nlqdb — your autonomous DBA.

Build a real app from day one with no data modeling. nlqdb infers your schema from how you use it, evolves it, and keeps it optimized — and shows you every change before it lands.

Your app talks to its database in plain English — over HTTP, the SDK, the nlq CLI, or MCP from Claude, Cursor and Codex. The first insert creates the shape; later inserts and reads evolve it; the DBA builds the indexes and places data on the right engine, and every change is previewed, versioned and one click to undo. The LLM never emits SQL: it returns a typed plan, our compiler emits the parameterised statement, and you see the exact SQL every time.

No backend to build. You write HTML; each component asks for what it wants in plain English; nlqdb infers the schema, writes the SQL, runs it, and renders the result. There is no backend for you to build.

Two actions. That's the whole product:

1. Create a database — one word: a name (or a goal).
2. Talk to it in plain English.

<script src="https://elements.nlqdb.com/v1.js" type="module"></script>

<nlq-data
  goal="the 5 newest orders, with customer and item"
  api-key="pk_live_xxx"
  template="table"
  refresh="10s"
></nlq-data>

That's the entire backend for a live order list — no API to write, no schema to define, no JSON to parse. Engine choice (Postgres / Mongo / Redis / DuckDB / pgvector / …), schema inference, indexing, backups, and auto-migration between engines based on your real workload are background concerns you never have to see.

Status — early, open

nlqdb is early and built in the open, but fully public — no gate, no invite code. The marketing site, the /v1/ask pipeline, the <nlq-data> / <nlq-action> elements, the chat app, the TypeScript SDK, the hosted MCP server, and the nlq CLI are all live in some form (see the surface table below). Natural-language → SQL accuracy is still climbing toward our public bar (BIRD ≥ 0.65, Spider 2.0 ≥ 0.75 on the free model chain), so answers can be wrong — every response carries a confidence signal and the SQL it ran.

Use it

Connecting an agent over MCP? On Claude Code, one marketplace add wires the hosted server and both memory skills in a single step:

/plugin marketplace add nlqdb/nlqdb
/plugin install nlqdb-memory@nlqdb

On any other MCP host, connect your agent with one browser-OAuth approval; headless hosts skip the browser with npx -y @nlqdb/mcp (0.1.1) and an sk_mcp_* MCP key (MCP setup). @nlqdb/sdk (0.4.0) and @nlqdb/mcp (0.1.1) are both published and importable from npm.

The 60-second walkthrough — plain HTML, CLI, and ten framework wrappers — lives at docs.nlqdb.com. Start with the HTML tutorial or the CLI tutorial.

You don't generate an API key separately: describe your database at nlqdb.com, and the chat hands you a <nlq-data> snippet with the key already inlined.

Examples

examples/ — minimal scaffolds in plain HTML, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, plus a CLI-only walkthrough. Each is the smallest valid integration around one <nlq-data> element or one CLI session.

What makes it different

Four things every release has to move, none allowed to regress (GLOBAL-025):

• Engine quality — natural-language → SQL accuracy (measured continuously on BIRD + Spider 2.0 + an internal eval), plus the multi-engine layer that moves your data to the right engine for your workload.
• Onboarding — landing to first answer in under a minute, no card, no config.
• UX — see the diff before any write, see the SQL behind every answer, and on low confidence get a one-click clarify — a guided turn, never a dead-end, and never a silent guess.
• Performance — sub-400 ms cached, sub-1.5 s cold.

The bet: get this right on free, open models and it only gets better on frontier ones — the scaffolding compounds with whatever model is underneath.

Models & plans

• Free forever on the built-in open-model chain — queries, embeds, and the elements, no card required.
• Bring your own LLM key (Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini / Grok / OpenRouter) on any tier, at no markup.
• Hosted premium models on paid plans, when you'd rather not manage a key of your own.
• Self-host the source — the engine, CLI, MCP server, and SDKs are source-available under FSL-1.1-ALv2: free to self-host for any non-competing use, bring your own LLM key, no per-call fees. The license auto-converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release.

The hosted-premium model lane went live 2026-08-14. The full model strategy is in GLOBAL-026.

Surfaces at a glance

Full integration matrix in docs/progress.md.

Packages on npm

Published to the public npm registry with build provenance (SK-CIPERM-003). Version badges are live from npm; the table itself is generated from the workspace by scripts/sync-readme-packages.mjs, so it lists exactly the packages that are un-gated ("private" removed) and nothing that isn't.

Package	Version	What it is	Source
@nlqdb/cli		Shim that installs the nlq CLI binary for the host platform.	packages/cli-shim
@nlqdb/mcp		Analytical-memory MCP server for nlqdb — a real database your AI agent can GROUP BY / JOIN / aggregate over in natural language, not just recall.	packages/mcp
@nlqdb/sdk		Typed HTTP client for the nlqdb /v1 API — works in browsers, Node, Bun, Workers.	packages/sdk

Roadmap

The two sections below are the live focus; the numbered phases after them are the engine roadmap. Canonical plan + exit gates: docs/phase-plan.md. Legend: ✓ shipped · ~ in progress · ◯ planned.

