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https://github.com/nodedb-lab/nodedb

A local-first, real-time, edge-to-cloud hybrid database for multi-modal workloads
https://github.com/nodedb-lab/nodedb

columnar database distributed graph kv-store local nosql rag sql timeseries vector

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A local-first, real-time, edge-to-cloud hybrid database for multi-modal workloads

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README 

          


 

NodeDB



The distributed multi-model database for AI and agent workloads.





  Eight database engines in a single Rust binary. One SQL dialect. Zero network hops between

  vector search, graph traversal, document storage, columnar analytics, timeseries, key-value,

  full-text search, and multi-dimensional arrays.






  Quickstart

  ·

  Docs

  ·

  Benchmarks

  ·

  NodeDB-Lite

  ·

  CLI






  

    Join the NodeDB Discord

  






  

    CI status

  

  

    Latest release

  

  

    License

  

  

    GitHub stars

  







NodeDB replaces the combination of PostgreSQL + pgvector + Redis + Neo4j + ClickHouse + Elasticsearch with a single process. Graph queries that feed vector search, full-text ranking, and columnar aggregation execute in one engine with shared storage, shared memory, and one planner.



## Why NodeDB



- **One binary, not a polyglot stack.** No inter-service networking, no schema drift between systems, no data synchronization pipelines. A graph query that feeds a vector search that filters by full-text relevance executes in one process.

- **PostgreSQL wire protocol.** Connect with `psql` or any PostgreSQL client library. Standard SQL with engine-specific extensions where SQL can't express the operation.

- **Edge to cloud.** The same engines run embedded on phones and browsers (NodeDB-Lite, WASM) with CRDT-based offline-first sync to the server.

- **Serious about performance.** Thread-per-Core data plane with io_uring, SIMD-accelerated distance functions, zero-copy MessagePack transport, per-column compression (ALP, FastLanes, FSST, Gorilla). See benchmarks below.



## Performance



**Timeseries ingest + query benchmark** — 10M rows, high-cardinality DNS telemetry (50K+ unique domain names). Single node, NVMe storage.



### Ingest



| Engine      | Rate         | Time         | Memory     | Disk         |

| ----------- | ------------ | ------------ | ---------- | ------------ |

| **NodeDB**  | **93,450/s** | 107s         | **120 MB** | 2,217 MB     |

| TimescaleDB | 56,615/s     | 177s         | 963 MB     | 2,802 MB     |

| ClickHouse  | 53,905/s     | 186s         | 1,035 MB   | **1,647 MB** |

| InfluxDB    | 22,715/s     | 88s (2M cap) | 1,656 MB   | 982 MB       |



### Queries (ms, best of 3)



| Query                      | NodeDB  | ClickHouse | TimescaleDB | InfluxDB (2M) |

| -------------------------- | ------- | ---------- | ----------- | ------------- |

| `COUNT(*)`                 | **<1**  | 1          | 423         | 13,110        |

| `WHERE qtype=A COUNT`      | 47      | **6**      | 347         | 5,297         |

| `WHERE rcode=SERVFAIL`     | 41      | **6**      | 334         | 1,048         |

| `GROUP BY qtype`           | 56      | **15**     | 597         | 12,426        |

| `GROUP BY rcode`           | 52      | **16**     | 604         | 13,183        |

| `GROUP BY cached+AVG`      | 120     | **33**     | 677         | 13,652        |

| `GROUP BY client_ip (10K)` | **141** | 157        | 660         | 14,301        |

| `GROUP BY qname (50K+)`    | 2,665   | **288**    | 3,644       | 16,720        |

| `time_bucket 1h`           | 101     | **30**     | 603         | --            |

| `time_bucket 5m+qtype`     | 138     | **99**     | 711         | --            |



NodeDB is not a specialized timeseries database, yet it ingests 1.65x faster than TimescaleDB and 1.73x faster than ClickHouse with 8x less memory. Query latency is competitive with ClickHouse on low-cardinality aggregations and within 3-5x on high-cardinality GROUP BY. This is the tradeoff of a general-purpose engine: you get one system instead of five, with performance that stays in the same ballpark as specialized tools.



