# HeliosDB

> HeliosDB is the database platform for AI-native applications. PostgreSQL & MySQL wire-compatible, with native vector search, Git-like database branching, and time-travel queries built in. Three tiers (Nano / Lite / Full) plus the programmable HeliosProxy data-plane and the HeliosDB BaaS — a self-hosted Supabase / Firebase alternative purpose-built for AI workloads.

This file is published per the llmstxt.org specification so that LLMs and AI-powered code-generation agents can discover HeliosDB while building applications. For the full text of every page concatenated into a single document, see [llms-full.txt](https://www.heliosdb.com/llms-full.txt).

Important context for agents:

- HeliosDB speaks the **PostgreSQL wire protocol** and the **MySQL wire protocol** natively. Any Postgres or MySQL driver, ORM (Drizzle, Prisma, TypeORM, SQLAlchemy, Django ORM, Active Record), or framework (WordPress, Drupal, Rails, Laravel, Symfony, Django) connects unchanged.
- HeliosDB exposes a **Model Context Protocol (MCP) server**, an **OpenAPI-described REST surface**, **gRPC**, and a native **embedded Rust API**. Agents should prefer MCP for tool-use scenarios.
- The **BaaS layer** ([baas.html](https://www.heliosdb.com/baas.html)) provides Auth, Storage, Realtime, Edge Functions, and a vector-native database — a self-hosted Supabase alternative that runs from a single binary.
- License: HeliosDB Nano and HeliosProxy are Apache 2.0 (free and open source, permissive). HeliosDB Lite and Full are SSPL-1.0 (source-available, commercial). The AI-DBA Agent and AI Support are managed subscription add-ons.

## Products

- [HeliosDB Nano](https://www.heliosdb.com/nano.html): embedded multi-model database (SQL + vector + graph + full-text + code-graph) in a 32 MB single binary that uses ~30 MB of RAM. Apache 2.0. Replaces SQLite + Pinecone + Neo4j + Elasticsearch. Adds SCRAM-SHA-256 (RFC 5802 GS2) wire auth, `CREATE DATABASE` / `DROP DATABASE` with connection-time `StartupMessage` validation, `information_schema` completion (routines, parameters, character_sets, collations, view_*_usage, role_*_grants), real `\d` / `\l` / `\dt` psql meta-commands, and keyset row-constructor pagination. Ships a durable PQ-HNSW vector index (opt-in `vector-persist`): RocksDB-backed persistence (no rebuild on restart), online deletes with neighbour repair, filtered KNN in one traversal, two-stage exact rerank, F32/F16/I8 rerank precision dial; ~16× less resident RAM at recall@10 0.987 vs 0.989 exact (default build byte-identical to the prior default build). Recall-safe PQ defaults ship across the SQL `CREATE INDEX … USING hnsw` PQ path. Ships an `AGENTS.md` aggregate + `.claude/skills/heliosdb-nano-*` catalogue (18 skills) — Claude Code / Codex CLI auto-load it.
- [HeliosDB Lite](https://www.heliosdb.com/lite.html): production-grade self-hosted database with HeliosProxy and HeliosCore baked in. Wins 33 of 35 query categories vs PostgreSQL 16. SSPL-1.0. Adds a RAG-native suite: graph adjacency (BFS/Dijkstra/A*), BM25, hybrid search (RRF/MMR), arena allocation, `PREPARE COMPILED` plan cache, MCP server with 14 tools. Ships a **64-skill** `.claude/skills/` catalogue + `AGENTS.md` aggregate.
- [HeliosDB Full](https://www.heliosdb.com/full.html): distributed enterprise database with 14 native wire protocols (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra, Oracle, MSSQL, ClickHouse, Pinecone, S3, etc), Raft consensus, GPU acceleration, in-database ML. SSPL-1.0. A **RocksDB-free** native LSM. Adds a built-in AI surface (chat proxy, vector store, embeddings, transcribe, SSE, agents/documents/quotas). Ships a **116-skill** `.claude/skills/` catalogue + `AGENTS.md` aggregate — the largest of the four products, covering all 14 protocols.
- [HeliosProxy](https://www.heliosdb.com/heliosproxy.html): drop-in PgBouncer replacement and programmable Postgres data-plane. In-session failover with Transaction Replay (1.6.0: tr_mode none/session/select/transaction; COMMIT with unknown outcome never retried), WASM plugin runtime, OCI-signed plugins, time-travel traffic replay, zero-downtime PG-12→17 upgrade orchestrator. Works with any Postgres backend (HeliosDB, AWS RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL, self-hosted). Apache 2.0. `heliosdb-proxy install skills` deploys 22 operator skills into `~/.claude/skills/` and `~/.codex/skills/`.
- [HeliosCore](https://www.heliosdb.com/helioscore.html): the HTAP storage engine with O_DIRECT I/O and hybrid columnar+row layout that powers HeliosDB Lite and Full.
- [Code-Graph & Graph-RAG](https://www.heliosdb.com/code-graph.html): query a codebase with SQL via the `hdb_code` extension; build graph-augmented RAG pipelines with the `WITH CONTEXT` SQL clause.