This roadmap is yours to shape. Want something added, reprioritised, or dropped? Open a PR editing this section (and docs/phase-plan.md if it's engine-facing), or open an issue to float it first. Say why now — which of the four north-star pillars (engine quality, onboarding, UX, performance) it moves. New to the codebase? Point your coding agent at this repo and paste:

Code

Copy

Read README.md and docs/phase-plan.md, then propose a roadmap change:
add/change "<your idea>" under the right section in one line, with a
"why now" naming which north-star pillar it moves. Open a PR with just
that edit — no code.

Setup, branch naming, and the CLA are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Now — Phase A: the schema infers itself (GLOBAL-041)

The first insert creates the shape; later inserts and reads evolve it. KPI: first-insert inference rate ≥ 95 % at Phase A exit on the dogfood workload. Build order in GLOBAL-041.

• ~ kind=extend typed plan — a write naming an unseen table or field widens the schema in the same transaction as the insert, never a schema_mismatch (both unseen-table and unseen-column cases merged to main + executor-walked; awaiting a prod deploy, live rate 0 %)
• ~ Extend diff + trace on every surface — trace.widen live on SDK · MCP · <nlq-data>; CLI/web render pending
• ✓ KPI counters asks_extend_ok / asks_extend_failed on the /v1/ask write path (SK-SCHEMA-010; the rate reads on /app/admin)
• ◯ Phase B — pg_stat_* + EXPLAIN collection → typed proposals (index / retype / drop / rename / move-to-engine) → /app/dba dashboard with 1-click apply + undo
• ✓ Rails kept from the prior bet for the expert-knowledge app: agent_memory_v1 preset, nlqdb_remember / nlqdb_read MCP tools, per-agent RLS isolation, the Claude Code plugin, /agents

Next — the expert-knowledge marketplace ("Become AI")

Non-technical professionals turn their expertise into structured, queryable knowledge that AI agents pay to use. Decisions locked; build gated on Phase A (SK-EKP-005) (docs/features/expert-knowledge-platform/).

• ◯ Interview authoring — answer questions about your craft, get queryable rows (pilot: language tutor)
• ✓ Cross-tenant read grants — mint/list/revoke control plane + live fail-closed granted read on /v1/ask (schema-only plan, rows-only egress, exactly-once per-query metering proven at the route boundary); revoke-in-flight bound measured against live Postgres
• ◯ One catalog — free packs + paid expert knowledge DBs
• ~ Trust hardening — buyer queries schema-only end-to-end: knowledge-DB asks skip narration by default and the granted cross-tenant read is un-narrated (returned rows never reach an LLM); no-training interview-provider pin pending

Phase 0 — Foundations ✓

Worker skeleton · KV + D1 + R2 bindings · Neon adapter + OTel · LLM router (free chain) · Better Auth (GitHub + Google + magic link) · /v1/ask end-to-end · events queue + drain · Stripe webhook · CI/CD + PR preview environments.

Phase 1 — On-ramp

A stranger lands on nlqdb.com, creates a DB in plain English, embeds it, and shares the link — in under 60 seconds, no card, no config.

• ✓ Marketing site (Astro, live at nlqdb.com)
• ✓ <nlq-data> + <nlq-action> elements (v0.1)
• ✓ Sign-in — magic link + GitHub + Google
• ✓ Chat surface — streaming three-part response (answer / data / trace), anonymous mode
• ✓ Anonymous mode — 72h token, adopted onto your account on sign-in
• ✓ Hosted db.create pipeline (table-card embeddings stubbed pending the pgvector slice)
• ✓ API keys dashboard (/app/keys)
• ◯ Hello-world tutorial polish

Phase 1.5 — Trust + telemetry

• ✓ Diff preview on writes + visible SQL trace on every response
• ✓ Demand-signal telemetry on every "not yet" path
• ◯ Confidence floor (clarify-on-low-confidence — a guided turn, not a dead-end) — lands with quality-eval

Phase 2 — Distribution (agent + developer surfaces)

• ✓ Hosted MCP server (mcp.nlqdb.com/mcp) — host auto-detect pending; local stdio @nlqdb/mcp@0.1.1 is on npm, so npx -y @nlqdb/mcp with an sk_mcp_* key is a headless route in with no browser consent step (/agents now carries it; the per-host install panel is still OAuth-only). On Claude Code, /plugin marketplace add nlqdb/nlqdb installs the server + both memory skills in one step
• ✓ CLI nlq (Go) — core verbs + raw-SQL escape hatch; device-login + chat REPL pending
• ✓ @nlqdb/sdk — basic methods + runSql + cross-tenant grant + pack-import runner verbs; published and importable from the registry (0.4.0)
• ~ Framework wrappers + native Swift package — built + CI-tested; npm / SPM publish pending
• ✓ Quality-eval harness (BIRD + Spider 2.0) — a CI regression alarm for the NL→SQL interface, not a KPI
• ~ Bring-your-own-LLM dispatch — HTTP lane live; remaining surfaces in progress
• ◯ CSV upload in chat
• ~ Docs-site reference completeness — SDK + framework-wrapper guides, an enumerable error-code reference, and a build-time /llms.txt for agents now live; tutorial polish remains
• ◯ Custom domains for embeds