## Engines



| Engine                                       | What it replaces             | Key capability                                                                                                          |

| -------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| [Vector](docs/vectors.md)                    | pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate | HNSW with SQ8/PQ quantization, adaptive bitmap pre-filtering                                                            |

| [Graph](docs/graph.md)                       | Neo4j, Amazon Neptune        | CSR adjacency, 13 algorithms, Cypher-subset MATCH, GraphRAG                                                             |

| [Document](docs/documents.md)                | MongoDB, CouchDB             | Schemaless (MessagePack + CRDT) or Strict (Binary Tuples, O(1) field access). Typeguards for gradual schema enforcement |

| [Columnar](docs/columnar.md)                 | ClickHouse, DuckDB           | Per-column codecs (ALP, FastLanes, FSST), predicate pushdown, HTAP bridge                                               |

| [Timeseries](docs/timeseries.md)             | TimescaleDB, InfluxDB        | ILP ingest, continuous aggregation, PromQL, approximate aggregation                                                     |

| [Spatial](docs/spatial.md)                   | PostGIS                      | R\*-tree, geohash, H3, OGC predicates, hybrid spatial-vector                                                            |

| [Key-Value](docs/kv.md)                      | Redis, DynamoDB              | O(1) lookups, TTL, sorted indexes, rate limiting, SQL-queryable                                                         |

| [Full-Text Search](docs/full-text-search.md) | Elasticsearch                | BMW BM25, 27-language support, CJK bigrams, fuzzy, hybrid vector fusion                                                 |

| [Array (NDArray)](docs/array.md)             | TileDB, Zarr                 | Multi-dimensional tiles, Z-order indexing, bitemporal support, tile-level retention                                     |



## Install



```bash

# Docker

docker run -d \

  -p 6432:6432 -p 6433:6433 -p 6480:6480 \

  -v nodedb-data:/var/lib/nodedb \

  farhansyah/nodedb:latest



# Cargo

cargo install nodedb

```



Requires Linux kernel >= 5.1 (io_uring). Connect:



```bash

ndb                              # native CLI (connects to localhost:6433)

psql -h localhost -p 6432        # or any PostgreSQL client

```



```sql

CREATE COLLECTION users;



-- Standard SQL

INSERT INTO users (name, email, age) VALUES ('Alice', 'alice@example.com', 30);



-- Object literal syntax (same result)

INSERT INTO users { name: 'Bob', email: 'bob@example.com', age: 25 };



-- Batch insert

INSERT INTO users [

    { name: 'Charlie', email: 'charlie@example.com', age: 35 },

    { name: 'Dana', email: 'dana@example.com', age: 28 }

];



SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 25;

```



New here? Start with the [Quickstart](https://nodedb.dev/docs/introduction/quickstart/) on the official documentation site: **[nodedb.dev/docs](https://nodedb.dev/docs)**.



## Deployment Modes



| Mode                | Use case                                                                     |

| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| **Origin (server)** | Full distributed database. Multi-Raft, io_uring, pgwire. Horizontal scaling. |

| **Origin (local)**  | Same binary, single-node. No cluster overhead.                               |

| **NodeDB-Lite**     | Embedded library for phones, browsers, desktops. CRDT sync to Origin.        |



## NodeDB-Lite



All eight engines as an embedded library. Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, and browser (WASM, experimental).



- **Lite only** -- local-first apps that don't need a server. Vector search, graph, FTS, documents, arrays, all in-process with sub-ms reads.

- **Lite + Origin** -- offline-first with CRDT sync. Writes happen locally, deltas merge to Origin when online. Multiple devices converge regardless of order.

- **Same API** -- the `NodeDb` trait is identical across Lite and Origin. Switch between embedded and server without changing application code.



See [NodeDB-Lite](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-lite) for platform details and sync configuration.



## Key Features



**Write-time validation** -- Typeguards enforce types, required fields, CHECK constraints, and DEFAULT/VALUE expressions on schemaless collections. Graduate to strict schema with `CONVERT COLLECTION x TO document_strict`.



**Bitemporal queries** -- System time (audit trail) and valid time (temporal semantics) across all engines. Query data as it existed in the past, or as it was valid on a past date. GDPR-compliant tile purge on array engine.



**Multi-dimensional arrays** -- Scientific computing with Z-order indexed tiles, tile-level compression, and bitemporal support. Combine with vector/graph/text in fused queries via cross-engine identity.



**Real-time** -- CDC change streams with consumer groups (~1-5ms latency). Streaming materialized views. Durable topics. Cron scheduler. LISTEN/NOTIFY. All powered by the Event Plane.



**Programmability** -- Stored procedures with `IF/FOR/WHILE/LOOP`. User-defined functions. Triggers (async, sync, deferred). `SECURITY DEFINER`.



**Security** -- RBAC with GRANT/REVOKE. Row-level security with `$auth.*` context across all engines. Hash-chained audit log. Multi-tenancy with per-tenant encryption. JWKS, mTLS, API keys.



**Six wire protocols** -- pgwire (PostgreSQL), HTTP/REST, WebSocket, RESP (Redis), ILP (InfluxDB line protocol), native MessagePack.