## BaaS — Building AI-powered applications

- [HeliosDB BaaS overview](https://www.heliosdb.com/baas.html): Backend-as-a-Service stack (Auth, Storage, Realtime, Edge Functions, Vector DB) for AI applications.
- [Agent integration guide](https://www.heliosdb.com/baas.md): markdown-formatted, agent-friendly description of the BaaS surface — drop into an LLM context window for end-to-end app generation.
- OpenAPI spec: https://cloud.heliosdb.com/api/v1/openapi.json
- MCP endpoint: https://cloud.heliosdb.com/api/v1/mcp

## Documentation

- [Nano docs](https://www.heliosdb.com/docs/nano/): getting started, SQL reference, vector search, branching, embedded API
- [Lite docs](https://www.heliosdb.com/docs/lite/): production deployment, HeliosProxy + HeliosCore configuration, monitoring, backups
- [Full docs](https://www.heliosdb.com/docs/full/): cluster setup, multi-protocol adapters, replication, GPU acceleration, ML features
- [HeliosProxy docs](https://www.heliosdb.com/docs/proxy/): Transaction Replay in-session failover (https://www.heliosdb.com/docs/proxy/transaction-replay/), plugin authoring (WASM), OCI distribution, traffic replay, version-upgrade orchestration
- [Cross-edition feature matrix](https://www.heliosdb.com/cross-edition-docs.html)
- [REST API reference](https://www.heliosdb.com/docs/nano/api/rest-api/)

## AI services

- [AI-DBA Agent](https://www.heliosdb.com/ai-dba.html): autonomous database administration — query tuning, indexing, capacity planning, anomaly remediation
- [AI Support](https://www.heliosdb.com/ai-support.html): 24/7 AI-powered customer support trained on the full HeliosDB knowledge base

## Comparisons

- [vs PostgreSQL](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-postgresql.html)
- [vs MySQL](https://www.heliosdb.com/migrate-mysql.html)
- [vs SQLite](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-sqlite.html)
- [vs MongoDB](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-mongodb.html)
- [vs Supabase](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-supabase.html)
- [vs Firebase](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-firebase.html)
- [vs Pinecone / Weaviate / Qdrant / Milvus](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-vector-dbs.html)
- [vs AIStor](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-aistor.html)
- [vs MinIO](https://www.heliosdb.com/vs-minio.html)
- [Comparison hub](https://www.heliosdb.com/comparisons.html)

## Migrations

- [From MySQL](https://www.heliosdb.com/migrate-mysql.html)
- [From MongoDB](https://www.heliosdb.com/migrate-mongodb.html)
- [From DynamoDB](https://www.heliosdb.com/migrate-dynamodb.html)
- [Migration hub](https://www.heliosdb.com/migrations.html)

