Roadmap¶

This roadmap outlines the planned development of Alopex DB from the current state to production readiness.

Current Status¶

# Rust
cargo add alopex-embedded alopex-sql alopex-server alopex-dataframe

# Python
pip install alopex

Timeline¶

gantt
    title Alopex DB Development Timeline
    dateFormat  YYYY-MM
    axisFormat  %Y-%m

    section Foundation
    v0.1-v0.2 Core          :done, 2025-01, 2025-10
    v0.3 SQL + HNSW         :done, 2025-10, 2025-12
    v0.3.3 Python + CLI     :done, 2025-12, 2025-12

    section Server & DataFrame
    v0.4 Server + DataFrame :done, 2026-01, 2026-01
    v0.5 GROUP BY + JOIN    :done, 2026-01, 2026-01

    section Production
    v0.6 Practical Foundation :2026-04, 2026-06

    section Distributed
    v0.7 Cluster-aware      :2026-08, 2026-10
    v0.8 Metadata Raft      :2026-10, 2026-12
    v0.9 Multi-Raft         :2027-01, 2027-02

    section GA
    v0.10 Hardening         :2027-02, 2027-03
    v1.0 GA                 :milestone, 2027-03, 0d

Published Crates¶

The following crates are available on crates.io:

Crate	Version	Description
	v0.5.0	Embedded database API
	v0.5.0	SQL parser, planner, executor
	v0.5.0	Core storage engine
	v0.5.0	HTTP/gRPC server
	v0.2.0	Polars-compatible DataFrame API
	v0.5.1	Cluster messaging layer

Version Compatibility Matrix¶

Phase 1: Foundation (v0.1 - v0.2)¶

Status: Complete

v0.1 — Embedded KV Core¶

• LSM-Tree storage engine
• Write-Ahead Log (WAL) with crash recovery
• Key-Value API (open/put/get/delete)
• Transactions (begin/commit/rollback)
• MVCC with Snapshot Isolation

v0.2 — Vector Core + Columnar¶

• Vector type (VECTOR(dimension))
• Flat search (cosine, L2, inner product)
• Columnar segment storage with compression
• In-memory mode support
• Vector delete/compaction

Phase 2: SQL & HNSW (v0.3)¶

Status: Complete — crates.io Published

v0.3 — SQL Frontend + HNSW Index¶

The first public release on crates.io with full SQL support and HNSW indexing.

Completed Features¶

• SQL Parser (DDL: CREATE/DROP TABLE/INDEX, DML: SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE)
• Query Planner with Catalog and LogicalPlan
• SQL Executor (iterator-based execution)
• vector_similarity() function with Top-K optimization
• HNSW Index for high-performance similarity search
• Columnar COPY/Bulk Load (Parquet/CSV → ColumnarSegment)
• Embedded Integration (Database::execute_sql, Transaction::execute_sql)

SQL Examples¶

-- Create table with vector column
CREATE TABLE documents (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    content TEXT,
    embedding VECTOR(1536)
);

-- Insert with vector
INSERT INTO documents (id, content, embedding)
VALUES (1, 'Hello world', [0.1, 0.2, ...]);

-- Hybrid search with vector similarity
SELECT id, content, vector_similarity(embedding, ?) AS score
FROM documents
ORDER BY score DESC
LIMIT 10;

-- Create HNSW index
CREATE INDEX idx_emb ON documents USING HNSW (embedding);

Phase 3: Python & Server (v0.3.3 - v0.4)¶

v0.3.3 — Python Wrapper (alopex-py)¶

Status: Complete — PyPI Published Released: December 2025

Python bindings via PyO3 for the embedded database.

Features¶

• PyO3 module structure with error handling
• Database / Transaction bindings
• SQL API bindings (execute_sql, QueryResult)
• Type stubs (.pyi files) for IDE support
• CI/CD with maturin + pytest + TestPyPI verification
• Vector/HNSW API bindings — planned for v0.3.4
• NumPy integration (zero-copy arrays) — planned for v0.3.5

Preview¶

import alopex

# Open database
db = alopex.Database.open("./my_data")

# Execute SQL
results = db.execute_sql(
    "SELECT * FROM docs WHERE vector_similarity(embedding, ?) > 0.8",
    [query_embedding]
)

# HNSW search
similar = db.search_hnsw("docs", query_embedding, k=10)
for doc_id, score in similar:
    print(f"{doc_id}: {score:.4f}")

v0.4.0 — Server Mode + DataFrame¶

Status: Complete — crates.io Published Released: January 2026

Standalone server and Polars-compatible DataFrame API foundation.

Server Features¶

• alopex-server binary with HTTP/gRPC API
• SQL API (DDL/DML/SELECT with streaming)
• Vector API (HNSW/Flat search)
• Session Manager with TLS support
• Observability (metrics, tracing)
• Runtime-agnostic async facade with tokio adapter

DataFrame Features (alopex-dataframe v0.1.0)¶

• DataFrame / LazyFrame / Expr types
• I/O: read_csv, read_parquet, scan_* variants
• Operations: select, filter, with_columns
• Aggregations: group_by, agg, sum, mean, etc.
• Lazy evaluation with query optimization
• Predicate/Projection Pushdown

DataFrame Preview¶

use alopex_dataframe::{DataFrame, col, lit};

let df = DataFrame::read_parquet("data.parquet")?;

let result = df
    .lazy()
    .filter(col("score").gt(lit(0.5)))
    .select([col("id"), col("content")])
    .collect()?;

