GizmoSQL Edge Channel¶

⚠️ EXPERIMENTAL — NOT FOR PRODUCTION WORKLOADS. The edge channel builds GizmoSQL against a pre-release DuckDB (today a DuckDB 2.0 alpha). Its behavior, on-disk storage format and extension compatibility can change or break from one build to the next, and DuckDB itself does not support its pre-releases for production use. Use the stable or LTS channel for anything you depend on.

The edge channel exists so you can try GizmoSQL on the next DuckDB major before it ships — to test your workloads, clients and data against it, and to use new DuckDB features early. It is the third of GizmoSQL's release channels (see LTS channel for the overview):

Channel	DuckDB tracked	Intended for
Stable	Latest DuckDB minor release (e.g. `v1.5.6`)	Production
LTS	Most recent DuckDB LTS release (e.g. `v1.4.5`)	Production that favors a slower-moving engine
Edge	Next DuckDB major, pre-release (`v2.0.0-alpha43763`)	Evaluation and testing only

All three channels share the same GizmoSQL code, flags, API and protocol; edge only changes which DuckDB is linked in.

What is different on edge¶

Most of the difference is DuckDB 2.0 itself. Things you will notice through GizmoSQL:

Storage format. New database files are created in DuckDB 2.0's storage format (v2.0.0+), which DuckDB 1.x — and therefore the stable and LTS channels — cannot open. Existing 1.x files open fine and keep their format. To create files that 1.x can still read, start the server with --storage-version v1.5.0 (or older).
SQL behavior changes (DuckDB 2.0):

SQL	Stable (DuckDB 1.5)	Edge (DuckDB 2.0)
`SELECT 1 // 0`, `SELECT 7 % 0`	`NULL`	error: Division by zero … Use TRY(...)
`SELECT 'abc' ~ 'b'`	`false` (full-string match)	`true` (partial match)
Column type of `SELECT NULL`	`INTEGER`	`"NULL"`

VARIANT over Arrow. VARIANT columns travel as Arrow's canonical arrow.parquet.variant extension type (in results, bulk ingest and prepared-statement parameters). On stable they export as opaque binary.
Query profiles. sql_executions.query_profile uses DuckDB 2.0's nested profile layout — total query time is $.query.total_time rather than $.latency (see Session instrumentation).
Extensions come from DuckDB's repository for that exact pre-release (extensions.duckdb.org/v2.0.0-alpha43763/…); not every community extension is published for it.

Telling an edge build apart¶

An edge build marks itself everywhere it reports its version:

$ gizmosql_server_edge --version
GizmoSQL Server CLI: v1.40.0-EDGE

$ gizmosql_client_edge --version
GizmoSQL Client v1.40.0-EDGE

$ gizmosql_server_edge --print-duckdb-version
v2.0.0-alpha43763

At startup it logs the channel and a warning:

INFO ... GizmoSQL server version: v1.40.0-EDGE - with engine: DuckDB (edge channel — DuckDB v2.0.0-alpha43763) - will listen on grpc+tcp://0.0.0.0:31337
WARN ... This is an EDGE channel build of GizmoSQL, on a pre-release DuckDB (v2.0.0-alpha43763). It is EXPERIMENTAL and NOT meant for production workloads: behavior, storage format and extensions can change or break between builds. Use the stable or LTS channel for production.

And from SQL:

SELECT GIZMOSQL_VERSION();
-- v1.40.0-EDGE

Artifacts¶

Type	Edge
Server binary	`gizmosql_server_edge`
Client binary	`gizmosql_client_edge`
CLI zip	`gizmosql_cli_<os>_<arch>_edge.zip` (Linux amd64/arm64, macOS arm64, Windows amd64/arm64)
Windows MSI	`GizmoSQL-<arch>-edge.msi` (amd64, arm64) — installs as "GizmoSQL Edge (experimental)" in `C:\Program Files\GizmoSQL Edge`, side by side with stable and LTS
Docker (Hub)	`gizmodata/gizmosql-edge:<ver>` (+ `-slim`)
Docker (GHCR)	`ghcr.io/gizmodata/gizmosql-edge:<ver>`
Homebrew	`gizmodata/tap` → `gizmosql-edge`

The iOS app is stable-only.

Trying it¶

Docker¶

docker run --name gizmosql-edge \
           --detach \
           --rm \
           --tty \
           --init \
           --publish 31337:31337 \
           --env TLS_ENABLED="1" \
           --env GIZMOSQL_PASSWORD="gizmosql_password" \
           --env PRINT_QUERIES="1" \
           --pull always \
           gizmodata/gizmosql-edge:latest

The image's duckdb CLI is the matching DuckDB pre-release, so it can open the v2.0-format files the server creates.

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)¶

brew tap gizmodata/tap         # once (skip if already tapped)
brew trust gizmodata/tap       # once (Homebrew 6.0+; skip on older versions)
brew install gizmosql-edge     # installs gizmosql_server_edge / gizmosql_client_edge

It coexists with the gizmosql and gizmosql-lts formulas.

Direct download¶

Download the _edge zip or the -edge MSI for your platform from the GitHub Releases page.

Building from source¶

cmake -B build -DGIZMOSQL_DUCKDB_CHANNEL=edge
cmake --build build

The pre-release is pinned by commit (DUCKDB_EDGE_GIT_REF) together with the exact version string DuckDB published it as (DUCKDB_EDGE_VERSION) — runtime INSTALL/LOAD looks extensions up by that string.

Moving a deployment between edge and stable¶

Going to edge is a binary/image swap, like switching to LTS. Coming back is only that simple if the edge server never created a database file in the DuckDB 2.0 format: files it created (including the instrumentation and catalog logging databases) cannot be opened by stable or LTS. Keep edge on copies of your data, or start it with --storage-version v1.5.0.