beaver is a simple, local, and embedded database designed to manage complex, modern data types without requiring a database server, built on top of SQLite.
beaver is built with a minimalistic philosophy for small, local use cases where a full-blown database server would be overkill.
- Minimal Dependencies: The core library has minimal dependencies (
numpy,pydantic,rich,typer). Advanced features (like the REST server) are optional extras. - Safe Concurrency: Thread-safe and multi-process-safe by default, with robust inter-process locking.
- Local-First: A single, portable SQLite file is the default.
- Fast & Performant: Zero network latency for local operations and an optional, in-memory read cache.
- Standard SQLite: The database file is 100% compatible with any standard SQLite tool, ensuring data portability.
- Pythonic API: Designed to feel like a natural extension of your code, using standard Python data structures and Pydantic models.
Install the core library:
pip install beaver-dbTo include optional features, you can install them as extras:
# For the REST API server and client
pip install "beaver-db[remote]"
# To install all optional features at once
pip install "beaver-db[full]"You can also run the BeaverDB REST API server using Docker.
docker pull ghcr.io/syalia-srl/beaver:latest
docker run -p 8000:8000 -v $(pwd)/data:/app ghcr.io/syalia-srl/beaverGet up and running in 30 seconds. This example showcases a dictionary, a list, and full-text search in a single script.
from beaver import BeaverDB, Document
# 1. Initialize the database
db = BeaverDB("data.db")
# 2. Use a namespaced dictionary for app configuration
config = db.dict("app_config")
config["theme"] = "dark"
print(f"Theme set to: {config['theme']}")
# 3. Use a persistent list to manage a task queue
tasks = db.list("daily_tasks")
tasks.push("Write the project report")
tasks.push("Deploy the new feature")
print(f"First task is: {tasks[0]}")
# 4. Use a collection for document storage and search
articles = db.collection("articles")
doc = Document(
id="sqlite-001",
body="SQLite is a powerful embedded database ideal for local apps.",
)
articles.index(doc)
# Perform a full-text search
results = articles.match(query="database")
top_doc, rank = results[0]
print(f"FTS Result: '{top_doc.body}'")
db.close()- Key-Value Dictionaries: A Pythonic, dictionary-like interface for storing any JSON-serializable object or Pydantic model within separate namespaces. Includes TTL support for caching.
- Blob Storage: A dictionary-like interface for storing binary data (e.g., images, PDFs) with associated JSON metadata.
- Persistent Lists: A full-featured, persistent Python list supporting
push,pop,prepend,deque, slicing, and in-place updates. - Persistent Priority Queue: A high-performance, persistent priority queue perfect for task orchestration across multiple processes.
- Probabilistic Sketches: Track cardinality and membership for millions of items in constant space using HyperLogLog and Bloom Filters.
- Document Collections: Store rich documents combining a vector embedding and Pydantic-based metadata.
- Vector Search: Fast, multi-process-safe linear vector search using an in-memory
numpy-based index. - Full-Text & Fuzzy Search: Automatically index and search through document metadata using SQLite's FTS5 engine, with optional fuzzy search for typo-tolerant matching.
- Knowledge Graph: Create directed, labeled relationships between documents and traverse the graph to find neighbors or perform multi-hop walks.
- Pub/Sub System: A powerful, thread and process-safe publish-subscribe system for real-time messaging with a fan-out architecture.
- Time-Indexed Logs: A specialized data structure for structured, time-series logs. Query historical data by time range or create a live, aggregated view.
- Event-Driven Callbacks: Listen for database changes in real-time. Subscribe to events on specific managers to trigger workflows or update UIs.
- Inter-Process Locking: Robust, deadlock-proof locks. Use
db.lock('task_name')to coordinate arbitrary scripts, orwith db.list('my_list') as l:to perform atomic, multi-step operations. - Pydantic Support: Optionally associate
pydantic.BaseModels with any data structure for automatic, recursive data validation and (de)serialization. - Deployment: Instantly serve your database over a RESTful API with
beaver serveand interact with it via thebeaverCLI. - Data Export & Backups: Dump any data structure to a portable JSON file with a single
.dump()command.
For a complete API reference, in-depth guides, and more examples, please visit the official documentation at:
Contributions are welcome! If you think of something that would make beaver more useful for your use case, please open an issue or submit a pull request.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
