liven 0.0.2

Stream. Process. Store. One Engine.

Liven is a database built for data that moves. It ingests streaming data, transforms it on the fly, and stores it durably — all with a single pipeline query language. One binary.

# Install via crates.io
cargo install liven

# Launch the server
liven start

# One-liner install (Linux & macOS)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://livendb.com/install | sh

Why Liven?

Databases today make you choose: batch or stream? Historical or real-time? Key-value or vector? Liven was built to erase those lines.

One query language, two modes:

• Historical queries against stored data
• Real-time subscriptions on the same pipeline — just add .listen()

One engine, three deployment models:

• Embedded library (~1.5 MB) — runs inside your Rust process
• Network server — TCP + WebSocket, thousands of clients
• Interactive TUI or web dashboard — for ad-hoc queries and monitoring

Built-in capabilities that usually require separate systems:

• Vector similarity search (int8 quantized, cosine similarity)
• Stream joins (time-bounded correlate, multi-hop chain)
• Event pattern detection (sequence FSM)
• Time-windowed aggregations
• Full-text substring matching

Quick Start

# Launch the server
cargo build --release
./target/release/liven start
# → Open http://localhost:43120
# → Admin auth key printed on first start — save it

# Insert and query
liven query 'from("events").insert("e1", {type: "click"})'
liven query 'from("events") | filter(type == "click") | count()'

# Live subscription
liven query 'from("events") | filter(priority == "high") .listen()'

Embedded in Rust

[dependencies]
liven = { version = "0.0", default-features = false }

For a minimal embedded build with no server, TUI, or TLS:

use liven::Liven;

let db = Liven::open("./data")?;
db.query(r#"from("events").insert("e1", {type: "click"})"#)?;
let results = db.query(r#"from("events") | filter(type == "click")"#)?;

Full documentation →

How It Works (at a glance)

flowchart LR
    Client -->|query / subscribe| Query[Pipeline Query<br/>Engine]
    Query -->|write| Storage[Append-Only<br/>Storage]
    Query -->|read| Index[In-Memory Index]
    Storage -->|flusher updates| Index
    Index -->|point lookup| Query
    Index -->|broadcast| Subscriber[Live Subscribers]

• Writes are appended to segment files. A background flusher batches them for throughput without sacrificing durability.
• Reads go through a lock-free in-memory index. Point lookups resolve in microseconds.
• Subscriptions broadcast every write to all listeners. The server evaluates pipeline filters before delivery.
• Compaction reclaims space from deleted records automatically.
• Recovery replays segments on startup. Checksums catch corruption.

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install liven

From source

git clone https://github.com/livendb/liven
cd liven
cargo build --release
./target/release/liven start

Before building with the server feature, build the Web UI first:

cd ui && npm ci --legacy-peer-deps && npm run build && cd ..

Or skip the dashboard entirely: cargo build --no-default-features

Docker

docker run -p 43121:43121 -p 43120:43120 ghcr.io/livendb/liven

Package managers

Pre-built packages for each platform are available on the GitHub Releases page.

Logs

Liven logs to stdout/stderr. View logs based on your platform:

Advanced: Set RUST_LOG=debug or RUST_LOG=trace for verbose output.

Security

Auth-key mode (default)

Symmetric keys with BLAKE3 hashing. Four role levels:

Keys can be generated, revoked, and role-changed at runtime via the Web UI or REST API — no server restart required.

mTLS / ZTNA

Mutual TLS with X.509 certificates. Client CN maps to capabilities. Single-port mode multiplexes cleartext and TLS on the same listener.

Master key

Stored in ./liven.key (mode 0600). Override with LIVEN_SECURITY_MASTER_KEY environment variable.

Feature flags

Liven uses Cargo feature flags for modular builds.

The default feature enables everything by pulling in full, which bundles all three optional capabilities.

# Minimal embedded build (no server, no TUI, no TLS)
cargo build --release --no-default-features

# Embedded with TLS support
cargo build --release --no-default-features --features tls

Licensing

SSPL 1.0 OR Commercial

• SSPL — Free for self-hosting, development, and personal use.
• Commercial — Required for managed services or proprietary embedding.

Contact team@livendb.com for commercial licensing.

Full license →

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on submitting pull requests, code style, and development setup.

All contributors are expected to follow our Code of Conduct.