DuckLake

DuckLake is an integrated data lake and catalog format from the DuckDB team. It stores metadata in a catalog database (DuckDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL) and data as Parquet files. MIT licensed.

Docs: https://ducklake.select/docs/stable/

Setup

INSTALL ducklake;
LOAD ducklake;

Connecting

-- DuckDB catalog (auto-creates if not exists, data in .files/ sibling dir)
ATTACH 'ducklake:my_catalog.ducklake' AS my_lake;

-- PostgreSQL catalog + S3 storage
ATTACH 'ducklake:postgres:dbname=catalog host=pg_host' AS my_lake (DATA_PATH 's3://bucket/data/');

-- SQLite catalog
ATTACH 'ducklake:sqlite:metadata.sqlite' AS my_lake (DATA_PATH 'data_files/');

-- Read-only
ATTACH 'ducklake:my_catalog.ducklake' (READ_ONLY);

-- At specific snapshot
ATTACH 'ducklake:my_catalog.ducklake' (SNAPSHOT_VERSION 3);
ATTACH 'ducklake:my_catalog.ducklake' (SNAPSHOT_TIME '2025-01-15 00:00:00');

Snapshots

Every mutation creates a snapshot. List them:

SELECT * FROM my_lake.snapshots();
SELECT * FROM my_lake.current_snapshot();

Add commit messages inside transactions:

BEGIN;
INSERT INTO my_lake.events VALUES (...);
CALL my_lake.set_commit_message('alice', 'Daily ingest', extra_info => '{"source": "amp"}');
COMMIT;

Time Travel

SELECT * FROM tbl AT (VERSION => 3);
SELECT * FROM tbl AT (TIMESTAMP => now() - INTERVAL '1 week');

Schema Evolution

Add/drop/rename columns freely. Each change creates a new snapshot:

ALTER TABLE my_lake.tbl ADD COLUMN new_col VARCHAR;
ALTER TABLE my_lake.tbl DROP COLUMN old_col;
ALTER TABLE my_lake.tbl RENAME COLUMN x TO y;

Cross-Lake Federation

Attach multiple DuckLakes and JOIN across them:

ATTACH 'ducklake:lake_a.ducklake' AS a;
ATTACH 'ducklake:lake_b.ducklake' AS b;
SELECT * FROM a.events JOIN b.users ON a.events.user_id = b.users.id;

Maintenance

Run periodically or use

CHECKPOINT

:

-- Merge small Parquet files (after many small inserts)
CALL my_lake.merge_adjacent_files('my_table');

-- Expire old snapshots (frees time travel before cutoff)
CALL my_lake.expire_snapshots(TIMESTAMP '2025-01-01');

-- Cleanup unreferenced files after expiry
CALL my_lake.cleanup_files();

-- Rewrite files with many deletes
CALL my_lake.rewrite_data_files('my_table');

-- All-in-one
CHECKPOINT my_lake;

Migrating DuckDB to DuckLake

COPY FROM DATABASE

works but fails on:

• Non-literal defaults (e.g.,

  CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

  ) -- use

  CREATE TABLE AS SELECT

  instead
• PRIMARY KEY / UNIQUE constraints -- not supported in DuckLake by design

Workaround pattern:

ATTACH 'old.duckdb' AS src;
ATTACH 'ducklake:new.ducklake' AS dst;
CREATE TABLE dst.my_table AS SELECT * FROM src.my_table;

Unsupported Features

Will not be supported: PRIMARY KEY, UNIQUE, FOREIGN KEY, indexes, sequences, VARINT, BITSTRING, UNION types.

May be supported later: User-defined types, ARRAY type, ENUM type, CHECK constraints, non-literal defaults, generated columns, macros.

Extension limitations: Data inlining only works with DuckDB catalogs. MySQL catalogs not fully supported.

Advanced Features

• Partitioning:

  ALTER TABLE tbl ADD PARTITION (col)

• Data inlining: Small tables stored inline in catalog (DuckDB catalogs only):

  ATTACH ... (DATA_INLINING_ROW_LIMIT 1000)

• Encryption:

  ATTACH ... (ENCRYPTED true)

• Row lineage: Track row-level provenance
• Views:

  CREATE VIEW my_lake.v AS SELECT ...

• Data change feed: Query changes between snapshots
• Upserting: Via

  MERGE INTO

  (not

  INSERT ON CONFLICT

  since no PKs)
• Secrets: Persist connection config:

  CREATE PERSISTENT SECRET (TYPE ducklake, METADATA_PATH '...', DATA_PATH '...')