turso

An in-process SQL database, compatible with SQLite, and now with a Postgres frontend too.

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About

Turso is an in-process SQL database written in Rust, compatible with SQLite. It runs in production today at multiple organizations.

Turso is also a virtual machine. Like SQLite, it compiles SQL into bytecode for that machine, the VDBE, and then runs the bytecode. That design is what lets one engine host more than one SQL dialect. SQLite is the first and primary frontend that compiles to it, and Postgres is now a frontend of its own, with its own dialect and wire protocol. More will follow. Our goal is to be for databases what LLVM is to compilers, with one modern and reliable core, and many frontends compiled down onto it.

How general is that core? General enough to run Doom on it.

See the FAQ for where the project stands on its way to 1.0.

Features and Roadmap

• SQLite compatibility for SQL dialect, file formats, and the C API, tracking SQLite version 3.50.4 [see document for details]
• BEGIN CONCURRENT for improved write throughput using multi-version concurrency control (MVCC).
• Change data capture (CDC) for real-time tracking of database changes.
• Multi-language support for
  • Go
  • JavaScript
  • Java
  • .NET
  • Python
  • Rust
  • WebAssembly
• Asynchronous I/O support on Linux with io_uring
• Cross-platform support for Linux, macOS, Windows and browsers (through WebAssembly)
• Vector support support including exact search and vector manipulation
• Improved schema management including extended ALTER support and faster schema changes.

The database has the following experimental features:

• Postgres compatibility for SQL dialect and wire protocol, see the see compatibility reference for details.
• Encryption at rest for protecting the data locally.
• Incremental computation using DBSP for incremental view maintenance and query subscriptions.
• Full-Text-Search powered by the awesome tantivy library
• Multi-process WAL coordination via the .tshm sidecar for cross-process WAL readers and writers.

The following features are on our current roadmap:

• Vector indexing for fast approximate vector search, similar to libSQL vector search.

Getting Started

Please see the Turso Database Manual for more information.

💻 Command Line

You can install the latest turso release with:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/tursodatabase/turso/releases/latest/download/turso_cli-installer.sh | sh

Then launch the interactive shell:

$ tursodb

This will start the Turso interactive shell where you can execute SQL statements:

Turso
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
Connected to a transient in-memory database.
Use ".open FILENAME" to reopen on a persistent database
turso> CREATE TABLE users (id INT, username TEXT);
turso> INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'alice');
turso> INSERT INTO users VALUES (2, 'bob');
turso> SELECT * FROM users;
1|alice
2|bob

You can also build and run the latest development version with:

cargo run

If you like docker, we got you covered. Simply run this in the root folder:

make docker-cli-build && \
make docker-cli-run

🦀 Rust

cargo add turso

Example usage:

let db = Builder::new_local("sqlite.db").build().await?;
let conn = db.connect()?;

let res = conn.query("SELECT * FROM users", ()).await?;

✨ JavaScript

npm i @tursodatabase/database

Example usage:

import { connect } from '@tursodatabase/database';

const db = await connect('sqlite.db');
const stmt = db.prepare('SELECT * FROM users');
const users = stmt.all();
console.log(users);

🐍 Python

uv pip install pyturso

Example usage:

import turso

con = turso.connect("sqlite.db")
cur = con.cursor()
res = cur.execute("SELECT * FROM users")
print(res.fetchone())

🦫 Go

go get turso.tech/database/tursogo
go install turso.tech/database/tursogo

Example usage:

import (
    "database/sql"
    _ "turso.tech/database/tursogo"
)

conn, _ = sql.Open("turso", "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)
}

️#️⃣ .NET

Example usage:

using Turso;

using var connection = new TursoConnection("Data Source=:memory:");
connection.Open();

connection.ExecuteNonQuery("CREATE TABLE t(a, b)");
var rowsAffected = connection.ExecuteNonQuery("INSERT INTO t(a, b) VALUES (1, 2), (3, 4)");
Console.WriteLine($"RowsAffected: {rowsAffected}");

using var command = connection.CreateCommand();
command.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM t";
using var reader = command.ExecuteReader();
while (reader.Read())
{
    var a = reader.GetInt32(0);
    var b = reader.GetInt32(1);
    Console.WriteLine($"Value1: {a}, Value2: {b}");
}

☕️ Java

We integrated Turso Database into JDBC. For detailed instructions on how to use Turso Database with java, please refer to the README.md under bindings/java.

🤖 MCP Server Mode

The Turso CLI includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants to interact with your databases.

Start the MCP server with:

tursodb your_database.db --mcp

Configuration

Add Turso to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "turso": {
      "command": "/path/to/.turso/tursodb",
      "args": ["/path/to/your/database.db", "--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

The MCP server provides nine tools for database interaction:

1. open_database - Open a new database
2. current_database - Describe the current database
3. list_tables - List all tables in the database
4. describe_table - Describe the structure of a specific table
5. execute_query - Execute read-only SELECT queries
6. insert_data - Insert new data into tables
7. update_data - Update existing data in tables
8. delete_data - Delete data from tables
9. schema_change - Execute schema modification statements (CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, DROP TABLE)

Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant:

• "Show me all tables in the database"
• "What's the schema for the users table?"
• "Find all posts with more than 100 upvotes"
• "Insert a new user with name 'Alice' and email 'alice@example.com'"

MCP Clients

Claude Code

If you're using Claude Code, you can easily connect to your Turso MCP server using the built-in MCP management commands:

Quick Setup

1. Add the MCP server to Claude Code:

   claude mcp add my-database -- tursodb ./path/to/your/database.db --mcp
   

2. Restart Claude Code to activate the connection

3. Start querying your database through natural language!

Command Breakdown

claude mcp add my-database -- tursodb ./path/to/your/database.db --mcp
#              ↑            ↑       ↑                           ↑
#              |            |       |                           |
#              Name         |       Database path               MCP flag
#                          Separator

• my-database - Choose any name for your MCP server
• -- - Required separator between Claude options and your command
• tursodb - The Turso database CLI
• ./path/to/your/database.db - Path to your SQLite database file
• --mcp - Enables MCP server mode

Example Usage

# For a local project database
cd /your/project
claude mcp add my-project-db -- tursodb ./data/app.db --mcp

# For an absolute path
claude mcp add analytics-db -- tursodb /Users/you/databases/analytics.db --mcp

# For a specific project (local scope)
claude mcp add project-db --local -- tursodb ./database.db --mcp

Managing MCP Servers

# List all configured MCP servers
claude mcp list

# Get details about a specific server
claude mcp get my-database

# Remove an MCP server
claude mcp remove my-database

Claude Desktop