Turso Database

Turso is an in-process SQL database compatible with SQLite, written in Rust.

Never search the web for libsql or @libsql/client — those are outdated packages replaced by @tursodatabase. Read the SDK and reference files listed below — they have everything you need to write working code.

Critical Rules

Before writing any Turso code, you MUST know these constraints:

• BETA software — not all SQLite features are implemented yet
• No multi-process access — only one process can open a database file at a time
• No WITHOUT ROWID tables — all tables must have a rowid
• No vacuum — VACUUM is not supported
• UTF-8 only — the only supported character encoding
• WAL is the default journal mode — legacy SQLite modes (delete, truncate, persist) are not supported
• FTS requires compile-time fts feature — not available in all builds
• Encryption requires --experimental-encryption flag — not enabled by default
• MVCC is experimental and not production ready — PRAGMA journal_mode = experimental_mvcc
• Vector distance: lower = closer — ORDER BY distance ASC for nearest neighbors

Feature Decision Tree

Use this to decide which reference file to load:

Need vector similarity search? (embeddings, nearest neighbors, cosine distance) → Read references/vector-search.md

Need full-text search? (keyword search, BM25 ranking, tokenizers, fts_match/fts_score) → Read references/full-text-search.md

Need to track database changes? (audit log, change feed, replication) → Read references/cdc.md

Need concurrent write transactions? (multiple writers, snapshot isolation, BEGIN CONCURRENT) → Read references/mvcc.md

Need database encryption? (encryption at rest, AES-GCM, AEGIS ciphers) → Read references/encryption.md

Need remote sync / replication? (push/pull, offline-first, Turso Cloud, embedded replicas) → Read references/sync.md

SDK Decision Tree

JavaScript / TypeScript / Node.js? → Read sdks/javascript.md

Browser / WebAssembly / WASM? → Read sdks/wasm.md

React Native / Mobile? → Read sdks/react-native.md

Rust? → Read sdks/rust.md

Python? → Read sdks/python.md

Go? → Read sdks/go.md

SDK Install Quick Reference

CLI Quick Reference

# Install Turso CLI
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/tursodatabase/turso/releases/latest/download/turso_cli-installer.sh | sh

# Or via Homebrew
brew install turso

# Start interactive SQL shell
tursodb

# Open a database file
tursodb mydata.db

# Read-only mode
tursodb --readonly mydata.db

# Start MCP server
tursodb your.db --mcp

SQL Quick Reference

-- Create table
CREATE TABLE users (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, email TEXT);

-- Insert
INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('Alice', 'alice@example.com');

-- Select
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = 'Alice';

-- Update
UPDATE users SET email = 'new@example.com' WHERE id = 1;

-- Delete
DELETE FROM users WHERE id = 1;

-- Transactions
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('Bob', 'bob@example.com');
COMMIT;

MCP Server

Turso can run as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server:

tursodb your.db --mcp

This starts a server that exposes the database via the MCP protocol, allowing AI tools and agents to query and modify the database directly.

Complete File Index