Crate pglite_oxide 

pglite-oxide

Embedded Postgres for Rust tests and local apps.
Real PostgreSQL. Instant testing. Packaged runtime. Direct Rust API or a local Postgres URL.

Usage · Performance · Extensions · Dump & Upgrade · Testing · Tauri

pglite-oxide brings PGlite/Postgres to Rust with a small API. Open a database directly with Pglite, or hand PgliteServer to SQLx and any standard Postgres client. The packaged runtime is PostgreSQL 17.5. No local Postgres install, no Docker, no runtime build toolchain.

Add Postgres In One Minute ⚡

Already using SQLx or another Postgres client? Add the crate and point your client at an embedded database URL:

cargo add pglite-oxide

use pglite_oxide::PgliteServer;
use sqlx::{Connection, Row};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let server = PgliteServer::temporary_tcp()?;
    // For a persistent TCP server:
    // let server = PgliteServer::builder().path("./.pglite").start()?;
    let mut conn = sqlx::PgConnection::connect(&server.database_url()).await?;

    let row = sqlx::query("SELECT $1::int4 + 1 AS answer")
        .bind(41_i32)
        .fetch_one(&mut conn)
        .await?;
    assert_eq!(row.try_get::<i32, _>("answer")?, 42);

    conn.close().await?;
    server.shutdown()?;
    Ok(())
}

That’s it. Real PostgreSQL, no service setup.

Why pglite-oxide ✨

Postgres should be as easy to add to a Rust project as SQLite.

• ⚡ No service tax: no Docker, no local Postgres, no testcontainers.
• 🔌 Use your real stack: SQLx, tokio-postgres, CLIs, and other clients connect through a normal local URL.
• 🌉 Proxy included: expose an embedded database to non-Rust tools with pglite-proxy.
• 🧪 Clean tests: temporary databases are isolated, fast, and removed on drop.
• 💾 Persistent apps: keep local app data across restarts when you want it.
• 🧩 Extensions included: pgvector, pg_trgm, hstore, citext, and more.
• 📦 Portable dumps: use bundled pg_dump for logical backups and upgrade paths.
• 🚀 Near-native feel: close to native Postgres, fully embedded.

Near-Native Performance 🚀

Current local snapshot on Apple M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM, and macOS 26.4.1. Full numbers and reproduction steps live in the performance guide. Lower is better.

Operation	native pg + SQLx	pglite-oxide + SQLx	vanilla PGlite + SQLx
25,000 INSERTs in one transaction	132.36 ms	149.54 ms	257.02 ms
25,000 INSERTs in one statement	46.14 ms	59.39 ms	117.19 ms
25,000 INSERTs into an indexed table	188.72 ms	253.38 ms	352.64 ms
5,000 indexed SELECTs	81.39 ms	125.31 ms	203.05 ms
25,000 indexed UPDATEs	351.05 ms	578.96 ms	720.63 ms

pglite-oxide stays close to native Postgres while running entirely embedded and consistently performs better than vanilla PGlite.

Extensions 🧩

Bundled extensions are supported, including pgvector, pg_trgm, hstore, citext, ltree, and more. See the extensions guide for the full catalog and usage details.

use pglite_oxide::{extensions, PgliteServer};
use sqlx::Connection;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let server = PgliteServer::builder()
        .path("./.pglite")
        .extension(extensions::VECTOR)
        .start()?;
    let mut conn = sqlx::PgConnection::connect(&server.database_url()).await?;

    sqlx::query("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS items (embedding vector(3))")
        .execute(&mut conn)
        .await?;
    sqlx::query("INSERT INTO items VALUES ('[1,2,3]')")
        .execute(&mut conn)
        .await?;

    conn.close().await?;
    server.shutdown()?;
    Ok(())
}

Docs

• Usage guide
• Extensions
• Performance guide
• Dump and upgrade guide
• Testing guide
• Tauri usage
• Runtime guide

Modules

extensions

Structs

DatabaseError

DescribeQueryParam

DescribeQueryResult

DescribeResultField

ExecProtocolOptions

ExecProtocolResult

FieldInfo

GlobalListenerHandle

ListenerHandle

NoticeMessage

PgDumpOptions

Options for the bundled WASIX pg_dump runner.

Pglite

Primary entry point for interacting with the embedded Postgres runtime.

PgliteBuilder

Builder for opening persistent or temporary Pglite databases.

PgliteError

Rich error type that mirrors the TypeScript PGliteError by carrying the original database error along with query context.

PgliteServer

A supervised local PostgreSQL socket backed by one embedded PGlite runtime.

PgliteServerBuilder

Builder for PgliteServer.

PostgresConfig

PostgreSQL startup configuration applied through normal postgres -c GUC handling before the embedded backend starts.

QueryOptions

QueryTemplate

Results

TemplatedQuery

Transaction

Transaction handle used within Pglite::transaction.

Enums

BackendMessage

DataDirArchiveFormat

Compression format for physical PGDATA archives.

DataTransferContainer

RowMode

Row output mode matching the TypeScript RowMode.

Functions

format_query

quote_identifier

Type Aliases

NoticeCallback

ParserMap

Serializer

SerializerMap

TypeParser

Parser function used to convert textual Postgres values into richer Rust values. Mirrors the signature of the TypeScript parser callbacks.