaction or issue multiple queries in a session. Exposing sessions in the API will allow multiple statements per session, and by extension, transactions.
* [ ] Import/export of databases. `ayb` already uses existing well-established file formats (e.g., SQLite). There should be endpoints to import existing databases into `ayb` in those formats or export the underlying files so you're not locked in.
* Extend `ayb` to more people and software
* [ ] Collaboration. In addition to making it easy to create and query databases, it should be easy to share databases with others. Two use cases include adding private collaborators and allowing public read-only access.
* [ ] Forking. Allowing a user to fork their own copy of a database will enable collaborators to remix and build on each others' work.
* [ ] Versioning. To both make it less scary to execute sensitive operations and to make it possible for scientists to reference and publish checkpoints of their work, a user should be able to snapshot and revert to a database at a point in time.
* [ ] DuckDB. Allowing users to create a DuckDB database in addition to a SQLite database would allow you to create a data warehouse with a single command. This effort is dependent on the DuckDB project. First, the DuckDB file format is rapidly changing ahead of the project's 1.0 release. Additionally, I don't know of an equivalent streaming replication project to LiteFS for DuckDB that handles *persistence beyond the node*.
* [ ] PostgreSQL wire protocol. While an HTTP API makes it easy to build new web apps, exposing `ayb` over the PostgreSQL wire protocol will allow existing tools and libraries to connect to and query an `ayb` database.
* Increase discoverability with a web frontend
* [ ] Provide a web interface analogous to the command line interface. Much like GitHub/Gitea/Forgejo make git more approachable, you shouldn't have to pay a command line knowledge tax in order to create, share, and query an `ayb` database.
* [ ] Explore people's public datasets. Beyond simplifying the command line, platforms like GitHub also make it easier to find a user's publicly shared repositories, follow along in their work, and fork a copy for your own exploration. That same experience should be possible for `ayb`-hosted databases.

## Contributing
(This section is inspired by the [LiteFS project](https://github.com/superfly/litefs#contributing), and is just one of the many things to love about that project.)

`ayb` contributions work a little different than most GitHub projects:
* If you have a small bug fix or typo fix, please PR directly to this repository.
* If you want to contribute documentation, please PR directly to this repository.
* If you would like to contribute a feature, create and discuss the feature in an issue on this GitHub repository first. Once the feature and some of its finer details are hashed out in the issue and potentially a design document, submit a pull request. I might politely decline pull requests that haven't first been discussed/designed.

This project has a roadmap and features are added and tested in a certain order. I'm adding a little friction in requiring a discussion/design document for features before submitting a pull request to ensure that I can focus my attention on well-motivated, well-sequenced, and well-understood functionality.