Phase 3 — Multi-engine engine (the moat)

• ◯ Workload analyzer → migration orchestrator
• ◯ ClickHouse / DuckDB / Redis as additional engines
• ◯ Dual-read verification
• ✓ Hosted-premium model lane (demand-gated) — live 2026-08-14 (PREMIUM_METER_LIVE flipped)

Phase 4 — Beyond v1

• ~ Bring-your-own Postgres / ClickHouse — connect path live end-to-end (POST /v1/db/connect + web UI, CLI, SDK, query dispatch); prod-gated on the BYO_SECRET_KEK secret. Supabase adds one-click OAuth connect over the read-only Management-API (no DSN to paste); prod-gated on the SUPABASE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID / _SECRET secrets, with a graceful fall-back to paste when unset
• ◯ SSO (SAML / OIDC), audit-log export, per-org quotas
• ◯ EU data residency, VPC peering, SOC 2

Develop locally

git clone git@github.com:nlqdb/nlqdb.git && cd nlqdb
scripts/bootstrap-dev.sh   # installs everything, pulls Ollama models, seeds .envrc
scripts/login-cloud.sh     # signs you into cloud providers that have a CLI flow

bootstrap-dev.sh stands up the whole toolchain in one shot — Bun, Node 20+, Go 1.25+, uv; Biome / gofumpt / golangci-lint / ruff; lefthook git hooks; the cloud CLIs (wrangler, flyctl, stripe, gh); a local Ollama so the LLM router works offline; and a .envrc with self-generated dev secrets. Details in docs/history/infrastructure-setup.md §8.

Day-to-day:

bun run fix          # biome format + lint --write (most issues)
bun run check:all    # biome + golangci-lint + ruff (what CI runs)
bun run hooks:run    # run pre-commit hooks against staged files

End-to-end tests (manual trigger)

E2E coverage is persona-driven and manually triggered so cost stays inside the free-tier envelope — one workflow_dispatch workflow per surface:

gh workflow run e2e-opencheck.yml             # web — live LLM, Neon branch, Workers preview
gh workflow run e2e-cli.yml                   # Go testscript, hermetic
gh workflow run e2e-sdk.yml                   # vitest + cassettes, hermetic
gh workflow run e2e-mcp.yml                   # InMemoryTransport protocol tests, hermetic
gh workflow run e2e-examples.yml              # Playwright across HTML/Next/Astro/Nuxt/SvelteKit
gh workflow run e2e-examples.yml -f live=true # + staging for the curl + CLI shell smokes

Run the hermetic surfaces locally without GitHub:

( cd tests/e2e/cli && go test ./... )
( cd tests/e2e/sdk && bun install && bun run test )
( cd tests/e2e/mcp && bun install && bun run test )
( cd tests/e2e/examples && bun install && bun run install:browsers && bun run test )

Only execution is manual: tests/e2e/{sdk,mcp,examples} live outside the root workspace, so CI's typecheck-e2e job tscs them on every PR — the free backstop against a suite that compiles today and rots before the next dispatch.

Conventions, persona mapping, and cassette governance are in docs/features/e2e-coverage/FEATURE.md.

Docs & reference

• docs/architecture.md — system design (auth, pricing, the $0 stack, model selection, hosted db.create, hello-world).
• docs/phase-plan.md — canonical phase plan and exit gates.
• docs/decisions.md — cross-cutting GLOBAL-NNN decisions; per-feature records live under docs/features/.
• docs/performance.md — SLOs, latency budgets, span/metric catalog.
• docs/competitors.md — competitive landscape.

Community & legal

• CONTRIBUTING.md — dev setup, branch naming, commits, CLA flow.
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md — Contributor Covenant 2.1. Reports to conduct@nlqdb.com.
• SECURITY.md — vulnerability disclosure (security@nlqdb.com). 90-day fix target.
• SUPPORT.md — where to ask questions and what we don't (yet) offer.
• CLA.md — Contributor License Agreement, signed once via the bot on your first PR.
• TRADEMARKS.md — what you can and can't do with the nlqdb name and logo.
• SUBPROCESSORS.md — third-party services that may process personal data on our behalf.
• IMPRESSUM.md — Swiss UWG-mandated operator disclosures.
• Privacy policy and terms of service: nlqdb.com/privacy · nlqdb.com/terms.

License

FSL-1.1-ALv2 — Functional Source License, Apache 2.0 future license. Source-available for any non-competing use; auto-converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release. (Pattern used by Sentry, Convex, and others.)

nlqdb™ is an unregistered trademark of the project's licensor. See TRADEMARKS.md for usage guidelines.