# RisingWave — Cloud-Native Streaming Database in Rust

> Postgres-compatible SQL streaming database for building real-time materialized views on event data.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# RisingWave — Postgres-Compatible Streaming Database

## Quick Use
```bash
# Single-node Docker Playground
docker run -it --pull always -p 4566:4566 -p 5691:5691 
  risingwavelabs/risingwave:latest playground

# Connect via psql
psql -h localhost -p 4566 -d dev -U root

# Create a source backed by Kafka and a materialized view
CREATE SOURCE clicks (user_id int, url varchar, ts timestamptz)
WITH ( connector='kafka', topic='clicks', properties.bootstrap.server='kafka:9092' )
FORMAT PLAIN ENCODE JSON;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW top_urls AS
SELECT url, count(*) AS clicks FROM clicks GROUP BY url;
```

## Introduction
RisingWave is a distributed SQL streaming database written in Rust that treats streams as tables and materialized views as continuously-updated query results. It speaks the Postgres wire protocol, so BI tools, ORMs, and psql just work — while under the hood it runs a fully incremental stream processor designed for the cloud.

## What RisingWave Does
- Ingests streams from Kafka, Pulsar, Redpanda, Kinesis, MySQL/Postgres CDC, and more.
- Computes incremental materialized views using SQL: joins, windows, aggregations, time travel.
- Stores state in tiered storage (S3/GCS/Azure) for cheap, elastic scaling.
- Sinks results to Kafka, Iceberg, Postgres, MySQL, ClickHouse, Redis, and more.
- Offers full Postgres-compatible query endpoint for ad-hoc analytics on live streams.

## Architecture Overview
A RisingWave cluster separates compute (compute nodes running streaming operators), meta (catalog + cluster coordination), and storage (Hummock — an LSM-backed shared-storage engine on object storage). Streaming jobs are compiled to dataflow graphs; state is checkpointed to object storage, so compute nodes are stateless and elastic. Frontend nodes handle SQL parsing and the Postgres wire protocol.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Run locally with `risingwave playground`, on Docker Compose, or on Kubernetes via the RisingWave Operator.
- Point Hummock storage to S3/GCS/Azure and MinIO for on-prem deployments.
- Configure auth and TLS via `risingwave.toml`; integrate with OIDC through a proxy or bouncer.
- Scale compute and frontend pods independently; add compute nodes for throughput during bursts.
- Observability via Prometheus metrics, Grafana dashboards, and structured logs.

## Key Features
- Incremental SQL — stream analytics expressed as `CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW`.
- Postgres-wire compatible; existing clients and drivers "just work".
- Separation of compute and storage for elastic, cost-efficient scaling.
- Built-in CDC sources for Postgres and MySQL without external Debezium deployment.
- UDFs in Python, JavaScript, Java, and Rust for custom transformations.

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Materialize** — Closest peer; RisingWave emphasizes cloud-native storage + horizontal scale-out.
- **Apache Flink** — DataStream/SQL APIs; Flink is a toolkit, RisingWave is a full database product.
- **ksqlDB** — Kafka-centric; RisingWave supports broader sources and standard Postgres SQL.
- **Apache Pinot / Druid** — Real-time OLAP; great for aggregations, less expressive joins than RisingWave.
- **Materialized views in Snowflake/BigQuery** — Batch-refreshed; RisingWave updates continuously.

## FAQ
**Q:** Is RisingWave Postgres-compatible?
A: It implements the Postgres wire protocol and a large subset of SQL; it is not a drop-in OLTP Postgres.

**Q:** How is state stored?
A: State lives in Hummock on S3/GCS/Azure; compute nodes are stateless and can be replaced freely.

**Q:** Can it replace a Kafka Streams app?
A: Often yes — you get SQL semantics, auto-scaling, and a SQL surface instead of imperative JVM code.

**Q:** What is the license?
A: Apache 2.0 for RisingWave; a paid cloud service is offered by RisingWave Labs for managed use.

## Sources
- https://github.com/risingwavelabs/risingwave
- https://docs.risingwave.com

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/ceff5b8b-3931-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source