Project Limbo
Limbo is a project to build the modern evolution of SQLite.
---
## Features and Roadmap
Limbo is a _work-in-progress_, in-process OLTP database engine library written in Rust that has:
* **Asynchronous I/O** support on Linux with `io_uring`
* **SQLite compatibility** [[doc](COMPAT.md)] for SQL dialect, file formats, and the C API
* **Language bindings** for JavaScript/WebAssembly, Rust, Go, Python, and [Java](bindings/java)
* **OS support** for Linux, macOS, and Windows
In the future, we will be also working on:
* **Integrated vector search** for embeddings and vector similarity.
* **`BEGIN CONCURRENT`** for improved write throughput.
* **Improved schema management** including better `ALTER` support and strict column types by default.
## Getting Started
💻 Command Line
You can install the latest `limbo` release with:
```shell
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
https://github.com/tursodatabase/limbo/releases/latest/download/limbo_cli-installer.sh | sh
```
Then launch the shell to execute SQL statements:
```console
Limbo
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
Connected to a transient in-memory database.
Use ".open FILENAME" to reopen on a persistent database
limbo> CREATE TABLE users (id INT PRIMARY KEY, username TEXT);
limbo> INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'alice');
limbo> INSERT INTO users VALUES (2, 'bob');
limbo> SELECT * FROM users;
1|alice
2|bob
```
You can also build and run the latest development version with:
```shell
cargo run
```
✨ JavaScript
```console
npm i limbo-wasm
```
Example usage:
```js
import { Database } from 'limbo-wasm';
const db = new Database('sqlite.db');
const stmt = db.prepare('SELECT * FROM users');
const users = stmt.all();
console.log(users);
```
🐍 Python
```console
pip install pylimbo
```
Example usage:
```python
import limbo
con = limbo.connect("sqlite.db")
cur = con.cursor()
res = cur.execute("SELECT * FROM users")
print(res.fetchone())
```
🐹 Go
1. Clone the repository
2. Build the library and set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include limbo's target directory
```console
cargo build --package limbo-go
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/limbo/target/debug:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
```
3. Use the driver
```console
go get github.com/tursodatabase/limbo
go install github.com/tursodatabase/limbo
```
Example usage:
```go
import (
"database/sql"
_"github.com/tursodatabase/limbo"
)
conn, _ = sql.Open("sqlite3", "sqlite.db")
defer conn.Close()
stmt, _ := conn.Prepare("select * from users")
defer stmt.Close()
rows, _ = stmt.Query()
for rows.Next() {
var id int
var username string
_ := rows.Scan(&id, &username)
fmt.Printf("User: ID: %d, Username: %s\n", id, username)
}
```
☕️ Java
We integrated Limbo into JDBC. For detailed instructions on how to use Limbo with java, please refer to
the [README.md under bindings/java](bindings/java/README.md).
## Contributing
We'd love to have you contribute to Limbo! Please check out the [contribution guide] to get started.
## FAQ
### How is Limbo different from Turso's libSQL?
Limbo is a project to build the modern evolution of SQLite in Rust, with a strong open contribution focus and features like native async support, vector search, and more. The libSQL project is also an attempt to evolve SQLite in a similar direction, but through a fork rather than a rewrite.
Rewriting SQLite in Rust started as an unassuming experiment, and due to its incredible success, replaces libSQL as our intended direction. At this point, libSQL is production ready, Limbo is not - although it is evolving rapidly. As the project starts to near production readiness, we plan to rename it to just "Turso". More details [here](https://turso.tech/blog/we-will-rewrite-sqlite-and-we-are-going-all-in).
## Publications
* Pekka Enberg, Sasu Tarkoma, Jon Crowcroft Ashwin Rao (2024). Serverless Runtime / Database Co-Design With Asynchronous I/O. In _EdgeSys ‘24_. [[PDF]](https://penberg.org/papers/penberg-edgesys24.pdf)
* Pekka Enberg, Sasu Tarkoma, and Ashwin Rao (2023). Towards Database and Serverless Runtime Co-Design. In _CoNEXT-SW ’23_. [[PDF](https://penberg.org/papers/penberg-conext-sw-23.pdf)] [[Slides](https://penberg.org/papers/penberg-conext-sw-23-slides.pdf)]
## License
This project is licensed under the [MIT license].
### Contribution
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted
for inclusion in Limbo by you, shall be licensed as MIT, without any additional
terms or conditions.
[contribution guide]: https://github.com/tursodatabase/limbo/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
[MIT license]: https://github.com/tursodatabase/limbo/blob/main/LICENSE.md
## Contributors
Thanks to all the contributors to Limbo!