Phase 4: GROUP BY, DataFrame P1, Practical Foundation (v0.5 - v0.6)¶

v0.5 — GROUP BY + DataFrame P1¶

Status: Complete — crates.io Published Released: January 2026

• GROUP BY / Aggregation (alopex-sql v0.5.0)
• DataFrame P1: JOIN (inner, left, right, full, semi, anti)
• DataFrame P1: sort / head / tail / unique
• DataFrame P1: fill_null / drop_nulls / null_count
• Server API extensions (alopex-server v0.5.0)
• WAL/Crash recovery hardening — planned for v0.5.x
• Performance benchmarks — planned for v0.5.x

v0.6 — Embedded/Server Practical Readiness + SQL JOIN/Subquery¶

Status: Planned Target: Q2 2026

Ship the practical core first: embedded reliability, server operability, SQL JOIN/Subquery, and DataFrame/Python readiness.

• SQL JOIN support (alopex-sql v0.6)
• SQL Subquery support
• DataFrame P2: cast / pivot / unpivot / window functions
• Embedded durability hardening (WAL/crash recovery path)
• Server operation hardening (backpressure/timeout/observability)
• Python API stability for production workflows

WASM/web runtime support is deferred and will be re-evaluated after v1.0 based on adoption and product priorities.

Phase 5: Distributed (v0.7 - v0.9)¶

v0.7 — Cluster-Aware¶

Status: Planned Target: Q4 2026 Depends on: Chirps v0.3

• alopex-cluster module
• Chirps membership integration
• Node discovery and events
• Logical sharding design

v0.8 — Metadata Raft¶

Status: Planned Target: Q4 2026 Depends on: Chirps v0.6

• Metadata Raft Group
• MultiRaftManager integration
• Shard/range metadata management

v0.9 — Multi-Raft + CRDT¶

Status: Planned Target: Q1 2027 Depends on: Chirps v0.7

• Multi-Raft (range partitioning)
• CRDT (Counter, Set for eventual consistency)
• Changefeed via Durable profile
• Distributed transactions

Phase 6: Production (v0.10 - v1.0)¶

v0.10 — Hardening¶

Status: Planned Target: Q1 2027

• Single-node regression suite
• Cluster consistency tests
• Partition/recovery tests
• Configuration freeze
• API stability guarantee

v1.0 — General Availability¶

Status: Planned Target: Q1 2027

• 3-10 node production support
• Rolling upgrades
• Complete documentation
• API/ABI compatibility tests
• Federation support

Chirps Roadmap¶

Alopex Chirps (cluster messaging layer) has its own development track:

Version	Status	Features
v0.1-v0.3	Complete	Gossip, SWIM, Membership API
v0.4	Complete	Raft-ready transport, QoS streams
v0.5	Complete	Raft Consensus API, WalRaftStorage
v0.5.1	Complete	File Transfer API
v0.6	Planned	Multi-Raft, TSO, Observability
v0.7+	Planned	IggyBackend, Durable profile

alopex-dataframe Roadmap¶

Polars-compatible DataFrame engine in pure Rust:

Version	Phase	Features	Status
v0.1.0	DF-0	DataFrame/Series types, Arrow integration, CSV/Parquet I/O	Complete
v0.2.0	DF-1	JOIN (all types), sort/head/tail/unique, fill_null/drop_nulls	Complete
v0.3.0	DF-2	cast, pivot/unpivot, window functions (over, rolling, shift, rank)	Planned
v0.4.0	DF-3	str.* namespace, dt.* namespace, list.* + explode/implode	Planned
v0.5.0	DF-4	Streaming execution, CSE optimization, concat	Planned

alopex-py Roadmap¶

Python bindings with NumPy and DataFrame support. alopex-py follows its own versioning scheme independent of the Rust workspace.

Version	Phase	Features	Status
v0.3.3	Phase 1	Database/Transaction/SQL basic API	PyPI Published
v0.3.5	Phase 1+	NumPy integration (zero-copy arrays + GIL release)	PyPI Published
v0.4.0	Phase 1+	Catalog API (Polars Unity Catalog compatible)	PyPI Published
v0.5.0	Phase 2	DataFrame API MVP (via alopex-dataframe v0.2)	Planned
v0.6.0	Phase 2	DataFrame extended features (P2)	Planned
v0.7.0	Phase 3	DataFrame namespaces (str/dt/list)	Planned
v1.0.0	GA	Polars-compatible DataFrame + API stabilization	Planned

Contributing¶

We welcome contributions! Priority areas:

Contributing Guide

Changelog¶

Recent Updates¶

• 2026-01-29: v0.5.0 released — GROUP BY/Aggregation, DataFrame P1 (JOIN/sort/null), Server API extensions published on crates.io
• 2026-01-24: alopex-cli v0.4.2 released — TUI default, Admin TUI, security fixes, SELECT literal support
• 2026-01-14: v0.4.0 Server + DataFrame published on crates.io
• 2026-01-01: alopex-chirps v0.5.1 released — File Transfer API
• 2025-12-27: v0.3.3 alopex-py published on PyPI
• 2025-12: v0.3 SQL Frontend + HNSW published on crates.io
• 2025-11: HNSW index implementation complete
• 2025-10: alopex-sql Parser/Planner/Executor complete
• 2025-09: Columnar-based Vector Store complete
• 2025-08: LSM-Tree file mode complete
• 2025-06: In-memory mode complete
• 2025-01: Project started

For detailed changes, see the GitHub Releases.