Driver Support

ROSQL compiles to SQL and other database languages and executes against your existing telemetry database. Each backend is enabled via a Cargo feature flag.

Supported backends

Backend	Feature flag	Status
PostgreSQL / TimescaleDB	postgres	✅ v0.1
MySQL / MariaDB	mysql	✅ v0.1
DuckDB (embedded)	duckdb	✅ v0.2
AWS Athena	athena	📋 Planned
Google BigQuery	bigquery	📋 Planned

Feature flags

Feature	What it enables	Runtime deps
(default)	Parser, AST, unit system, SQL compiler, proto types	logos, serde, prost
postgres	PostgreSQL / TimescaleDB driver	sqlx, tokio
mysql	MySQL / MariaDB driver	sqlx, tokio
duckdb	DuckDB embedded driver	duckdb (bundled), tokio
server	rosql CLI binary + gRPC server	tonic, tokio, clap
wasm	WASM exports for browser editors	wasm-bindgen

Installing with a specific backend

# PostgreSQL driver + CLI
cargo install rosql --features server,postgres

# MySQL driver + CLI
cargo install rosql --features server,mysql

# DuckDB driver + CLI (no external database required)
cargo install rosql --features server,duckdb

# Multiple drivers
cargo install rosql --features server,postgres,mysql,duckdb

# Library only (no CLI, no runtime)
cargo add rosql

Connection strings

PostgreSQL / TimescaleDB

rosql query "FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'" \
  --backend postgres \
  --url postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/telemetry

Connection string format: postgresql://[user[:password]@][host][:port]/database

TimescaleDB is fully supported — ROSQL uses standard PostgreSQL queries that work transparently with hypertables.

MySQL / MariaDB

rosql query "FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'" \
  --backend mysql \
  --url mysql://user:pass@localhost:3306/telemetry

Connection string format: mysql://[user[:password]@][host][:port]/database

DuckDB

DuckDB runs embedded — no external server required. The database is compiled into the binary.

# In-memory database (data is lost when the process exits)
rosql query "FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'" \
  --backend duckdb \
  --url duckdb://

# File-based persistent database
rosql query "FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'" \
  --backend duckdb \
  --url duckdb:///path/to/telemetry.db

Connection string formats:

• duckdb:// — in-memory database
• duckdb:///absolute/path/to/file.db — file-based database
• md:my_database — MotherDuck (cloud DuckDB)

DuckDB is particularly useful for:

• Local analytics on MCAP/bag files converted to Parquet
• CI/testing — no Docker or external service required
• Offline environments where a database server is unavailable
• Embedded robotics systems with local telemetry storage

Schema profiles

Different OTel Collector exporters use different column naming conventions. Select the profile matching your exporter:

Profile	Column convention	Example	Default for
otel-postgres	lowercase	trace_id, status_code	PostgreSQL, MySQL
otel-clickhouse	PascalCase	TraceId, StatusCode	ClickHouse

# Explicit schema profile
rosql compile "FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'" \
  --backend postgres \
  --schema otel-postgres

rosql compile "FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'" \
  --backend clickhouse \
  --schema otel-clickhouse

If your column names don't match either profile, custom schema profiles are tracked in #22.

Schema requirements

Your database must have the OTel tables ROSQL expects. See the Schema Reference → for complete DDL.

Required tables for basic functionality:

• otel_traces
• otel_logs
• otel_metrics

Optional tables for advanced features:

• topic_messages — enables FROM topics, PATH DEVIATION, topic aliases
• mcap_metadata — enables SHOW RECORDING