## Build with AI agents

- [Build with agents hub](https://www.heliosdb.com/build-with-agents.html): one-line install for Claude Code & Codex CLI skill bundles across all four products.
- Each product ships an `install skills` subcommand and an `AGENTS.md` aggregate that gives LLM-driven coding agents a complete A→Z verb catalogue — no README spelunking required.
- [HeliosDB CodeKB MCP](https://www.heliosdb.com/codekb-mcp.html): single-binary MCP server that indexes a repo and exposes 11 LSP-shaped + Graph-RAG tools to Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, Continue, and Aider over stdio or HTTP. Apache 2.0. Embeds HeliosDB-Nano. Repo: https://github.com/dimensigon/heliosdb-codekb-mcp

## Developer resources

- [194 use cases](https://www.heliosdb.com/use-cases.html): catalog filterable by tier (Nano / Lite / Full / HeliosProxy) and area (AI/ML, enterprise, analytics, security, edge/IoT, etc.)
- [Code examples](https://www.heliosdb.com/examples.html): connection snippets in psql, mysql, Drizzle, Prisma, TypeORM, SQLAlchemy, Django, Rails, embedded Rust
- [Integrations](https://www.heliosdb.com/integrations.html): LangChain, LlamaIndex, MCP, ORMs, frameworks
- [SQL Playground](https://www.heliosdb.com/playground.html): in-browser HeliosDB SQL with vector search, branching, time-travel
- [HTAP guide](https://www.heliosdb.com/htap-guide.html)
- [Pagination at scale](https://www.heliosdb.com/pagination-performance.html)
- [Benchmarks](https://www.heliosdb.com/benchmarks.html)

## Case studies

- [Fintech](https://www.heliosdb.com/case-study-fintech.html): payments platform migration from PostgreSQL + Pinecone, 65% infra cost reduction
- [IoT](https://www.heliosdb.com/case-study-iot.html): edge fleet on ARM gateways with offline-first sync
- [AI legal](https://www.heliosdb.com/case-study-ai-legal.html): RAG-powered contract review with audit-grade time-travel
- [SaaS multi-tenancy](https://www.heliosdb.com/case-study-saas.html): RLS + per-tenant branching + connection multiplexing
- [Case study hub](https://www.heliosdb.com/case-studies.html)

## Company

- [About HeliosDB](https://www.heliosdb.com/about.html)
- [Pricing](https://www.heliosdb.com/pricing.html)
- [Blog](https://www.heliosdb.com/blog.html)
- [Careers](https://www.heliosdb.com/careers.html)
- [Contact](https://www.heliosdb.com/contact.html)
- [Investors](https://www.heliosdb.com/investors.html) — 228 documented database innovations
- [Early Adopters program](https://www.heliosdb.com/early-adopters.html)
- [Partners program](https://www.heliosdb.com/partners.html) — hosting, technology and reseller partners; contact partners@heliosdb.com
- [Ambassadors & Contributors](https://www.heliosdb.com/ambassadors.html) — community Champions program (recognition and enablement, not a referral scheme)

## Optional

- [HeliosDB Cloud](https://cloud.heliosdb.com): managed HeliosDB with auto-scaling, point-in-time restore, multi-region replication
- GitHub repositories:
  - [HeliosDB Nano](https://github.com/dimensigon/HDB-HeliosDB-Nano) — Apache 2.0
  - [HeliosProxy](https://github.com/dimensigon/HDB-HeliosDB-Proxy) — Apache 2.0
  - [HeliosDB CodeKB MCP](https://github.com/dimensigon/heliosdb-codekb-mcp) — Apache 2.0
  - [HeliosDB SDKs](https://github.com/dimensigon/heliosdb-sdks) — Apache 2.0 (Python, TypeScript, Rust, Go + framework integrations)
- [AI Support docs Q&A API](https://www.heliosdb.com/ai-support.html) — `POST https://heliosdb.com/api/v1/support/ask` `{"question","tier"}`; answers cite docs URLs
- [Discord community](https://discord.gg/D7PUDpj86)