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Show HN: rqlite and Docker and SQLite-vec – highly-available Vector Search

by otoolep on 8/15/24, 5:27 PM with 0 comments

Hi -- I'm the creator of rqlite[1], a lightweight distributed database built on SQLite.

Recently I released support for SQL Extensions[2], making it possible to load extensions into rqlite at launch time. This has opened up a bunch of new possibilities for the database. I have now taken it one step further, and baked a bunch of SQLite extensions into the rqlite Docker images[3].

All of this means that rqlite can be deployed as highly-available Vector Search database in a matter of seconds, thanks to the convenience of Docker and loading sqlite-vec[4] -- but all in a lightweight, easy-to-use manner:

Launch an rqlite node with vector search enabled:

docker run -e SQLITE_EXTENSIONS='sqlite-vec' -p4001:4001 rqlite/rqlite

Set up vector search tables using the rqlite shell:

127.0.0.1:4001> CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE vec_examples USING vec0(sample_embedding float[8])

This feels like a promising new product area for rqlite -- super easy to use, network accessible Vector Search, all in a highly available package if you want that. I'm looking for any and all feedback, as this is a very new area for rqlite (SQLite extensions, and new types of search).

[1] https://rqlite.io

[2] https://www.philipotoole.com/rqlite-8-27-loadable-sqlite-ext...

[3] https://www.philipotoole.com/rqlite-828-enhanced-docker-supp...

[4] https://github.com/asg017/sqlite-vec