Sombra - High-Performance Graph Database

⚠️ Alpha Software: Sombra is under active development. APIs may change, and the project is not yet recommended for production use. Feedback and contributions are welcome!

Sombra is a file-based graph database inspired by SQLite's single-file architecture. Built in Rust with a focus on reliability, performance, and ACID transactions.

Features

Core Features

Property Graph Model: Nodes, edges, and flexible properties
Single File Storage: SQLite-style database files
ACID Transactions: Full transactional support with rollback
Write-Ahead Logging: Crash-safe operations
Page-Based Storage: Efficient memory-mapped I/O

Performance Features ✨ NEW

Label Index: Fast label-based queries with O(1) lookup
LRU Node Cache: 90% hit rate for repeated reads
B-tree Primary Index: 25-40% memory reduction, better cache locality
Optimized Graph Traversals: 18-23x faster than SQLite for graph operations
Performance Metrics: Real-time monitoring of cache, queries, and traversals
Scalability Testing: Validated for 100K+ node graphs

Language Support

Rust API: Core library with full feature support
TypeScript/Node.js API: Complete NAPI bindings for JavaScript/TypeScript
Python API: PyO3 bindings with native performance (build with maturin -F python)
Cross-Platform: Linux, macOS, and Windows support

Reliability Features

Comprehensive Error Handling: All errors handled gracefully with Result types
Corruption Resistance: Safe deserialization with comprehensive validation
Structured Logging: Full tracing support with tracing crate
Health Monitoring: Built-in health checks and extended metrics
Graceful Shutdown: Clean database closure with WAL checkpoint
Resource Limits: Configurable limits for database size, WAL, and transactions
Database Inspector: CLI tools for inspection and repair

Testing & Quality

100+ Comprehensive Tests: Unit, integration, stress, and fuzz tests
Corruption Fuzzing: 10,000+ scenarios tested without crashes
Multi-Platform CI: Linux, macOS, Windows with full test coverage
Zero Clippy Warnings: Strict linting with -D warnings
Benchmark Suite: Performance regression testing

Quick Start

Rust API

use sombra::prelude::*;

// Open or create a database
let mut db = GraphDB::open("my_graph.db")?;

// Use transactions for safe operations
let mut tx = db.begin_transaction()?;

// Add nodes and edges
let user = tx.add_node(Node::new(0))?;
let post = tx.add_node(Node::new(1))?;
tx.add_edge(Edge::new(user, post, "AUTHORED"))?;

// Commit to make changes permanent
tx.commit()?;

// Query the graph
let neighbors = db.get_neighbors(user)?;
println!("User {} authored {} posts", user, neighbors.len());

// Create property indexes for fast queries
db.create_property_index("User", "age")?;
let users_age_30 = db.find_nodes_by_property("User", "age", &PropertyValue::Int(30))?;
println!("Found {} users aged 30", users_age_30.len());

TypeScript/Node.js API

import { SombraDB, SombraPropertyValue } from 'sombradb';

const db = new SombraDB('./my_graph.db');

const createProp = (type: 'string' | 'int' | 'float' | 'bool', value: any): SombraPropertyValue => ({
  type,
  value
});

const alice = db.addNode(['Person'], {
  name: createProp('string', 'Alice'),
  age: createProp('int', 30)
});

const bob = db.addNode(['Person'], {
  name: createProp('string', 'Bob'),
  age: createProp('int', 25)
});

const knows = db.addEdge(alice, bob, 'KNOWS', {
  since: createProp('int', 2020)
});

const aliceNode = db.getNode(alice);
console.log('Alice:', aliceNode);

const neighbors = db.getNeighbors(alice);
console.log(`Alice has ${neighbors.length} connections`);

const bfsResults = db.bfsTraversal(alice, 3);
console.log('BFS traversal:', bfsResults);

const tx = db.beginTransaction();
try {
  const charlie = tx.addNode(['Person'], {
    name: createProp('string', 'Charlie')
  });
  tx.addEdge(alice, charlie, 'KNOWS');
  tx.commit();
} catch (error) {
  tx.rollback();
  throw error;
}

db.flush();
db.checkpoint();

Python API

from sombra import SombraDB

db = SombraDB("./my_graph.db")

alice = db.add_node(["Person"], {"name": "Alice", "age": 30})
bob = db.add_node(["Person"], {"name": "Bob", "age": 25})

db.add_edge(alice, bob, "KNOWS", {"since": 2020})

node = db.get_node(alice)
print(f"Alice -> {node.labels}, properties={node.properties}")

neighbors = db.get_neighbors(alice)
print(f"Alice has {len(neighbors)} connections")

tx = db.begin_transaction()
try:
    charlie = tx.add_node(["Person"], {"name": "Charlie"})
    tx.add_edge(alice, charlie, "KNOWS")
    tx.commit()
except Exception:
    tx.rollback()
    raise

Installation

Rust

cargo add sombra

TypeScript/Node.js

npm install sombradb

Python

# Install from PyPI (coming soon)
pip install sombra

# Or build from source
pip install maturin
maturin build --release -F python
pip install target/wheels/sombra-*.whl

CLI Tools

Install the unified CLI for database inspection, repair, and verification:

# Via Cargo (recommended)
cargo install sombra

# The 'sombra' command will be available system-wide
sombra --help

The CLI is also bundled with npm and pip installations:

# Via npm
npm install -g sombradb
sombra inspect mydb.db info

# Via pip
pip install sombra
sombra verify mydb.db

See the CLI documentation for complete usage guide.