## Tools



- **[`ndb`](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-cli)** -- Native CLI with TUI, syntax highlighting, and tab completion. Alternative to `psql`.

- **[NodeDB Studio](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-studio)** -- GUI client for managing collections, browsing data, and monitoring. _(coming soon)_

- **[nodedb-bench](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-bench)** -- Performance benchmarks against competing databases.



## Documentation



The official documentation site is **[nodedb.dev/docs](https://nodedb.dev/docs)** — start with the [Quickstart](https://nodedb.dev/docs/introduction/quickstart/).



In-repo references:



- [Getting Started](docs/getting-started.md) -- Build, run, connect

- [Architecture](docs/architecture.md) -- Three-plane execution model

- [Engine Guides](docs/README.md) -- Deep dives into each engine

- [Security](docs/security/README.md) -- Auth, RBAC, RLS, audit, multi-tenancy

- [Real-Time](docs/real-time.md) -- CDC, pub/sub, LIVE SELECT

- [NodeDB-Lite](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-lite) -- Embedded edge database

- [AI Patterns](docs/ai/README.md) -- RAG, GraphRAG, agent memory, feature store



## Contributing



We welcome bug fixes, engine improvements, new codecs and analyzers, test coverage, and documentation. Read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) before opening a PR — NodeDB's Three-Plane execution model has hard rules that reviewers enforce.



## Building from Source



For development or contributing:



```bash

git clone https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb.git

cd nodedb

cargo build --release

cargo install cargo-nextest --locked  # one-time

cargo nextest run --all-features

```



## Release Status



NodeDB Origin is in **public beta** as of **v0.1.0 (2026-05-07)**. All eight engines are feature-complete and covered by tests. The wire protocols (pgwire, HTTP, native MessagePack, RESP, ILP, WebSocket) are stable — clients written against 0.1.0 will keep working through 1.0.



**v0.1.0 — Beta (today).** Build new products on it. The public surface (SQL dialect, wire protocols, configuration) is stable; expect internal changes (storage layout, on-disk format, replication internals) between minor releases. Patch and minor bumps will land as needed — if something requires a 0.2, we ship a 0.2. The two months between beta and 1.0 are deliberately for real workloads to surface edge cases we can't manufacture in-house.



**v1.0.0 — Production-ready (target: 2026-07-07).** What 1.0 guarantees:



- **API & SQL stability** — semver from 1.0 onward. No breaking SQL or client-API changes within a major.

- **Wire protocol stability** — pgwire, HTTP, native MessagePack, RESP, ILP, WebSocket frozen.

- **On-disk format stability** — no breaking migrations within 1.x. Forward-compatible upgrades only.

- **Cluster & Raft stability** — rolling upgrades supported within 1.x; no quorum-breaking changes.

- **Performance SLAs** — published p50/p99 targets per engine, regression-gated in CI.

- **Security audit** — third-party audit completed and findings remediated before 1.0 ships.

- **Storage, backup, and recovery** — fully exercised under fault injection, sustained load, and crash-restart cycles.



Pre-1.0 versions may change internals between releases — those changes are critical-path work (storage, backup, security, recovery) that has to be hardened in real production conditions before we put a stability stamp on it. The wire protocol and SQL surface won't break; everything underneath is fair game until 1.0.



> **Note:** This release track applies to **NodeDB Origin** (the server) only. [NodeDB-Lite](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-lite), [`ndb` CLI](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-cli), and [NodeDB Studio](https://github.com/NodeDB-Lab/nodedb-studio) are versioned independently on their own tracks.



**Want to test or experiment with NodeDB?** Join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/s54gDMVc7B) — we provide full support for early adopters during the beta.



## Contributors





  NodeDB Contributors




## License



NodeDB uses a dual-license model:



- **Shared engine crates** (`nodedb-types`, `nodedb-vector`, `nodedb-graph`, `nodedb-fts`, `nodedb-spatial`, `nodedb-codec`, `nodedb-columnar`, `nodedb-array`, `nodedb-sql`, `nodedb-client`, `nodedb-query`, `nodedb-strict`) — [Apache 2.0](LICENSE-APACHE). Use them freely in your own projects, SDKs, and tools.

- **Server crates** (`nodedb`, `nodedb-wal`, `nodedb-raft`, `nodedb-cluster`, `nodedb-bridge`, `nodedb-mem`, `nodedb-crdt`) — [Business Source License 1.1](LICENSE). Free for any use except offering NodeDB as a hosted database service (DBaaS). Converts to Apache 2.0 on 2030-05-01.