Overview¶

Alopex DB is a unified database engine designed for the next generation of data-intensive applications—specifically those driving Agentic AI, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), and Edge Computing.

The Problem We Solve¶

Modern AI applications face a fragmentation problem:

graph LR
    A[Your Application] --> B[SQLite]
    A --> C[Vector DB]
    A --> D[Graph DB]
    A --> E[Distributed SQL]

    B -.->|Sync| C
    C -.->|Sync| D
    D -.->|Sync| E

Instead of gluing together multiple database systems, Alopex provides a single engine that adapts to your workload.

graph LR
    A[Your Application] --> B[Alopex DB]
    B --> C[Embedded Mode]
    B --> D[Single-Node Mode]
    B --> E[Distributed Mode]

Core Philosophy: The Arctic Fox Traits¶

The name "Alopex" comes from the Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus)—an animal known for its remarkable adaptability. Our database embodies these traits:

Silent (Swift & Light)¶

• Written in Rust with zero-overhead abstractions
• Minimal memory footprint in embedded mode
• No garbage collection pauses
• Predictable latency

Adaptive (Flexible)¶

• Seamlessly transitions from local library to multi-node cluster
• Same API across all deployment modes
• Progressive scaling without data migration
• Multi-model: SQL + Vector + Graph

Unbreakable (Resilient)¶

• Raft consensus for distributed mode
• ACID transactions across all operations
• Automatic failure recovery
• Data durability guarantees

Architecture Layers¶

graph TB
    subgraph "Client Layer"
        CLI[CLI Tools]
        SDK[Rust SDK]
        WASM[WASM Bindings]
    end

    subgraph "Query Layer"
        SQL[SQL Parser]
        PLAN[Query Planner]
        EXEC[Executor]
    end

    subgraph "Transaction Layer"
        TX[Transaction Manager]
        MVCC[MVCC/OCC]
    end

    subgraph "Storage Layer"
        LSM[LSM-Tree Engine]
        WAL[Write-Ahead Log]
        VEC[Vector Index]
    end

    subgraph "Cluster Layer"
        RAFT[Raft Consensus]
        SHARD[Range Sharding]
        CHIRPS[Chirps Mesh]
    end

    CLI --> SQL
    SDK --> SQL
    WASM --> SQL
    SQL --> PLAN
    PLAN --> EXEC
    EXEC --> TX
    TX --> MVCC
    MVCC --> LSM
    LSM --> WAL
    LSM --> VEC
    LSM --> RAFT
    RAFT --> SHARD
    SHARD --> CHIRPS

Key Components¶

Data Models¶

Relational (SQL)¶

Standard SQL with extensions for modern workloads:

CREATE TABLE users (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

Vector¶

First-class vector support for AI applications:

CREATE TABLE documents (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    content TEXT,
    embedding VECTOR(1536)  -- Native vector type
);

Graph¶

Optimized storage for knowledge graphs:

CREATE GRAPH knowledge (
    NODE document (id UUID, embedding VECTOR(384)),
    EDGE references (source UUID, target UUID, weight FLOAT)
);

Next Steps¶