Architecture

Sombra is built in layers:

Storage Layer: Page-based file storage with 8KB pages
Pager Layer: In-memory caching and dirty page tracking
WAL Layer: Write-ahead logging for crash safety
Transaction Layer: ACID transaction support
Graph API: High-level graph operations
NAPI Bindings: TypeScript/Node.js interface layer

Documentation

Getting Started

Getting Started Guide - Quick start tutorial
Configuration Guide - Configuration options and tuning
Operations Guide - Production deployment and monitoring
Migration Guide - Upgrading from 0.1.x to 0.2.0

Language-Specific Guides

Python Guide - Using Sombra from Python
Node.js Guide - Using Sombra from TypeScript/JavaScript
CLI Tools - Command-line tools for inspection, repair, and verification

Technical Documentation

Architecture - System architecture and design
Transaction Design - ACID transaction implementation
Data Model - Graph data structure details
B-tree Index Implementation - Primary index details
Performance Metrics - Monitoring and observability

Development

Contributing - Development guidelines
Roadmap - Future development plans
API Documentation - Complete API reference

Testing

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run transaction tests specifically
cargo test transactions

# Run smoke tests
cargo test smoke

# Run stress tests
cargo test stress

Performance

Phase 1 Optimizations ✅ COMPLETE

Sombra now includes production-ready performance optimizations:

Optimization	Improvement	Status
Label Index	Fast O(1) label queries	✅ Complete
Node Cache	90% hit rate for repeated reads	✅ Complete
B-tree Index	25-40% memory reduction	✅ Complete
Metrics System	Real-time monitoring	✅ Complete

Benchmark Results (100K nodes):

Node Lookups:    ~1.5M ops/sec
Neighbor Queries: ~9.9M ops/sec  
Index Memory:    25% reduction (3.2MB → 2.4MB)
Cache Hit Rate:  90% after warmup

Graph Traversal Performance (vs SQLite):

Medium Dataset: 7,778 ops/sec vs 452 ops/sec (18x faster)
Large Dataset: 1,092 ops/sec vs 48 ops/sec (23x faster)

Running Benchmarks

# Index performance comparison
cargo bench --bench index_benchmark --features benchmarks

# BFS traversal performance
cargo bench --bench small_read_benchmark --features benchmarks

# Scalability testing (50K-500K nodes)
cargo bench --bench scalability_benchmark --features benchmarks

# Performance metrics demo
cargo run --example performance_metrics_demo --features benchmarks

Current Status

Version 0.3.2 - Alpha

Core Features:

Core graph operations (nodes, edges, properties)
Page-based storage with B-tree indexing (25-40% memory savings)
Write-ahead logging (WAL) for crash recovery
ACID transactions with rollback support
Label secondary index with O(1) lookup
LRU node cache (90% hit rate)
Adjacency indexing for fast traversals (18-23x faster than SQLite)
Property-based indexes for O(log n) queries
Multi-reader concurrency support (100+ concurrent readers)

Quality & Reliability:

✅ Comprehensive error handling with graceful degradation
✅ Corruption resistance - 10,000+ fuzzing scenarios
✅ Structured logging - Full tracing support
✅ Health monitoring - Extended metrics and health checks
✅ Graceful shutdown - Clean close() method
✅ Resource limits - Configurable size/timeout limits
✅ CLI tools - Inspector and repair utilities
✅ 100+ tests passing - Unit, integration, stress, fuzz
✅ Complete documentation - API docs, guides, examples
✅ Multi-platform CI - Linux, macOS, Windows

Language Bindings:

✅ Rust API (native)
✅ Python bindings (PyO3)
✅ TypeScript/Node.js bindings (NAPI)

🚀 Roadmap to Production (v1.0)

In Progress:

Real-world testing and feedback collection
API stabilization and versioning strategy
Performance optimization and profiling

Planned Features:

Page-level checksums for data integrity validation
MVCC for improved concurrency
Query planner with cost-based optimization
Replication and high availability
Backup/restore utilities
Performance dashboard
Production deployment case studies

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release notes and docs/roadmap.md for future plans.

Examples

See the tests/ directory for comprehensive examples:

tests/smoke.rs - Basic usage patterns
tests/stress.rs - Performance and scalability
tests/transactions.rs - Transaction usage examples

License

This project is open source. See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

See Contributing Guidelines for information on how to contribute to Sombra.

sombra 0.3.2