BoxDB

A database for your $5 VPS.

SQLite with validated logical types, native exact decimals and temporal values, for Rust, TypeScript, Go and the command line. Keep application data in a binary SQLite file, or choose readable YAML for small Git-tracked datasets.

Website & documentation · Quickstart · Releases · API reference

Experimental, version 0. APIs and BoxDB storage contracts may change. Binary files keep SQLite's standard page and record encoding; native values and indexes require BoxDB's patched engine.

Try it

Install the standalone CLI with Homebrew:

brew install lebedev-nikita/tap/boxdb

Or use npm with Node.js 22.18+ on macOS ARM64 or Linux x64/ARM64 with glibc 2.35+ (Ubuntu 22.04+ or 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm+):

npm install -g @boxdb/cli

Then run:

boxdb data.db -e "
  CREATE TABLE invoices(id INT64 PRIMARY KEY, amount DECIMAL(12,2));
  INSERT INTO invoices(amount) VALUES('0.10'),('0.20');
  SELECT SUM(amount) AS total FROM invoices;
"

The exact total is 0.3. Bind decimal strings for exact input. Run boxdb data.db for the interactive shell, or follow the quickstart to query, inspect and back up a database. Standalone binaries are available in releases.

Choose your client

Client	Installation	Documentation
TypeScript / Node.js / Bun	`npm install @boxdb/client`	Client guide
Rust	`cargo add boxdb`	Client guide · API
Go	Go module plus matching native library	Installation and database/sql
CLI	`brew install lebedev-nikita/tap/boxdb` or `npm install -g @boxdb/cli`	Command-line guide

For TypeScript integrations, use the Drizzle, Better Auth or db0 adapter. For AI-assisted projects, use the BoxDB usage skill.

Why BoxDB?

Types with meaning. Bounded signed/unsigned integers, enums, exact decimals, UUIDs, UTC instants, calendar values, intervals and typed arrays. Ordinary tables are STRICT by default.
A shared core. The same validation, SQL migrations and storage across clients. The TypeScript client executes SQL on a native worker.
Built-in SQL tools. FTS5, R*Tree, vector search, Unicode text and regular expressions, without runtime extension loading.
Two storage choices. Binary SQLite for application data; readable YAML for small datasets you want to review as text.

BoxDB is intended for single-server applications. It has no built-in remote server or distributed writes. Readable storage executes in memory, has one writer per file and writes a complete snapshot on commit. JSON is a validated opaque document; SQL JSON/JSONB processing is disabled.

Read the fit and tradeoffs before adoption. See benchmark methodology to measure your workload.

Documentation

Start at the documentation index, or go directly to:

SQL and types, exact decimals and temporal values.
Storage and validation, change history and SQL extensions.
Migrations and schema export.
Deployment and backups, Litestream replication, diagnostics and recovery and client errors.
FAQ.

Contribute

See CONTRIBUTING.md for prerequisites, checks and pull requests. With the development toolchain installed, run just check; use just --list for focused commands. Build from source with cargo install --path . --locked. See npm releases and Rust releases for package publication, and website development for GitHub Pages.